When Wally Funk graduated at the top of her class in the “Mercury 13” Woman in Space Program in 1961, she thought she’d be on the fast track to slip the surly bonds of Earth.
Unfortunately for Funk, the program would then be cancelled, and none of the women ever made it onto a space flight.
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Now at 82 years old, Funk will finally get the chance she’s dreamed about for six decades. Funk has been invited to join Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as an “honored guest” on his Blue Origin space flight.
Bezos shared video of informing Funk she’d be on the flight to his Instagram account.
The flight is planned to launch passengers over 62 miles from the Earth’s surface, meaning those on board will experience microgravity. Then the capsule will parachute back to Earth after about 10 minutes.
In the years since her NASA training, Funk has logged over 19,000 flight hours and taught around 3,000 people to become pilots.
Now she hopes to become the oldest person to make a trip to space when Blue Origin takes off July 20, beating John Glenn's record aboard the space shuttle Discovery at age 77. That record was set in 1998.
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At age 22, Funk was the first female flight instructor at her school in Oklahoma after getting her pilot's license as a teenager. She had her sights set on space but in 1962 Congress declared it basically an unfit place for women and she put aside her dream ... until now.
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