Aviation Legend Wally Funk Dead at 87

Pilot icon and tireless trailblazer broke barriers from the cockpit to the edge of space.

Meg Godlewski

Thursday, July 09, 2026 at 03:00 PM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

Wally Funk became the oldest person to go to space on July 20, 2021, at age 82, flying on Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft during its suborbital flight. [Credit: FLYING Archive]

Key Takeaways:

Mary Wallace “Wally” Funk, the youngest member of the pioneering Mercury 13 "Women in Space Program," died at 87.
She volunteered for the Women in Space program in 1961, undergoing rigorous astronaut training, but the program was canceled due to NASA's policy requiring military test pilots, a role women were barred from at the time.
Despite this setback, Funk finally achieved her lifelong dream of spaceflight in 2021 at age 82, aboard Blue Origin’s mission, becoming the oldest person at that time to go to space.
Funk also had a significant impact on aviation, becoming the first woman FAA inspector and National Transportation Safety Board air safety investigator.

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Mary Wallace “Wally” Funk, the youngest member of the first “Women in Space Program,” later known as the Mercury 13, died at her home in Grapevine, Texas, on Wednesday night. She was 87.

In 1961 Funk at 22 volunteered for the Women in Space program, which was created to train women as astronauts. The program was privately created by physician William Lovelace II and funded by Jacqueline Cochran, who in 1943 created the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs).