52 years after the fateful descent of the first man on the moon, Jeff Bezos celebrates that July 20, 1969 with a stroke of genius. Tomorrow, on the occasion of the historic anniversary of Apollo 11, the founder of the ecommerce giant Amazon and the space flight company Blue Origin will in fact bring two generations of space tourists into orbit: the youngest, the 18-year-old Dutchman Oliver Daemen and the older, 82-year-old American Wally Funk. And if the boy will soon have a ‘top’ story to tell on social media, the lady Bezos invited aboard the New Shepard can boast the title of ‘oldest astronaut in space history’ given that, in the 1960s, she was just 22 years old. , he had also applied to join the NASA astronaut corps but, due to a gender gap still in vogue, he could not even participate in the selections. So if for Oliver the suborbital flight will probably be all a selfie and for Wally after 60 years a circle closes, for Bezos “a brilliant marketing goal is centered” astrophysicist Patrizia Caraveo comments dryly, conversing with Adnkronos about earth passed under our feet ‘on the anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon. “Bezos’s is a stroke of genius. To have invited two generations to fly together and for the first time is a brilliant marketing vision” underlines the Italian scientist, research manager and responsible for INAF for the analysis of the Fermi satellite data. “With this choice, Bezos ‘explained’ to us why, and not surprisingly, he is the founder of Amazon and that today he is aiming straight with his Blue Origin space flight company to compete for the top spot as ‘private space entrepreneur’ to another visionary: Elon Musk, founder of Space X “underlines Caraveo who told in his book” Conquistati dalla Luna “(Raffaello Cortina Ed, 2019) the story of Wally Funk and the 13 female aviators. “The story – recalls Patrizia Caraveo – begins with the curiosity of the astronaut doctor Randy Lovelace who had already examined many men but kept wondering how the women subjected to the same tests would react. The meeting with aviator Jerrie Cobb then transformed the curiosity in a project and in the Lovelace clinic at the time 13 aviators were selected who passed all the tests. Among these was Wally Funk who, with just 22 years, was the youngest of the group “. Author of several essays and popular science books such as “Il Cielo è di tutti” (ed.Dedalo), Caraveo comments that “Wally has a fantastic smile, in his smile there is a message of positivity and optimism and Bezos – I repeat – He is a marketing genius because, although he arrives a week after the flight of the Spaceflight Unity 22 of the British billionaire Richard Branson, Bezos played on the coincidence of the Apollo 11 date and above all to take the 82 year old and the very young 18 year old into flight ” . “The 18-year-old boy, Oliver Daemen, is instead a ‘very intelligent makeshift’ of Bezos because he would have had to fly an unknown person who paid 28 million dollars, then the flight was canceled and Bezos had the brilliant idea of choosing the youngest of all, along with the oldest space traveler, Wally Funk, who will now be an ‘astronaut’ thanks to the patron of Amazon “. “Wally had bought herself a ticket – for a little less than 100 thousand dollars – for a suborbital flight with Virgin Galactic which never left. It was 2010 and now her dream comes true and Funk makes history alongside the astronaut. professional to John Glenn who was 77 when he returned to space with the Space Shuttle “. So a count down full of memories for Wally, the first woman to hold the position of inspector of the General Aviation Administration and the first woman to be part of the National Transportation Safety Board. “Tomorrow’s journey is not like going into orbit but – Caraveo cuts short – better than nothing for the strong-willed and energetic lady”.