Wally Funk, the aviation pioneer who was told women couldn't be astronauts in the 1960s and then went to space at 82 on Jeff Bezos's rocket just to prove a point, has died at 87.
Funk passed away peacefully Wednesday evening at her assisted living facility in Grapevine, Texas, according to close friend and city councilwoman Duff O'Dell, who was by her side. The cause was a combination of recent falls and a leg infection. "It took its toll," O'Dell told the Associated Press.
Born on February 1, 1939, Funk got her pilot's license at Stephens College and later studied education at Oklahoma State University - mainly because they had an aviation team called the Flying Aggies. "As a Flying Aggie, I could do all the manoeuvres as well as the boys, if not better," she told the Guardian in 2019. She became the only female flight instructor at a US military base.
In 1961, Funk volunteered for NASA's Women in Space program, a privately funded effort to test whether female pilots could be astronauts. She and 12 other women - the Mercury 13 - endured the same grueling physical and psychological tests as the male astronauts. Funk was the youngest to graduate and reportedly outperformed the men, spending 10 hours and 35 minutes in a sensory deprivation tank, beating John Glenn's record.
The program was canceled because, apparently, women in space was deemed undesirable - John Glenn himself said it "may be undesirable." Instead, the Mercury Seven men were chosen. Funk applied to NASA four more times but was told she needed an engineering degree. NASA didn't admit female astronauts until 1978, when Funk was 39.
Undeterred, she kept flying. She owned a flying school, became the first female inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration, and later worked for the National Transportation Safety Board. She logged over 19,600 flying hours and taught more than 3,000 people to fly. "Aviation has been my whole life," she wrote in her 2020 memoir. "I eat it, and I breathe it." In 2019, she was still teaching every Saturday. Asked if she'd ever stop, she yelled: "No! I'll be flying till I die."
She finally got to space in 2021 at age 82 on Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket, becoming the oldest woman to do so. Bezos invited her as an "honored guest." After the 11-minute flight, she said: "I want to go again, fast. I loved every minute of it. I just wish it had been longer."
"Wally Funk's unwavering determination proves that dreams have no expiration date," said O'Dell. NASA administrator Jared Isaacman posted: "Godspeed, Wally." Blue Origin called her "a pioneer in every sense of the word." The city of Grapevine recognized her as "a global symbol of determination, perseverance, and excellence."
Funk is survived by a legacy that says: you can tell a woman she can't go to space, but she might just outlive your excuses and hitch a ride on a billionaire's rocket.