Ashish
Favoured Frenzy
The oldest and youngest people to travel to space just made history
After decades of waiting, Wally Funk finally accomplished her dream of flying to space, becoming the oldest person to do so.
The 82-year-old pilot volunteered as a member of the "Mercury 13" program, otherwise known as the "Women in Space Program," in February 1961, which was a privately-funded effort intended to begin training women to fly in NASA's earliest space programs.
Funk has extensive experience piloting aircraft, logging over 19,600 flying hours and teaching more than 3,000 people how to fly private and commercial aircraft.
Also making history in the Blue Origin spaceflight was 18-year-old recent high school graduate Oliver Daemen, who became the youngest person to travel to space.
Daemen was Blue Origin's first paying customer, and his father, an investor, purchased his ticket.
Daemen replaced a mystery bidder who agreed to pay $28 million for a ticket, but who had to reschedule for a later mission because of "scheduling conflicts."