Jeff Bezos Invites Wally Funk To His Space Trip, Female Pilot To Be Oldest Person In Space

Wally Funk who was part of the Mercury 13 program but never got a chance to go to space has been invited by Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos to take a trip to space. Funk will make the record of the oldest person ever to go to space.

Funk will be part of the four-person crew to take off in the New Shepard rocket developed by Bezos' company, Blue Origin. Read about the Indian engineer on the Blue Origin here. The space trip is scheduled for July 20.

On July 1, Jeff Bezos had announced Funk as part of the crew in one of his Instagram posts. He had written, " No one has waited longer. In 1961, Wally Funk was at the top of her class as part of the Mercury 13 Women in Space Program. Despite completing their training the program was cancelled, and none of the thirteen flew"

"It's time. Welcome to the crew, Wally. We're excited to have you fly with us on July 20th as our honoured guest," he added.

Wally Funk is an 82-year-old trained pilot. She was the first female flight instructor at a US military base and the first female air safety investigation for the National Transportation Safety Board on the US. The pioneer also toom training at the Star City in Russia as a cosmonaut. Funk by boarding Jeff Bezos' spacecraft will break the record of John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth. In 1998, he went to space when he was 77 years old.

The fourth passenger has been identified as an 18-year-old Dutch resident named Oliver Daemen. He will be the youngest person ever to orbit the Earth. Daemen reportedly replaced the winner of the public auction who paid the amount of $28 million for the space ticket.