破紀錄！82歲女性太空人將跟貝佐斯一起上太空82-year-old female pilot to join Jeff Bezos to launch into space

Jeff Bezos, the founder of the world’s largest e-commerce giant, stepped down as Amazon’s CEO on July 5. His aerospace company Blue Origin is arranging its first human flight of the New Shepard rocket into space on July 20, just 15 days after he left Amazon. Bezos has invited Wally Funk to join him, his brother, and the winner of a charity auction on the trip as an “honored guest.”

Funk was one of the famous Mercury 13 women who passed the rigorous astronaut training program in the 1960s but were denied the chance to be NASA astronauts and never made it to space, all because of their gender. She later became the first female Federal Aviation Agency inspector and the first female air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.

Funk will be the oldest person to travel into space at age 82.

友善讓你懂｜解說：

世界電商龍頭亞馬遜的創始人傑夫貝佐斯（Jeff Bezos），在7月5日正式卸下了亞馬遜執行長的職位。他的航太公司「藍色起源Blue Origin」，正積極安排將由「新謝帕德號」（the New Shepard rocket）執行的首次載人太空飛行，出發日期定在7月20日，距離貝佐斯離開亞馬遜短短不過15天之久。貝佐斯邀請了沃利馮克女士以「尊榮貴賓」的身分，加入他本人、他弟弟及一位慈善競標得主的這趟太空之旅。

馮克曾經是知名的「水星13計畫」一員，這十三名女性，在1960年代通過了嚴格的太空人訓練計畫，卻因為她們的性別，而無法成為美國國家航空暨太空總署NASA的太空人、最終也無緣進入太空。她後來成為了美國聯邦航空管理局（Federal Aviation Agency）中首位的女性檢查員，以及美國國家運輸安全委員會（National Transportation Safety Board）的首位女性飛安調查員。

此趟旅程成行後，現年82歲的馮克將成為全世界中進入太空最年長的人。

輕鬆帶著走｜學習：

step down 下台、卸任，通常指擔任較高階職務的人離開現任職位。

例句：The chairman of the board stepped down after a corruption scandal. 董事長在貪瀆醜聞後下台了。

本篇其他相關單字：

• rigorous (adj.)嚴格的
• gender (n.) 性別
• investigator (n.) 調查員
• inspector (n.) 檢查員