Wally Funk, last of Mercury 13 and oldest woman in space, dies at 87

Wally Funk, who in 2021 became the oldest woman to fly into space—60 years after she and 12 other women sought the same opportunity as NASA’s original astronauts—died on Wednesday at 87 years old.

Funk was the last living member of the First Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATs, or as they were later dubbed by the media, the Mercury 13), a group of women pilots who volunteered to go through the same physical and psychological tests as the United States’ first spacemen.

Despite performing as well or better than their male counterparts, though, the Lovelace Woman in Space Program was conducted separately from NASA, and the space agency required that its astronauts be test pilots with jet time. The U.S. military, however, did not accept women into its flight programs.

Still, Funk never gave up the dream, and when she was invited by Blue Origin to join Jeff Bezos on the company’s first human suborbital spaceflight, she boarded the New Shepard capsule on July 20, 2021, and logged a 10-minute flight at the age of 82.

“The Grapevine community joins family, friends and admirers around the world in mourning the passing of aviation pioneer Wally Funk, 87, who passed away peacefully last night at home, surrounded by those she loved,” read a release from her Texas hometown. “The City of Grapevine proudly recognizes Wally Funk, whose extraordinary career has inspired generations by breaking barriers in aviation and space exploration.”

Funk’s NS-16 flight earned her the Federal Aviation Administration’s 13th pair of Commercial Space Astronaut Wings. She was the 26th person in history to fly beyond 50 miles (80 km) altitude and the 585th person to enter space, as recorded in the Registry of Space Travelers by the Association of Space Explorers.

“I felt great! I felt like I was just laying down and I was going into space,” said Funk at a post-flight press conference. “I have been waiting a long time to finally get up there … I want to go again, fast.”

Wally Funk, seen at age 21 as a flight instructor, prior to her joining the First Lady Astronaut Trainees or “Mercury 13.”

Credit: Wally Funk/Blue Origin

Born Mary Wallace Funk on February 1, 1939, in Las Vegas, New Mexico, Funk took up an early interest in aviation. She graduated from Stephens College in Missouri with an Associate of Arts degree and her pilot’s license. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary Education from Oklahoma State University, while also racking up certificates and ratings, including her commercial, single-engine land, multi-engine land, single-engine sea, instrument, flight instructor, and all ground instructor ratings.

Beyond joining the FLATs, Funk became a professional aviator, instructing US Army officers on how to fly. She was the first female flight instructor to serve at a US military base. In 1971, she achieved the rating of flight inspector from the FAA, becoming the first woman to do so, and three years later, was hired by the National Transportation Safety Board as its first female air safety investigator.

Funk raced planes and became a renowned pilot trainer and speaker on aviation safety. She was chief pilot for five aviation schools across the country, qualifying thousands of students on multiple airflight ratings.

Wally Funk, second from left, along with fellow members of the “Mercury 13,” pose for a photo in front of space shuttle Discovery ahead of the launch of NASA’s first woman pilot in 1995.

Credit: NASA

As a member of the Mercury 13, Funk attended the launch of the first woman to pilot a space shuttle into space, Eileen Collins in 1995, and in 2020, published a memoir, Higher Faster Longer: My Life in Aviation and My Quest for Space Flight with co-author Loretta Hall.

For her contributions to aviation and spaceflight history, Funk was inducted into the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame in 2024 and will be posthumously inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame at the New Mexico Museum of Space History later this year. She received a Guinness World Record as the oldest woman in space and, in 2022, was awarded the National Air and Space Museum’s Michael Collins Trophy for Lifetime Achievement.

Funk was unmarried and did not have children. She was preceded in death by her fellow Mercury 13 members Myrtle Cagle, Jerrie Cobb, Janet Dietrich, Marion Dietrich, Sarah Gorelick (later Ratley), Jane “Janey” Briggs Hart, Jean Hixson, Rhea Woltman, Gene Nora Stumbough (later Jessen), Irene Leverton, Jerri Sloan (later Truhill), and Bernice Steadman. She also outlived the Mercury 7 astronauts.