Blue Origin will fly female Wally Funk on 1st crewed launch

[+Desertrat56]

https://www.space.com/blue-origin-launching-mercury-13-aviator-wally-funk-1st-crewed-flight

Wally Funk was one of 13 female aviators who lobbied for women to become astronauts in the early days of spaceflight.

Aviator Wally Funk wanted to be an astronaut in the earliest days of spaceflight. Sixty years later, on July 20, she'll finally go to space with Blue Origin.

Funk was one of 13 female aviators later dubbed the Mercury 13 who, in 1961, passed all the exams necessary for admission to NASA's astronaut corps and lobbied the federal government to send women into space. NASA and Congress demurred and women were excluded from becoming U.S. astronauts for more than a decade; Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space in 1983.

But, if all goes according to plan, in just three weeks, Funk will spend four minutes beyond the bounds of gravity. "I'll love every second of it," Funk said of her flight in a video released by Blue Origin. "I can hardly wait."

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Excellent. She deserves to finally make it to space.

[+and-then]

I'd never heard of her.  What a firecracker she is!  Good on Bezos for compensating her for a life of patience and service.  I'd really love to see America's youth fall in love with the wonder that my childhood friends and classmates knew in the 60s.  

[+Desertrat56]

Today in our local paper was an article that Wally Funk is from New Mexico.  Richard Branson has planned the flight to happen on July 11.   He will get to space before Bezos.