Wally Funk is a trailblazing aviator, who proved that age cannot dent a person’s morale or willpower. An inspiration for generations, Wally Funk went to space aboard the New Shepard spacecraft changing the history of space-travel.

She aced past John Glenn in an important record of space-travel. She became the oldest person ever to travel to space with July 20, Tuesday’s flight. In the 1960s, she was barred from NASA’s initially all-male astronaut corps. Realizing a lifelong dream, she finally got her chance to prove the naysayers wrong. Funk was in the crew onboard the New shepard spacecraft of Blue Origin which took Jeff Bezos to space in a flight from West Texas on Tuesday morning. Ahead of the spaceflight, she said, “I am going. That is my quest. I love flying, that is my job, that is what I love. And I am not a quitter.”

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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos offered her (Wally Funk) a seat on the first crewed flight of his space tourism enterprise-Blue Origin. This was an invitation aviator Wally Funk had waited six decades to receive.

Funk is one of a dozen women who have come to be known as the Mercury 13 in pointed contrast to NASA’s original astronauts, the Mercury 7. Wally Funk and the other women were skilled pilots who, like their male counterparts, dreamed of flying even higher, to space. Unfortunately, they were never included in NASA’s vision for spaceflight and never became astronauts; until now.

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Margaret Weitekamp is the curator of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum’s space history department. She wrote a book about the women who lobbied to be included in NASA’s astronaut program. She stated, “Wally Funk has really never given up on her dream of spaceflight. There is a nice bit of poetic justice in including her on this flight.”

The 82-year-old Wally Funk had her first flight lesson at age 9. She became a licensed pilot at 17 and has logged more than 19,000 flying hours. After the disappointment of the early 1960s caused by the rejections, Funk went on to become an instructor. But her lifelong dream of going to space eluded and evaded her; until now.

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Along with billionaire businessman Jeff Bezos, the pioneering female aviator, Wally Funk emerged from the crew capsule after their flight aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket near Van Horn, Texas, on July 20, 2021.

In the 1960s, while America’s first astronauts were going through NASA’s rigorous training, Wally Funk was part of the Mercury 13. This group was referred to as the First Lady Astronaut Trainees who underwent psychological screenings and rigorous physical testing with a view to taking part in Nasa’s early space efforts. It was a group of 13 women who went through the same gruelling exams. She recently described to a media house some of the painful and strenuous tests the group of women went through.

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She said, “X-raying all over your body, every bone, every tooth, sticking water into your ears. I had to drink radioactive water.” It is worthwhile to note that the women of Mercury 13 met and often surpassed the results of the men. Despite this, the women would never get their chance. NASA required astronauts to be military test pilots. At that time, military did not allow women to fly. On Tuesday, Wally Funk’s dream was realized.

After the flight, Funk said at a news conference, “I have been waiting a long time to finally get up there, and I have done a lot of astronaut training through the world – Russia, America – and I could always beat the guys on what they were doing because I was always stronger and I have always done everything on my own.” “We had a great time,” Funk further said. She also added, “It was wonderful.” Blue Origin reported that the craft reached 351,210 ft (107,046 metres), well above the 62-mile (100 km) Kármán line. This height is the boundary which the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, a Switzerland-based world body, defines as space.

Reflecting on her personal journey as an aviator who finally made it to space, she said, “I have always done everything on my own. I did not do dolls, I did outside stuff and I flew airplanes, 19,000-something hours. I loved it.”

If her story cannot be an inspiration for people to believe, work and hold onto their dreams irrespective of the age, then nothing else can be.