Jeff Bezos is taking veteran female aviator Wally Funk on his July 20 trip to space, the outgoing Amazon CEO announced on Instagram.
"In 1961, Wally Funk was at the top of her class as part of the 'Mercury 13' Woman in Space Program," Bezos wrote in a video post. "Despite completing their training, the program was cancelled, and none of the thirteen flew."
Funk, now 81, says in the video she has almost 20,000 flying hours accrued in her long aviation career, but no one would take her up to space despite her top performance in training.