North Texas will be well represented on the Jeff Bezos-occupied Blue Origin New Shepard as it launches into space later this month.
Accompanying the founder of Amazon will be Grapevine's own Wally Funk, a pilot instructor that has logged more than 19,600 hours flying. She's taught 3,000 students to fly, and at 82-years-old, will become the oldest person ever launched into space.
This has been a lifelong dream come true for Funk. In the '60s, she was among the "Mercury-13" women who went through astronaut training, but was never allowed to go into space because at the time, only men were astronauts.
She's just happy to be one of the few selected to accompany Bezos into space. She told NBC DFW, "I'm very happy he selected me. I want to go. I'm ready. I've been trained."
Funk still flys every Sunday to teach.
Bruce Bleakley a no- retired museum director for the Frontiers of Flight Museum Dallas hired Funk as a senior pilot in 1987, and says she hopes her life's work, and this opportunity, will serve as inspiration for others.
He says, "She is absolutely rabid about encouraging young women to seek careers in aviation and technical careers and that sort of thing."
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