Trailblazing Female Pilot to Join Jeff Bezos on Spaceflight

“They told me that I had done better and completed the work faster than any of the guys,” Ms. Funk said in a video posted to Mr. Bezos’ Instagram account. But each of the four times she told NASA she wanted to become an astronaut, she was denied.

“They said, ‘Well, you’re a girl, you can’t do that,’” she recalled in the video. “I said: ‘Guess what? Doesn’t matter what you are, you can still do it if you want to do it.’ And I like to do things that nobody’s ever done.”

Through a spokeswoman, Blue Origin declined to arrange an interview with Ms. Funk on Thursday.

Ms. Funk was the first female Federal Aviation Administration inspector and first female National Transportation Safety Board air safety investigator. And with the New Shepard flight later this month, she will blaze yet another trail, becoming the oldest person to fly into space.

“No one has waited longer,” Mr. Bezos wrote in an Instagram caption. “It’s time. Welcome to the crew, Wally. We’re excited to have you fly with us on July 20th as our honored guest.”

Kenneth Chang contributed reporting.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/science/space/wally-funk-blue-origin.html