Wally Funk, the last surviving member of the Mercury 13 and the oldest woman to travel to space, has died at the age of 87. Her historic 2021 Blue Origin flight occurred six decades after she and twelve other women were barred from NASA's astronaut program due to gender discrimination. Funk is remembered as an aviation pioneer who broke significant barriers in both flight and space exploration.
Background
The Mercury 13 were a group of women who underwent private physiological testing in the early 1960s to see if they could meet astronaut standards, but NASA never officially included them in the space program. Wally Funk's later flight with Blue Origin served as a symbolic vindication of her earlier efforts and highlighted the long-standing gender disparities in aerospace.
- Source
- Ars Technica
- Published
- Jul 10, 2026 at 07:30 PM
- Score
- 8.0 / 10