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Aviator Wally Funk, 82, became the oldest human to travel in space July 20 after Blue Origin's rocket launch outside Van Horn in West Texas, accompanied by Jeff Bezos.
Once part of the Women in Space Program, Funk's opportunity to travel to space disappeared when the program was ended by the federal government. Since then, Funk has become the only woman out of the 12 trainees from the program to visit space. Flying since her late teens, Funk's has dreamed of visiting space for over 60 years. Since receiving her pilot's license, she has logged over 19,600 hours of flying and taught over 3,000 people how to fly, according to Axios.
"Texas breeds innovation. Congratulations @BlueOrigin and Texas' own Wally Funk on their historic first human spaceflight – launched right here in the Lone Star State," Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in a tweet.
Even after applying to be an astronaut four times throughout the 1960s, Funk was denied on the basis that she did not have a degree in engineering, despite the fact that astronaut John Glenn of the Mercury program did not have one either. Now, she was able to achieve her dream, accompanied by Bezos, his brother Mark and Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen to space through Blue Origin.
“I’ve been waiting a long time to finally get up there,” Funk said. “I loved it and the four of us, we had a great time.”
Blue Origin is owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who has sold billions of dollars worth of Amazon stock to invest in the space company. Through Blue Origin, Bezos hopes to expand into an efficient system that allows people to work and live in space with ease. Bezos also hopes to move "polluting industry" to space as well.
“This is not about escaping Earth,” Bezos told CNBC. “This is the only good planet in the solar system. We have to take care of it.”
Blue Origin plans to fly at least two more human-led missions within the year. And for Funk, she hopes to travel back to space again too.
“It was wonderful. I want to go again — fast!” Funk said.