from Statista.com
— this post authored by Niall McCarthy
After being denied the chance to go into space by the U.S. government due to her gender back in the 1960s, Wally Funk finally fulfilled her lifelong dream yesterday. Funk is a highly experienced pilot with a whopping 18,600 hours in the cockpit and she was part of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin crew that conducted an 11-minute flight yesterday. At 82 years of age, she became the oldest person to go into space, breaking a record set by John Glenn in 1998.
Please share this article – Go to very top of page, right hand side, for social media buttons.
After becoming the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962, Glenn retired as an astronaut and became a senator for a number of years. The famed astronaut returned to space in October 1998 when he took part in a mission onboard the Space Shuttle Discovery at the age of 77. Franklin Story Musgrave is the only astronaut to have flown onboard all five Space Shuttles and he is the third-oldest person to make it into space thanks to a 1996 flight onboard the Shuttle Columbia, according to website oldest.com.
You will find more infographics at Statista.
Caption graphic photo credit: From public domain, Wikipedia.
.
