On the flight of Blue Origin, Wally Funk, the pilot of “Mercury 13” will be carrying a history of sixty years with her to space. When Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon offered Wally Funk, as a seat inside the 1st crewed spaceflight of the Blue Origin, she was ready. She has waited for this invitation for more than six decades.
Dream Of Wally Funk To Travel To Space Finally Comes True!
Funk, now 82 years old, is among 12 women ready to travel to space. This team of 12 women is called the Mercury 13. This is in contrast to the original astronauts of NASA, the Mercury Seven. Wally and the other pilots were very skilled but never got a chance to fly to space like their male counterparts. They never got included inside the vision of NASA for spaceflight. Hence, they never got their chance to become skilled astronauts, until Jeff Bezos provided them with this golden opportunity.
According to words received by Space.com from Margaret Weitekamp, Wally Funk never gave up on this dream of hers to become an astronaut and travel to space. Margaret Weitekamp is a curator working in the department of space history at the Smithsonian’s Space and National Air Museum.
Margaret also wrote a wonderful book about Wally Funk. Margaret lobbied a lot to get included inside the astronaut program NASA. According to her, the inclusion of Wally on this spaceflight seems like poetic justice to her! Bezos and Wally Funk will form half of the crew assigned to the 1st Blue Origin crewed flight! The suborbital reusable vehicle for space tourism to be used in this spaceflight is called the New Shepherd. It will launch on the morning of 20th July, Tuesday from West Texas!