Aviation pioneer Wally Funk, who trained as an early female astronaut, dies at 87

Wally Funk, Trailblazing Aviator and Early Female Astronaut Candidate, Passes at 87

Aviation pioneer Wally Funk who trained – Wally Funk, a remarkable aviation pioneer who volunteered for NASA’s pioneering “Women in Space Program” back in 1961, has passed away at the age of 87. According to Mona Quintanilla, a spokesperson for the city of Grapevine, Funk died peacefully at her residence in Grapevine, Texas, on Wednesday evening.

“Wally was a beloved Grapevine resident whose extraordinary accomplishments and generous spirit left an enduring legacy,” the city announced in a heartfelt statement. “The City of Grapevine proudly recognizes Wally Funk, whose extraordinary career has inspired generations by breaking barriers in aviation and space exploration. Funk continues to serve as a global symbol of determination, perseverance, and excellence.”

A Life Dedicated to Breaking Barriers

Born Mary Wallace Funk on February 1, 1939, she devoted her entire life to becoming an accomplished pilot who forged a pathway filled with historic firsts. While attending Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, at just 16 years old, Funk joined the women’s flying club and earned her pilot’s license within a year, according to records from the Lonestar Flight Museum in Houston.

When commercial airlines rejected her applications after she obtained her Airline Transport Pilot rating, Funk remained undaunted. She went on to become the first female flight inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration and the first female investigator for the National Transportation and Safety Board.

“Wally Funk’s unwavering determination proves that dreams have no expiration date,” said Grapevine City Councilwoman Duff O’Dell, a close friend of Funk, in a statement. “Her courage, resilience, and groundbreaking achievements continue to inspire young people — especially girls — to pursue careers in science, aviation, and space exploration. Grapevine is honored to call Wally Funk one of our own.”

From Groundbreaking Pilot to Space Traveler

Funk accumulated extensive experience as a pilot throughout her career, logging over 19,600 flying hours and teaching more than 3,000 individuals how to operate both private and commercial aircraft. In a 2021 promotional video for space technology company Blue Origin, she humorously remarked, “Everything the FAA has, I’ve got the license for. And I can outrun you.”

Yet her true aspiration was to venture beyond Earth’s atmosphere. In February 1961, Funk became a member of NASA’s “Mercury 13” program, a privately funded initiative designed to begin training women for the agency’s earliest spaceflight missions. The thirteen women in this program completed all the training and testing required of the seven men NASA had selected for the Mercury spaceflight program.

“I got ahold of NASA four times, and said ‘I want to become an astronaut,’ but nobody would take me,” Funk recalled. “I didn’t think I would ever get to go up. Nothing has ever gotten in my way. They say, ‘Wally, you’re a girl, you can’t do that.’ I said, ‘Guess what, doesn’t matter what you are, you can still do it if you want to do it,’ and I like to do things that nobody’s ever done before.”

Funk emerged as the youngest woman to graduate from the Mercury 13 program. In the Blue Origin video, she shared that she was told she “had done better and completed the work faster than any of the guys.” During one particularly demanding Mercury 13 test, Funk spent 10 hours and 35 minutes inside a sensory deprivation tank, outperforming the renowned astronaut John Glenn.

Despite her exceptional performance and tireless efforts, Funk and the other women in the program were ultimately denied the chance to become astronauts. NASA did not select its first class of female astronauts until January 1978, and Sally Ride would go on to become the first American woman in space in June 1983.

A Dream Realized Half a Century Later

Funk’s lifelong dream of traveling to space was finally fulfilled fifty years after her initial training when Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos chose her as an “honored guest” for a New Shepard suborbital flight in July 2021. At the age of 82, Funk became the oldest woman to journey to space.

During the eleven-minute flight, Funk experienced several moments of weightlessness and marveled at the profound darkness of space. In a post-flight news conference, she expressed her excitement: “I’ve been waiting a long time to finally get it up there, and I’ve done a lot of astronaut training through the world — Russia, America — and I could always beat the guys on what they were doing because I was always stronger and I’ve always done everything on my own.”

“I want to go again, fast. I loved every minute of it. I just wish it had been longer,” Funk said during the post-flight news conference.

Bezos revealed that they had brought along the goggles Amelia Earhart wore when she crossed the Atlantic Ocean. “I like to think that if Amelia were here, she’d be very, very proud of Wally,” Bezos remarked.

Blue Origin honored Funk in a post on X on Thursday, describing her as “a pioneer in every sense of the word.” Her remarkable journey from a young woman with a dream to a space traveler at 82 years old stands as a testament to the power of perseverance and the belief that age and gender need not define one’s potential.