Blue Origin announced Thursday that Wally Funk, 82, a US astronaut, will fly into space on July 20 with American billionaire Jeff Bezos. You will be the oldest person to ever travel into space.
Funk is one of four passengers on the manned flight planned by Blue Origin, a space tourism company, along with Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, and the June auction winner, who bought a ticket for the first cruise in New Shepherd’s sub-orbit. flight for $28 million; The ban on his name has not yet been lifted.
According to the AP, Blue Origin chose Funk, who had not served as an astronaut in several decades due to gender. Now he will fly into space as a “guest of honor”.
Funk is one of the 13 Mercury women who received astronaut training in the 1960s, but never made it to space or even NASA’s Astronaut Corps because they were women. At the time, all NASA astronauts were pilots and military testmen, the Associated Press notes.
At the age of 82, Funk will become the oldest person to fly into space. It will overtake the feat of the late John Glenn, who flew on the space shuttle Discovery in 1998 at the age of 77.
“No one’s waiting anymore. It’s time. Welcome to the crew, Wally. We’re excited that you’ll be flying with us on July 20 as our guest of honor,” Bezos wrote on Instagram.
New Shepard’s first flight will be a turning point in the development of tourism spaceflight. The ship has already passed the tests without human intervention. The New Shepard will rise about 100 kilometers above Earth, and the flight participants will experience a state of weightlessness for a few minutes.
Bezos, currently the world’s richest man, is racing with fellow billionaires Elon Musk and Richard Branson, who are also developing commercial spaceflights. In early July, Branson may join the test flight of the VSS Unity spacecraft developed by his Virgin Galactic company.
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