Bezos brings two generations of ‘astronaut-tourists’ into space

It is with a tweet that Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin confirms that its’ astronauts’ and ‘space tourists’ have “completed training and are ready for launch”. On board the New Shepard, the very young 18-year-old Dutch Oliver Daemen, the 82-year-old American Wally Funk, and the brother of the founder of the e-commerce giant Amazon, Mark Bezos, depart with Jeff Bezos – at 3 pm Italian time from the Texan desert. A suborbital flight that the American billionaire wanted to organize precisely on the 52nd anniversary of man’s first landing on the moon, on July 20, 1969. The vision of leaving on the day of Apollo 11 made Jeff keep the moment of launch firmly Bezos, despite Richard Branson’s ‘race’ to overtake, nine days ago, who with his Virgin Galactic wanted to put a personal flag in the timeline of the new tourism in space. Jeff Bezos’ flight is marked by two generations of astronaut-tourists. The 18 year old Oliver Daemen who took the place of a mysterious ‘space tourist’ who paid for a ticket of 28 million dollars bought at auction. But the ‘queen’ of the launch is her, the 82-year-old American Wally Funk, Bezos’ guest of honor and a pioneer in the US Air Force. Wally can truly boast the title of ‘astronaut’ and also the oldest in the history of space because she will break the record held by professional astronaut John Glenn who had returned to orbit at ‘just’ 77 years old. Wally Funk dominates the photo posted by Blue Origin on Twitter with a dazzling smile and has good reasons for it since she was just 22 years old when, as a civil aviator, in the 60s she had applied to join the NASA astronaut corps but, of a gender gap still in vogue at the time, he could not even participate in the selections. So for Jeff Bezos’ lady of the stars it is a count down full of memories. Wally was also the first woman to hold the position of inspector of the General Aviation Administration and the first woman to serve on the National Transportation Safety Board.