Meet An Amazing Whose Passion For Space Travel Finally Paid Off

Wally Funk, at 82, joined the first crewed flight of Blue Origin’s “New Shepard” alongside Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark, one of only 6 civilian passengers on the space flight that broke the bounds of gravity for 4 glorious weightless minutes. Wally’s career as an aviator is just as glorious. In addition to being a Goodwill Ambassador, Wally was the first female air safety investigator for NTSB (the National Transportation Safety Board), the first female civilian flight instructor at Fort Sill, OK, the first female FAA (Federal Aviation Agency) inspector, and perhaps most importantly, one of the “Mercury 13,” a group of women who lobbied for women to be astronauts starting in 1961.

Despite having all the qualifications and passing the same rigorous tests as men, women weren’t allowed to be astronauts until 1983, when Sally Ride became the first female astronaut in space. In addition to being the oldest person to fly to space, Wally flies here on planet Earth as an instructor every Saturday, having logged over 19,000 flight hours to date.

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