Wally Funk, Oldest Woman in Space, Dies

Funk's dream of space lasted six decades. In the early 1960s, she joined a privately funded program that tested whether America's best female pilots could pass the same tough trials as the all-male astronaut team of NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration). The 13 women who succeeded became known as the Mercury 13. Funk was the youngest to graduate and once spent more than 10 hours in a sensory-deprivation tank, lasting longer than the famous astronaut John Glenn. However, the program was never approved by NASA and was cancelled. The agency did not accept female astronauts until 1978, and Funk was refused every time she applied.

She never stopped flying. In 2021, at the age of 82, Funk finally reached space as an honored guest aboard Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin rocket, briefly becoming the oldest person ever launched. That record was later passed by actor William Shatner and Ed Dwight, both 90, but she remains the oldest woman to have flown to space. After her death, Blue Origin called her "a pioneer in every sense of the word," and NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said her passion and perseverance would "inspire generations." Friends recalled her constant optimism. As she once promised, "I'll be flying till I die."