Patience is a virtue, and it paid off for aviator Wally Funk earlier this month when she finally realized her lifelong dream of traveling to space.
At 82 years old, Funk became the oldest human to travel to space, hitching a ride with Blue Origin and billionaire Jeff Bezos on July 20.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft lifted off from near Van Horn in West Texas with Funk, Bezos and his brother Mark, and Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen.
The historic flight’s Lone Star connection was not lost on Gov. Greg Abbott, who offered his congratulations on social media following the launch.
“Texas breeds innovation,” Abbott, a Republican, Tweeted. “Congratulations @BlueOrigin and Texas’ own Wally Funk on their historic first human spaceflight – launched right here in the Lone Star State!”
Axios reported that Funk had aspired to go to space for 60 years. She aced numerous exams as part of the Woman in Space Program, but she never had the opportunity to partake in the feat because the federal government did away with the program.
Funk was enthusiastically grateful to Bezos, who is best known for establishing Amazon as the world’s top online retailer, but the New York Post reported that she gave the flight a lukewarm review.
“We went right on up and I saw darkness,” she told the publication. “I thought I was going to see the world, but we weren’t quite high enough.”
CNBC reported that Bezos founded Blue Origin to pave a way to space, not flee the Earth.
“This is not about escaping Earth,” the billionaire told the network. “This is the only good planet in the solar system. We have to take care of it.”
The Blue Origin launch followed the attempt by British billionaire Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic.
