{"id":533811,"date":"2026-07-09T23:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T23:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/533811\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T23:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T23:34:08","slug":"wally-funk-aviation-pioneer-and-oldest-woman-to-go-into-space-dies-at-87-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/533811\/","title":{"rendered":"Wally Funk, aviation pioneer and oldest woman to go into space, dies at 87 | US news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wally Funk, a trailblazing aviation pioneer who was denied the opportunity to become a Nasa<\/a> astronaut and half a century later became the oldest woman to travel into space, has died aged 87.<\/p>\n

Funk died peacefully on Wednesday evening at her apartment in an assisted living facility in Grapevine, Texas, city councilwoman and close friend Duff O\u2019Dell said on Thursday. O\u2019Dell, who described herself as Funk\u2019s caregiver, said she was by Funk\u2019s side. Funk had fallen a couple of times recently and had an infection in her leg. \u201cIt took its toll,\u201d O\u2019Dell told the Associated Press.<\/p>\n

\u201cWally was a beloved Grapevine resident whose extraordinary accomplishments and generous spirit left an enduring legacy,\u201d the city of Grapevine shared on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born on 1 February 1939, \u201cFunk dedicated more than seven decades to aviation, becoming one of the world\u2019s most accomplished female pilots and, ultimately, fulfilling her lifelong dream of traveling to space\u201d, the post reads.<\/p>\n

She received her flying licence at Stephens College in Missouri and went on to study education at Oklahoma State University, mainly because it had an aviation team known as the Flying Aggies. \u201cAs a Flying Aggie, I could do all the manoeuvres as well as the boys, if not better,\u201d she told the Guardian in 2019<\/a>. After that, she became a flight instructor \u2013 the only female one \u2013 at a US military base.<\/p>\n

Wally Funk sits in the cockpit of an AT-6 training plane at Hawthorne airport. Photograph: Don Cravens\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Funk volunteered for Nasa\u2019s Women in Space program in 1961, a privately funded effort to test whether the US\u2019s best female pilots could become astronauts. The 13 female pilots \u2013 who became known as the Mercury 13<\/a> \u2013 went through the same rigorous physical and psychological tests as Nasa\u2019s all-male astronaut corps as the space age began.<\/p>\n

Funk became the youngest woman to graduate from the program, and she was told she \u201chad done better and completed the work faster than any of the guys\u201d, she said in a promotional video for her later Blue Origin flight.<\/p>\n

She even spent 10 hours and 35 minutes inside a sensory deprivation tank in one Mercury 13 test, outperforming the famed astronaut John Glenn.<\/p>\n

But the programme, which was not sanctioned by Nasa, was cancelled after doubts were raised about whether women should take part. Glenn said including women in the space programme \u201cmay be undesirable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Instead, seven men \u2013 the \u201cMercury Seven\u201d \u2013 who were tested separately, were chosen by Nasa to be its first astronauts. Among them were Alan Shepard, who became the first American in space when he completed a suborbital flight 1961, and Glenn, who became the first American to orbit Earth in 1962.<\/p>\n

Funk made several subsequent attempts to be accepted for Nasa\u2019s astronaut corps, but was told she couldn\u2019t as she didn\u2019t have an engineering degree. The agency did not admit female astronauts until 1978, when Funk was 39.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a hold of Nasa four times, and said \u2018I want to become an astronaut\u2019, but nobody would take me,\u201d Funk said, according to CNN.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think I would ever get to go up. Nothing has ever gotten in my way. They say, \u2018Wally, you\u2019re a girl, you can\u2019t do that.\u2019 I said, \u2018Guess what? [It] doesn\u2019t matter what you are. You can still do it if you want to do it.\u2019 And I like to do things that nobody\u2019s ever done before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Undaunted, she continued to fly. She owned a flying school in Taos, New Mexico, where she grew up and taught aviation privately, and also served as the first female inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration, looking into crashes, and later for the National Transportation Safety Board.<\/p>\n

She had extensive flying experience, logging over 19,600 flying hours and teaching more than 3,000 people how to fly private and commercial aircraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cAviation has been my whole life,\u201d Funk wrote in her 2020 memoir. \u201cI eat it, and I breathe it.\u201d When she spoke to the Guardian in 2019<\/a>, she was still teaching flying every Saturday. Asked if she could see a time when she would have to stop, she yelled: \u201cNo! I\u2019ll be flying till I die.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funk with Jeff and Mark Bezos after the Blue Origin flight. Photograph: Tony Gutierrez\/AP<\/p>\n

Though she never got to fly for Nasa, in 2021, at the age of 82, she finally got her chance to go to space \u2013 onboard Amazon founder Jeff Bezos\u2019s Blue Origin rocket.<\/p>\n

At the time, she was the oldest person to launch into space, though the record was later broken by actor William Shatner and Ed Dwight, America\u2019s first Black astronaut candidate, who were both 90 when they went into space in 2021 and 2024 respectively. Funk remains the oldest woman to do it.<\/p>\n

Bezos chose Funk as an \u201chonored guest\u201d to ride alongside him and two others on his Blue Origin rocket, in an 11-minute flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been waiting a long time to finally get it up there, and I\u2019ve done a lot of astronaut training through the world \u2013 Russia, America \u2013 and I could always beat the guys on what they were doing because I was always stronger and I\u2019ve always done everything on my own,\u201d Funk said during a post-flight news conference. \u201cI want to go again, fast. I loved every minute of it. I just wish it had been longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWally Funk\u2019s unwavering determination proves that dreams have no expiration date,\u201d said O\u2019Dell in a statement. \u201cHer courage, resilience, and groundbreaking achievements continue to inspire young people \u2013 especially girls \u2013 to pursue careers in science, aviation, and space exploration. Grapevine is honored to call Wally Funk one of our own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nasa administrator Jared Isaacman posted on X: \u201cWally Funk never stopped believing that one day she would reach space. Her passion for flight, perseverance, and love of exploration will continue to inspire generations of Americans. Godspeed, Wally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blue Origin also paid tribute to Funk in a post on X, calling her \u201ca pioneer in every sense of the word\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe 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,\u201d the post reads.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn NS-16, 60 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Associated Press contributed to this report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wally Funk, a trailblazing aviation pioneer who was denied the opportunity to become a Nasa astronaut and half…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":["post-533811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}