Wally Funk launches into space later this month aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, she will, at 82, be the oldest astronaut ever.But she was nearly the youngest.The New Mexico native was 22 when she joined the Mercury 13 program, a group of intrepid women who, back in 1961, underwent the same training as the Mercury 7, NASA’s all-male crew of original astronauts.The women were never allowed to go into space, and hardly written about.