Oldest Woman to Travel Into Space, Wally Funk, Passes Away at 87

Wally Funk, the pioneering American aviator who overcame decades of gender discrimination to fulfill her lifelong dream of traveling into space, has died at the age of 87, leaving behind a legacy that transformed opportunities for women in aviation and space exploration.

Funk died on July 8 at her home in Grapevine, Texas. According to her longtime caregiver, she died from complications related to recent falls and a leg infection. Her death was later confirmed by the City of Grapevine and widely reported by U.S. media.

Born in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and raised in Taos, Funk developed a passion for flying from an early age. She earned her pilot’s license as a teenager and went on to build an extraordinary aviation career, logging more than 30,000 flight hours and training over 3,000 pilots during a career spanning several decades. She also became the first female inspector for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the first female air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

Funk was one of the Mercury 13, a group of highly qualified female pilots who successfully completed the same demanding physical and psychological tests as NASA’s Mercury astronauts in the early 1960s. Despite matching or outperforming many of their male counterparts, the women were denied the opportunity to become astronauts because NASA did not admit women into its astronaut program at the time.

Her dream of reaching space finally became reality in July 2021, when she joined Jeff Bezos aboard the first crewed mission of Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft. At 82 years old, Funk became the oldest woman ever to travel into space, more than six decades after she first qualified for astronaut testing. Although she briefly held the record as the oldest person to fly into space, it was later surpassed by William Shatner.

Following news of her death, Blue Origin paid tribute to Funk, describing her as “a pioneer in every sense of the word.” The company praised her determination, courage and unwavering belief that dreams can be achieved regardless of age or obstacles.

Throughout her life, Funk remained a passionate advocate for aviation education and encouraged young people; especially women and girls to pursue careers in science, engineering and flight. Her perseverance in the face of repeated rejection made her an enduring symbol of resilience and equality in the aerospace community.

Tributes also came from across the aviation and space sectors, with many remembering her not only for breaking barriers but also for inspiring generations of pilots and astronauts. Historians have described her life as a bridge between the early space race and the modern era of commercial spaceflight, highlighting how her eventual journey into space became a powerful moment of recognition for women whose achievements had long gone overlooked.

Though she waited more than 60 years for the opportunity to leave Earth, Wally Funk never abandoned her dream. Her remarkable journey, from a young pilot excluded from NASA’s astronaut corps to an internationally celebrated space traveler has secured her place as one of aviation’s most inspiring pioneers.