Wally Funk, Mercury 13 aviator who reached space at 82, dies at 87
Funk was the last surviving member of the women pilots later known as the Mercury 13, who passed astronaut-style tests outside NASA.
By Hana Yoshida · Markets Reporter
2 min read
Wally Funk, the pioneering pilot who became the oldest woman to travel to space in 2021 after decades of being denied a path into NASA’s astronaut corps, died Wednesday at 87, according to Ars Technica. Her death closes the chapter on the First Lady Astronaut Trainees, the group of women pilots later widely known as the Mercury 13.
Ars Technica reported that Funk was the last living member of that group. The women volunteered for physical and psychological testing similar to the exams given to the United States’ first male astronauts, as part of the Lovelace Woman in Space Program.
Funk’s spaceflight in 2021 came 60 years after she and 12 other women sought a chance to prove they could meet the demands placed on NASA’s original astronauts. According to Ars Technica, Funk became the oldest woman to fly into space on that trip.
A separate path from NASA
The women’s testing program did not operate as part of NASA, Ars Technica reported. That separation mattered because NASA’s astronaut rules at the time required candidates to be test pilots with jet flying experience.
Women were effectively blocked from meeting that requirement because the U.S. military did not accept women into its flight programs, according to Ars Technica. As a result, the women who took part in the Lovelace program had no formal route into the astronaut corps, even after showing they could handle the same kinds of examinations as men.
Ars Technica reported that the women in the program performed as well as, or better than, their male counterparts in the testing. The group’s later nickname, Mercury 13, tied them to the era of the first American human spaceflight program, though they were not selected as NASA astronauts.
A delayed flight
Funk’s 2021 spaceflight gave her the opportunity that the earlier program had not produced. Ars Technica described the flight as arriving six decades after Funk and the other women pursued the same opening offered to NASA’s original spacemen.
Her death at 87 leaves the Mercury 13 without a surviving member, according to Ars Technica. The group’s story remains tied to the barriers women pilots faced at the start of the U.S. human spaceflight era: they could take the tests, but the official selection system depended on military flight credentials they were not allowed to obtain.
This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.