spacetoday.net: Blue Origin to fly Mercury 13 woman on first crewed New Shepard flight

Blue Origin to fly Mercury 13 woman on first crewed New Shepard flight

Posted: Sat, Jul 3, 2021, 11:10 AM ET (1510 GMT)
Wally Funk (Blue Origin)

Blue Origin said Thursday it would fly one of the "Mercury 13" women on its upcoming New Shepard flight. Wally Funk is one of 13 women who, six decades ago, passed the same medical tests given for the Mercury 7 astronauts; NASA didn't sanction the tests and made no effort to fly the women. Blue Origin said Thursday that Funk will be one of the four people on the July 20 New Shepard flight, joining Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, and the unidentified winner of the auction last month. At 82 years old, Funk will be the oldest person to go to space.