Wally Funk, a pioneering aviator who fought for women in aerospace for decades, died at 87. In July 2021, at age 82, Funk flew to suborbital space aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle, becoming the oldest woman ever to reach space and the only member of the Mercury 13 group to do so. The Mercury 13 was a 1961 program that put women through the same rigorous testing as NASA's male astronauts, though it never led to spaceflight opportunities at the time. Funk's 60-year journey from joining the group to finally reaching space represented a landmark moment in her lifelong aviation career.
Before her spaceflight, Funk had already set records across aviation. She became the first female civilian flight instructor at a U.S. military base, served as the National Transportation Safety Board's first female Air Safety Investigator, and competed in air races. During Mercury 13 testing, she notably spent 10 hours and 35 minutes in a sensory deprivation tank, far exceeding astronaut John Glenn's three-hour record. Despite applying to NASA's astronaut program three times after it opened to women in the late 1970s, she was rejected each time. Her Blue Origin flight aboard New Shepard on July 20, 2021, made her a spacefarer at last.