Aviation pioneer Wally Funk, who trained as an early female astronaut, dies at 87
By Ashley Strickland, Jackie Wattles, CNN
(CNN) — Wally Funk, a pioneering aviator who volunteered to be an astronaut for NASA’s “Women in Space Program” in 1961, has died at the age of 87.
Funk passed away at her home in Grapevine, Texas, Wednesday evening, according to a spokesperson for the city, Mona Quintanilla.
“Wally was a beloved Grapevine resident whose extraordinary accomplishments and generous spirit left an enduring legacy,” the post reads. “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.”
Born Mary Wallace Funk on February 1, 1939, she dedicated her life to becoming an accomplished pilot who forged a pathway filled with firsts. Attending Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, at the age of 16, Funk joined the women’s flying club and earned her pilot’s license a year later, according to the Lonestar Flight Museum in Houston.
Funk was undaunted when airlines turned her down after she earned her Airline Transport Pilot rating. She became 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.”
Funk had extensive experience as a pilot, logging over 19,600 flying hours and teaching more than 3,000 people how to fly private and commercial aircraft.
“Everything the FAA has, I’ve got the license for. And I can outrun you,” she once joked in a promotional video for space technology company Blue Origin in 2021.
But Funk aspired to go to space.
Chasing spaceflight dreams
Funk was also a member of NASA’s “Mercury 13” program in February 1961, a privately funded effort intended to begin training women to fly in the agency’s earliest space programs. The 13 women in the program undertook all of the training and testing required of the seven men selected by NASA for the Mercury spaceflight program.
Funk became the youngest woman to graduate from the program, and she was told she “had done better and completed the work faster than any of the guys,” she said in the Blue Origin video.
Funk even spent 10 hours and 35 minutes inside a sensory deprivation tank in one Mercury 13 test, outperforming famed astronaut John Glenn.
But despite her best efforts and impressive results, Funk and the other women were ultimately denied the opportunity to become astronauts.
“I got ahold of NASA four times, and said ‘I want to become an astronaut,’ but nobody would take me,” Funk said. “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.”
NASA didn’t select the first class of female astronauts until January 1978, and of that class, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space in June 1983.
Funk’s dream of going to space was finally realized a half century later when Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos selected her as an “honored guest” to accompany him and his brother Mark on a New Shepard suborbital flight in July 2021. Funk became the oldest woman to travel to space at the age of 82.
During the 11-minute flight, Funk experienced a few moments of weightlessness and marveled at the darkness of space.
“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,” Funk said during a post-flight news conference. “I want to go again, fast. I loved every minute of it. I just wish it had been longer,”
Bezos said they took the goggles Amelia Earhart wore when she flew across the Atlantic with them to space.
“I like to think that if Amelia were here, she’d be very, very proud of Wally,” Bezos said.
Blue Origin paid tribute to Funk in a post on X Thursday, calling her “a pioneer in every sense of the word.”
“In her 20s, she was the first female civilian flight instructor at a U.S. military base,” according to the post. “She became the youngest of the Mercury 13, outperforming nearly every test put in front of her, and ultimately, the only one of the thirteen to have ever reached space. On NS-16, sixty years later, Wally made history as the oldest astronaut at the time and remains the oldest woman to ever fly to space. It was a moment six decades in the making. We were humbled to be part of her journey. Her story will continue to inspire generations of future explorers. Fly Wally, Fly.”
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