While the most well-known passenger on this month's landmark Blue Origin flight was undoubtedly Amazon owner and billionaire Jeff Bezos, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently recognized fellow Texan and 82-year-old aviator Wally Funk, who became the oldest human to travel to space.
"Texas breeds innovation. Congratulations @BlueOrigin and Texas' own Wally Funk on their historic first human spaceflight – launched right here in the Lone Star State!" the governor tweeted on July 20.
Funk, who lives in Grapevine, is a longtime aviator and has wanted to go to space for over 60 years, according to Axios. She applied to the Women in Space program numerous times before it was dropped, passed all of the associated exams but had never had the opportunity to actually go into space until the Blue Origin mission.
Funk applied four times to become an astronaut and was rejected each time, apparently due to her lack of an engineering degree, but male counterparts without engineering degrees have been approved.
Since her flying career began, Funk has logged over 19,000 hours in the sky and has taught more than 3,000 individuals to fly.
Blue Origin was founded by Bezos, who along with his brother Mark, Funk and Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen launched the historic flight from Van Horn in West Texas.