Wally Funk – Reaching Space at 82

On July 20, 2021, Wally Funk travelled to space at the age of 82. For the experienced American pilot, it was a journey she had hoped to make for more than six decades. In the early 1960s, Funk had participated in a privately funded program that tested whether women could meet the same physical requirements used to evaluate NASA’s first astronauts. She was one of 13 women who passed the examinations, a group later widely known as the Mercury 13. 

Despite their results, the women were never selected to fly as NASA astronauts. The testing program was not an official NASA initiative, and none of the women were given the opportunity to travel into space through the program. Funk continued building her career in aviation, becoming a flight instructor and later working as an aviation safety investigator. Throughout her career, she maintained her interest in space travel. 

That opportunity finally arrived in July 2021, when Funk joined Blue Origin’s first crewed New Shepard flight. At 82, she became the oldest person to reach space at the time, setting a Guinness World Record as the oldest woman to travel into space. Her flight was suborbital, meaning the spacecraft reached space without completing an orbit around Earth. Although the journey itself was brief, it marked the realization of a goal Funk had pursued for more than 60 years. She passed away on July 8, 2026, at the age of 87, nearly five years after making her long-awaited journey into space.