Wally Funk, one of the most enduring pioneers of the early American space era and the oldest woman ever to travel beyond the atmosphere, has died at the age of 87. According to CBS News, the aviator passed away peacefully this week, surrounded by loved ones, closing a life defined by an unshakeable determination to fly higher than the barriers placed in front of her generation of women.
Born in 1939, Funk dreamed of flying from a very young age and refused to wait for permission to chase that ambition. She became a licensed pilot while still a teenager, an early sign of the drive that would carry her through more than six decades in aviation. Over the course of her career she logged more than 19,000 flight hours, an extraordinary total that placed her among the most experienced pilots of her era.
In the 1960s, Funk was selected as the youngest member of an elite group of female pilots who underwent the same rigorous astronaut screening as the men of NASA's early programs. The group, later known as the Mercury 13, passed demanding physical and psychological tests, and Funk herself was told she had performed better and completed the work faster than many of the male candidates around her.
Yet the era's rules stopped the women at the launch pad. At the time, women were not permitted to fly as astronauts, and the Mercury 13 never got the chance to launch despite their qualifications. Funk did not accept that verdict quietly. She recounted contacting NASA repeatedly, asking again and again to be trained as an astronaut, only to be turned away each time because of her gender.
Rather than abandon her goal, Funk built a trailblazing career on the ground and in the cockpit. She became a sought-after flight instructor and worked as an air safety investigator, breaking barriers as one of the first women to hold such roles in American aviation. Colleagues described a woman who simply refused to stay grounded, turning every closed door into a reason to keep flying.
Her lifelong dream was finally realized more than half a century after the Mercury 13 were denied their chance. In 2021, Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos invited Funk to join the very first crewed flight of the company's New Shepard rocket. Riding to the edge of space on that suborbital journey, she became the oldest woman ever to travel to space at the age of 82, and at last earned the astronaut wings she had pursued for a lifetime.
Those who knew her remembered a woman who was thrilled by the experience and eager to go again, and who remained committed to setting an example for young girls and women who dreamed of the sky. Her death this week has prompted tributes to a figure who spent her life proving that persistence could outlast the barriers of her time, and who ultimately reached the destination that once seemed forever out of reach.