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Jeff Bezos announced to the world that he will be flying to space aboard his company’s Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. At that time, they still had one seat left for another crew, and the hunt for him or her had begun.
Bezos’ introduced his co-passenger at the New Shepard rocket
Now it was announced that Jeff Bezos finally found the person who will take the last vacant seat in their flight to space on July 20. Fox Business reported that the Amazon CEO picked an 82-year-old female to join him in the flight.
The woman has been identified to be Mary Wallace Funk or Wally for short. She has been described as an aerospace pioneer and she is now confirmed to join in the first manned flight to space.
The billionaire introduced Wally to the public through a video he posted on Instagram. In the clip, Bezos and Wally talked about the flight and a bit about her background in the aerospace line.
"I have been flying forever and I've got 19,600 flying hours," Wally excitedly said in the clip. "I have taught over 3,000 people to fly private, commercial, instrument, flight engineer, airline transport, lighting and everything that the Federal Aviation Administration has, I've got the license for."
The impressive background and achievement of Wally
BBC News reported that the 82-year-old was born in New Mexico, and she has an extraordinary love of aviation. She used to train to become an astronaut, and that was 60 years ago, but the mission did not push through, and the women who took part in the training never got to fly to space.
She made some history in the aviation sphere as she served as the first female air safety investigator for the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB). She was also the first woman to become an inspector for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Now, she is set to make another history when she flies with Jeff Bezos on a journey to space as she will be the oldest person to do so.
Meanwhile, the others who will join Jeff Bezos in the flight are his younger brother, Mark Bezos, and an auction winner who paid $28 million for a seat on the New Shepard. He beat 7,000 bidders to be on the trip to space.
