Jeff Bezos picks Wally Funk, a female aerospace pioneer, to accompany him in space

At age 82, Funk will become the oldest person to launch into space.

By AP | Updated: Jul 02, 2021, 08.59 AM IST

Wally Funk will join Jeff Bezos, his brother and the winner of a charity auction, as the first people to fly a New Shepard rocket.

CAPE CANAVERAL (US): Blue Origin's Jeff Bezos has chosen an early female aerospace pioneer - an 82-year-old pilot denied astronaut wings decades ago because of her gender - to rocket into space with him later this month. The company announced Thursday that Wally Funk will be aboard the July 20 launch from West Texas, flying in the capsule for the 10-minute hop as an "honoured guest". She'll join Bezos, his brother and the winner of a charity auction, as the first people to fly a New Shepard rocket.

Funk is among the so-called Mercury 13 women who went through astronaut training in the 1960s, but never made it to space - or even NASA's astronaut corps - because they were female. Back then, all of the NASA astronauts were military test pilots and male.

At age 82, Funk will become the oldest person to launch into space. She'll beat the late John Glenn, who set a record at age 77 when flying aboard space shuttle Discovery in 1998.

"No one has waited longer," Bezos said via Instagram. "It's time. Welcome to the crew, Wally. We're excited to have you fly with us on July 20th as our honoured guest."

Funk, a pilot and former flight instructor, was the first female inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration and the first female air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.

An Indian Restaurant Owner Tried Sending Samosa To Space; Other Food Items That Have Been Sent To The Great Beyond

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Indian restaurant owner, Niraj Gadher, who runs Chai Walla in Bath, likes to think big. And that’s why he sent a samosa into space. While his first two attempts to launch the savoury snack into the great beyond ended in failure, it looks like the third time was the charm – sort of.

Gadher managed to get the samosa up, up, up and away but then lost track of the snack when the GPS signal failed. However, after returning to Earth the following day, the GPS tracker revealed that the package had made its way across southern England, crossed the Channel and had crash landed in Caix in northern France. However, the samosa isn’t the strangest thing to be sent into space. Read on to find out what strange items mankind has sent up into space.