[imagesource: Elizabeth Culliford / Reuters]

Later today (3PM South African time, to be precise), Mary Wallace “Wally” Funk will finally go to space.

She will be alongside Jeff Bezos on the New Shepard rocket, and at the age of 82, will become the oldest person to ever do so.

The current record holder, John Glenn, flew in the Space Shuttle in 1998 when he was 77.

Funk, who was born in Las Vegas and grew up in New Mexico, will also be joined by 18-year-old Oliver Daemen, who landed a spot at the last minute because the person who bid $28 million and won the auction has a “scheduling conflict”.

Joes, Daemen’s father, was kind enough to pay for the seat and give it to his son.

That’s not exactly a story worth telling, so let’s focus on Funk’s incredible journey up to this point.

We start way back in 1956, with this from The New York Times:

Her path to space arguably begins with a ski accident in 1956 that crushed two of her vertebrae. She was told she would never walk again. By age 17, she already had a history of greeting “you can’t” with defiant proof that she could. As she was recovering, a guidance counselor suggested that she take aviation classes to distract her…

That year she soloed and had her pilot’s license at 17. Ms. Funk flew at every opportunity, including sneaking out of a formal dance to go night flying. In all, she has logged over 19,600 flying hours and taught more than 3,000 people to fly.

In 1961, she enrolled in testing as part of the Woman in Space Program, alongside 12 other women.

Collectively, that first group of women are often referred to as the Mercury 13, but they called themselves the FLATs: First Lady Astronaut Trainees.

You had to be 24 to qualify, but they made an exception for the 21-year-old:

The range of tests included having ice water pumped into their ears to induce vertigo and being placed inside a sensory deprivation tank.

Ms. Funk [above] was in the tank for over 10 hours when the researchers finally brought her out because they wanted to go home. She had fallen asleep.

Funk was the standout candidate, performing better than her male counterparts in many of the tests.

However, the US government shut down the Woman in Space Program, and NASA would not fly an American woman to orbit until 1983.

Funk applied to NASA four times to be an astronaut, but was repeatedly turned down because she didn’t have an engineering degree, a barrier that never stopped astronaut John Glenn from being selected for the Mercury program.

In 2010, Funk purchased a ticket on Virgin Galactic for $200 000 (as did Ashton Kutcher), but in the end, it’s his space race rival who will finally seal the deal.

When Funk was announced as being one of those aboard Bezos’ rocket, she told one reporter “I’ve waited a lifetime, honey. I’m going up for all of them,” referring to the Mercury 13, or the FLATs.

Only Funk and one other FLAT, Gene Nora Jessen, are still alive.

A little more on what awaits her, via The Telegraph:

New Shepard, on the other hand, is a rocket with passengers inside a capsule:  the launch will be more like an astronaut’s experience. It will blast 62 miles above the Earth’s surface before jettisoning its capsule on a parabolic trajectory. After four minutes in space, it will land in the Texan desert, trailing three parachutes…

“I didn’t think I’d ever get to go up,” she said in a video interview after Bezos invited his “honoured guest” aboard the landmark flight. “No one has waited longer,” the Amazon and Blue Origin founder wrote in an Instagram post announcing his new crewmates.

I can’t say I will be delighted for Bezos when he ticks his space travel box, but at least he’s taking along a worthy passenger.

For Funk, I can bust out a fist pump and a whoop.

You can watch the launch at 3PM below, with coverage starting from 2:15PM:

[sources:nytimes&telegraph]