Wally Funk, who was barred from flying because of her gender, becomes oldest person to reach space

The pioneering female aviator, who accompanied Jeff Bezos in his trip to space is 'America's new sweetheart'

Wally Funk became the oldest person to reach space on Tuesday - some 60 years after first undergoing astronaut training. Ms. Funk was one of the so-called Mercury 13 group of women trained to become NASA astronauts in the 1960s but was passed over because of her gender. On Tuesday, at the age of 82, she was one of Jeff Bezos' three co-passengers aboard his company to take a historic suborbital flight.