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82 years old, Wally Funk He will be the oldest person to go into space. But that’s not what makes it so special.

In 1961, three years before Jeff Bezos was born, Ms. Funk and 12 other women passed tests as part of the study. Women in Space Program. The tests are for the Mercury astronauts Dr. It was designed by William Lovelace. He wanted to put women through the same tests to see if they would be good candidates for space.

Overall, the women who passed this first round of testing were as good or better than their male counterparts, and Miss Funk from this group was excellent.

When you hear these women today, they’re often referred to as Mercury 13, but they called themselves FLATs: First Lady Astronaut Interns.

None of these women have ever been to space. The US government shut down the program as the Cold War space race heats up. Ms. Funk said she was not discouraged when she learned that the show had been cancelled.

“I was young and happy. I just believed it would come,” he said in the book. “The Promised Moon” by Stephanie Nolen. “If not today, in a few months.”

He applied to become an astronaut four times over the years and was turned down for not earning an engineering degree. By contrast, when astronaut John Glenn Mercury was selected for the program, he too did not have an engineering degree.

Miss Funk has spent the last 60 years trying to find another way into space.

“I was brought up to go to your alternative when things didn’t go your way,” she said.

Cady Coleman, a NASA astronaut who has served on the space shuttle and space station, sees a message on the invitation to Miss Funk and many more anonymous women in space and aviation.

“Wally – you matter. And what you do matters. And I honor you,” says Dr. Coleman thinks what Mr. Bezos said. “When Wally flies, we all fly with him,” he adds.

But for many women and non-binary people who are into space and astronomy, the moment is more nuanced.

“These individual stories and victories are important, but they are not justice,” said Lucianne Walkowicz, an astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.

Blue Origin launched the New Shepard 15 times—all with no one on board—and the capsule landed safely each time. (On the first launch, the accelerator crashed; on the next 14 launches, the accelerator landed intact.)

During a flight in 2016, Blue Origin made a flight. in-flight testing of the rocket’s escape system where thrusters take the capsule from a failed booster.

A solid-fuel rocket at the bottom of the crew capsule fired for 1.8 seconds, applying 70,000 pounds of force to rapidly separate the capsule and move it out of the booster’s path. Their parachutes opened and the capsule landed softly.

Not only did the capsule survive, the booster was able to correct itself, continued into space, and then re-ignited its engine, landing a few miles north of the launch pad in West Texas, somewhat charred but solid.

Yet the federal government does not make regulations for the safety of passengers on a spacecraft like the New Shepard. Unlike commercial passenger aircraft, rocket Not approved by the Federal Aviation Administration. Indeed, the FAA is prohibited by law from issuing such requirements until 2023.

The rationale for this is that emerging space companies like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic need a “learning period” to experiment with designs and procedures, and too much regulation will stifle innovation that will soon lead to better, more efficient designs.

Passengers must sign forms that give “informed consent” to the risks, similar to what you sign when you go skydiving or bungee jumping.

What the FAA regulates is to ensure safety for people who are not on the plane – meaning that if something goes wrong, the risk to “disinterested public” on the ground is minimal.

Mr. Bezos is bringing his little brother with him. 50-year-old Mark Bezos lived a more private life. He is the co-founder and general partner of HighPost Capital, a private equity firm. Mark Bezos previously worked as head of communications for the Robin Hood Foundation, a charity that helps fight poverty efforts in New York.

Blue Origin auctioned off one of the seats and the proceeds went to Club for the Future, a space-focused charity founded by Mr. Bezos. The winning bidder paid out $28 million – and we still don’t know who that is.

Last week, the company announced that the auction winner has decided to wait until the next flight “due to schedule conflicts.”

Instead, it hit Dutch 18-year-old Oliver Daemen, who was second at the auction and bought a ticket on his second New Shepard flight.

If the fourth passenger Mary Wallace Funk – passing through Wally — A pilot who was among a group of women who passed the same stringent criteria NASA used to select astronauts in the 1960s.

The Blue Origin spacecraft New Shepard is named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space. It consists of a booster and a capsule, on top of which the passengers will be.

Unlike Virgin Galactic’s spaceplane, the New Shepard is more of a conventional rocket that takes off vertically. When the booster has exhausted its propellant (liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen), the capsule separates from the booster.

Both tracks continue to move upwards above the 62-mile boundary often considered the beginning of space. During this part of orbit, passengers will experience approximately four minutes of freefall and float around the capsule, seeing views of Earth and the darkness of space through the capsule’s large windows.

The booster lands first and vertically, similar to the contacts of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets. The capsule descends minutes from the booster, lands under a parachute and is cushioned by the firing of the last-second jet of air. The entire flight should take about 10 minutes.

Another week, another billionaire, a rocket company, goes into space.

Last week, Richard Branson gains astronaut wings He ascends 50 miles above New Mexico in a space plane from the Virgin Galactic company he founded 14 years ago.

On Tuesday, Jeff Bezos, the richest person in the universe, will be attached to a capsule built by rocket company Blue Origin and launch even higher, 62 miles above West Texas.

Blue Origin aims for the rocket to take off at 9 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, July 20. The company will begin to cover the launch. 07:30 on YouTube channel. The date coincides with the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

On Monday night, the company said: a message on twitter Mr. Bezos and the other passengers had completed their training exercises and were ready to take off.