Funk became the oldest person to fly in space in 2021.
Wally Funk, an accomplished pilot who became the oldest person to fly to space in 2021, has died at the age of 87. Funk died on July 8 at her home in Grapevine, Texas, The New York Times reported.
In the early 1960s, Funk participated in the Woman in Space Program, through which she and 12 other women (later known as the Mercury 13) underwent the same physical and mental tests as the Mercury Seven. As the youngest member of the cohort, Funk was rated third among the candidates and was the only one to pass all the tests. While all of the Mercury Seven — who included John Glenn and Alan Shepard — traveled to space, NASA didn’t accept any of the Mercury 13 as astronauts. Funk applied to join NASA’s astronaut program multiple times after it opened up to women in 1978, but she was unsuccessful.
However, Funk finally traveled to space several decades later. She did so on the first crewed flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard. At 82, she became the oldest person to travel to space, breaking a record that Glenn had held for 23 years. William Shatner took that mantle at the age of 90 a few months later. Ed Dwight, who is several weeks older than Shatner, claimed the record in 2024.
After becoming a professional pilot in 1957, Funk logged more than 19,600 flying hours and taught thousands of people to fly. She was the Federal Aviation Administration’s first female inspector and the first woman to work as an air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board. In 1995, Funk was inducted into the Women in Aviation International Pioneer Hall of Fame.