at 82, he traveled in space

It was a little under eleven minutes, but long enough for Wally to get on a spaceship.

“In 1961, Wally Funk was at the top of his class on the Mercury 13,” Bezos wrote on his Instagram account, announcing that the woman would be part of the New Shepard ship’s crew. “Despite its completion, the program was canceled and none of the 13 flew,” continued the tycoon.

Mary Wallace “Wally” Funk was born February 1, 1939 in Las Vegas. In 1961, she decides to join the project led by the American doctor William Lovelace, the Mercury 13, with which he plans to make a group of thirteen women the first to reach space.

Like the rest of his classmates, Wally’s grades were excellent, as were his physical tests. However, NASA decided to cancel the program for one reason only: it was about women.

Jerrie Cobb and Janey Hart, two of them, went to Congress to raise the discrimination. Among the objections they heard, one of the members of Congress told him that being an astronaut, he could not raise his children properly.

Another speaker in Congress was John Glenn, a renowned pilot and the first American to orbit the Earth. “The fact that women are not in this field is a reality of our social order,” Glenn said at the time.

In 1998, at age 77, Glenn became the oldest person to reach space by jumping on one of the space shuttle Discovery flights.

But it was Wally Funk who snatched the title from him today. With an agility that did not differentiate her from her four New Shepard companions, the woman climbed the endless steps that led to the ship’s door, wearing her blue suit and a smile she seemed unable to contain.

During all these years, Wally never gave up hope of being able to pilot a spaceship. And although in 1983 Sally Ride became the first astronaut to open doors for other women, Wally was never able to fulfill her dream.

“I said I wanted to be an astronaut. But no one wanted to take me. I didn’t think I would ever go there,” Wally said in a video posted by Bezos on his social media. “No one has waited that long,” replied the businessman, “welcome to the crew, Wally.”