Texas resident, icon of the aviation world, and former record holder Wally Funk died on Wednesday evening in Grapevine, Texas. She was 87 years old.

Born on Feb. 1, 1939 in Las Vegas, Funk had several “firsts” under her belt. She served as the first female air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board; the first female civilian flight instructor at Fort Sill, Oklahoma; and the first female Federal Aviation Administration inspector. She reportedly trained more than 3,000 people to fly and logged thousands of flight hours over her lifetime.

Funk was also one of NASA’s First Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATs, or the “Mercury 13“) in the 1960s.

The Mercury 13 were a group of women who passed the same tests as the Mercury 7 astronauts in the unofficial NASA FLATs program. Funk was the youngest member and the only one to pass all the tests. Unfortunately, none of the 13 women ever went to space with NASA. Funk applied to be an astronaut multiple times and was rejected.

“I didn’t think that I would ever get to go up,” Funk said when she learned she would join the New Shepard crew. “Nothing has ever gotten in my way …  And I like to do things no one has ever done.”

Upon the flight’s completion, she became the oldest person ever to make it to space at 82 years old. (Star Trek actor William Shatner later broke that record at age 90 on a different Blue Origin flight.)

“We went right on up, and I saw darkness,” Funk said at a celebratory news conference after the 10-minute, 19-second flight. “I was going to see the world, but we weren’t quite high enough. I loved every minute of it. I just wish it had been longer.”

Funk was inducted into the Women in Aviation International Pioneer Hall of Fame in 1995 and was inducted into the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame in 2024. Her name is also inscribed on the National Air and Space Museum’s Wall of Honor in Washington, D.C.

“Wally Funk’s unwavering determination proves that dreams have no expiration date,” Grapevine City Council member Duff O’Dell said. “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.”