Sharjah24 – Reuters: Amazon's billionaire founder Jeff Bezos will be joined by Wally Funk, one of the 13 women who passed NASA's astronaut training programme in the 1960s, on the first crewed flight into space from his rocket company Blue Origin later this month.
When Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos blasts off into space later this month, he'll bring 82-year-old Wally Funk with him.
Funk is one of 13 women who completed a NASA astronaut training programme in the 1960s, and will be oldest person ever to travel into space.
BEZOS: "We open the hatch and you step outside, what's the first thing you say?
FUNK: "I will say 'Honey, that was the best thing that's ever happen to me!' "
Funk was 21 years old when she passed the same rigorous testing as the men who would go on to become the Mercury Seven, the first Americans sent to space between 1961 and 1963.
But women were denied the chance to become astronauts because of their gender.
In a video posted to social media on Thursday, Bezos' space firm Blue Origin announced that Funk would be among the passengers.
Also along for the ride will be Jeff Bezos’s brother, Mark.
Bezos is currently the richest man on THIS planet, and is stepping down as the chief executive of Amazon.com Inc on July 5.
He has been vying with fellow billionaires Elon Musk and Richard Branson to become the first to travel into space on a privately developed rocket.
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