None of those women have gone into space. [23], Funk currently lives in Grapevine, Texas. In 1973 she was promoted to FAA SWAP (Systems Worthiness Analysis Program) as a specialist, the first woman in the United States to hold this position. NASA eventually came around on flying women, too late for Funk and the others. On October 4, 1975, while flying her red and white Citabriashe, Wally became the winner among 80 participants in the Pacific Air Race from San Diego, California to Santa Rosa, California. But, flying was my thing. Wally FunkWally Funk took her first flying lesson at age nine. She adds that When Wally flies, we all fly with her.. Related:Blue Origin's launch with Jeff Bezos: Everything you need to know. "It was never a NASA project, it was really a privately funded investigation into women's physical capabilities for spaceflight," Weitekamp said. The 22-year old had to show that she could withstand the remoteness of space. In March 2019, Sue Nelson, one of the close friends of Wally Funk, published a biography entitled Wally Funks Race for Space, which was published by the Chicago Review Press. In 1961, pilot Wally Funk donned a one-piece bathing suit and entered a pitch black isolation tank. Wally was also appreciated by Sacramentos Educational Board for her efforts to encourage high school students to pursue their careers in aviation. In 1973, Wally Funk became the first woman in the United States to be promoted as a specialist to FAA SWAP (Systems Worthiness Analysis Program). [9][14] She applied to three commercial airlines but, like other qualified female pilots, was turned away because of her sex. Talking about this, Funk says. Wally says. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. "I didn't think that I would ever get to go up. On July 1, 2021, Jeff Bezos announced through an Instagram post that Wally Funk would be part of a four-person crew set to be launched into space by Blue Origin on July 20, 2021. The story of the FLATs wasnt widely known until fairly recently. [5] Her record would stand until later that year when William Shatner's flight took place on October 13; Shatner was age 90 at the time. And what youve done matters. Wally Funk is one of the Mercury 13, a group of women who trained to be astronauts in the early 1960s. Sally Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983, although it wasn't until 1995 that NASA made Eileen Collins the first female pilot of the space shuttle. She said, I cant tell people that are watching how fabulous I feel to be picked by Blue Origin to go on this trip.. At the same time, she represented the southwestern United States as the Top Female Skier in Slalom and Downhill races in US competition. But that is not what makes her so special. He will join Jeff Bezos, Mark Bezos, and Wally Funk aboard the first human flight on July 20. Selection of space crew based on whim and money rather than based on selections by governmental agencies is a shift Im still struggling with, Dr. Mack said. Ms. Funk said that when she learned the program was canceled, she wasnt discouraged. Later this month, the 82-year-old pilot and flight instructor will finally head there. She had fallen asleep. Wally Funk, 82, will be the oldest person ever to travel to space on Tuesday, in Jeff Bezos' rocket. When on Tuesday she crosses that arbitrary altitude that divides the heavens from Earth below, in a rocket built by Jeff Bezos company Blue Origin, shell be 82, the oldest person ever to go into space. Wally Funk was the only female one at a US military base when, aged 21, she joined Fort Sill, Oklahoma as a Civilian Flight Instructor. Funk was elected as an officer of the Flying Aggies and participated in International Collegiate Air Meets for them. Earlier forms of this gatekeeping prevented so many women from accomplished careers in spaceflight and space science. Funk claims she was not an excellent student, but she was cynical about flying. [12], After the Mercury 13 program was canceled, Funk became a Goodwill Ambassador. Wally Funk, 82, joins Bezos space flight Blue Origin From left: Mark Bezos, Jeff Bezos, Oliver Daemen, Wally Funk On this flight was the oldest person who has been to space - Ms Funk -. To support our blog and writers we put affiliate links and advertising on our page. According to CNBC, Blue Origin, the company founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the worlds richest man, and Amazons CEO, has been testing flights of its New Shepard rocket for years. I knew then that I wanted to fly for the rest of my life.. On February 8, 1995, NBCs Dateline aired an interview with Wally Funk, one of the original thirteen female astronaut candidates. According to Space.com, the women were named after Mercury 7, a group of seven male astronauts chosen by NASA for the Mercury program. I did what I had to do to fly., The air and how pretty it was, and how the ground looked. The National Rifle Association forwarded her incredible shooting results to President Dwight Eisenhower, who responded in writing. Funk was 22 years old when she joined Lovelace's program, the youngest of the group. According to CNBC, Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic has crossed the 80-kilometer mark but has yet to cross the 100-kilometer mark. Her parents owned a variety store. Wally didnt complain she wanted to go to space. She became an expert markswoman at the age of 14, earning the Distinguished Riflemans Award. Wally Funk is the title of the 11th track on Pleasure Seekers, the 2022 album by The Electric Swing Circus. Jeff Bezos and pioneering female aviator Wally Funk emerge from their capsule after their flight aboard Blue Origins New Shepard rocket near Van Horn, Texas, U.S., July 20, 2021, I go right to the wheel and I try to turn the nut, and mother said: Shes going to fly., I was not an A student. Today, Funk will have a lifelong dream fulfilled as a member of the Blue Origin flight crew. And, of course, whereas the Mercury 7 became celebrities and spent the bulk of their careers with NASA, the women found other ways to fill their time. (Collins invited Funk and others who underwent Lovelace's tests to watch the launch. Email us at [emailprotected]. Her enthusiasm and attitude are positively infectious, Dr. Harrison added, and so I hope her flight into space gives her a renewed platform to inspire a whole new generation of girls to pursue space or aviation.. Courtesy of Wally Funk. Wally Funk, one of the "Mercury 13" pilots who fought to open NASA's early astronaut program to women, will . Across the board, the women who passed that initial round of testing did as well or better than their male counterparts, and of that group, Ms. Funk excelled. Wally Funk spent most of her childhood in Taos, New Mexico, where her parents owned a chain of shops. The tests included everything from a tilt table and a stint in a sensory deprivation chamber to examining the women's stomach acids. After graduation, Funk became the only female aviation instructor at a U.S. military base. I was young and I was happy. At Albuquerque, Wally underwent five and a half days of training during which she had to ingest radioactive material and having icy water poured into her ears; these tests were similar to the tests taken on by the Mercury 7, NASAs first successful human space mission. [9] In 1987, Funk was appointed Chief Pilot at Emery Aviation College, Greeley, Colorado, overseeing the entire flight programs for 100 students from Private to Multi-engine flight Instructor and Helicopter ratings. When NASA finally began accepting women in the late 1970s, Funk applied three times. Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty ImagesWally Funk pictured at a ceremony in Las Cruces, New Mexico for the first landing of the Virgin Galactic VSS Enterprise, October 22, 2010. Wally Funk Aviation Career. Youve probably heard of Wally Funk, the oldest person to set foot in space. When the space agency announced the new policy, Wally decided she wasnt too old to go to space. Wally Funk has appeared on various television and radio programs, giving interviews and interacting with professionals. Wally Funk is the title of the 11th track on Pleasure Seekers, the 2022 album by The Electric Swing Circus. Surviving members of the group of women informally dubbed the Mercury 13 attended the 1995 shuttle launch of Eileen Collins as she became the first female shuttle pilot. . [12] Her first job was at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, as a Civilian Flight Instructor of noncommissioned and commissioned officers of the United States Army. Oliver Daeman: Meet the 18-Year-Old Who Is Going to Space. Wally Funk Interviewed by Carol Butler Cocoa Beach, Florida - 18 July 1999 Butler: Today is July 18, 1999. In an interview, while talking about this, she said that once her adviser called up her mother and said. In the same year, Wally was interviewed on the Mike Douglas Television Show. In the fall of 1975, Wally Funks interview was aired on Salute of Women In Aviation, a Gene Burkes television program. It was probably all of 15 minutes., I did everything that people didnt expect a girl to do. After graduating from Stephens College, Wally Funk went to Oklahoma State University, where she pursued a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education and earned her Commercial, Single-engine Land, Multi-engine Land, Single-engine Sea, Instrument, and Flight lnstructors and all Ground Instructors ratings. Nasa flight surgeon Dr Shannan Moynihan was particularly thrilled to meet an original . Additionally. Ultimately, Wally and twelve other women passed the same tests used by NASAs male astronauts. She joined Space.com in July 2018, with previous writing published in outlets including Newsweek and Audubon. And I honor you, is what Dr. Coleman thinks Mr. Bezos is saying. When you hear about these women today, they are often called the Mercury 13, but they called themselves the FLATs: First Lady Astronaut Trainees. Funk once stated that she has never married and is married to airplanes. She stated in the interview that she had no resentment about being barred from spaceflight. Funk was born in Las Vegas, New Mexico, in 1939[7] and grew up in Taos, New Mexico. Wally was so inspired by Cobbs achievements that she wrote letters to Cobb and Dr. William Randolph Lovelace; Dr. William was the one who devised the trials. Rather than floating in a dark tank of water, the men sat in a dark room with a pen and paper to keep them from getting bored. Various magazines have featured Wally Funk, including Life, Town and Country, and Ms Magazine. Space is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. On October 4, 1975, Wally Funk emerged as the winner of the Pacific Air Race from San Diego, California to Santa Rosa, California; she won the race against 80 participating competitors while flying her red and white Citabria. At the age of 82, Funk, whose full name is Mary Wallace Funk, was invited to join the crew of the New Shepards first manned space flight. So instead, Wally devoted herself to her career in aviation. From left: Gene Nora Jessen, Wally Funk, Jerrie Cobb, Jerri Truhill, Sarah Rutley, Myrtle Cagle, and Bernice Steadman. And while Funk has long held a ticket with Blue Origin competitor Virgin Galactic, Nelson said, the New Shepard model represents a different vision of spaceflight. Wally Funk showing her biography Wally Funks Race for Space by Sue Nelson. According to Wally, her fascination for flying was so intense that she compromised with her formal studies and was never excellent at studies. Awards and honors [ edit] In 1964, Funk became the youngest woman in the history of Stephens College to receive the Alumna Achievement Award, honored in recognition for her work in aviation. Her score was the third best in the Mercury 13 program. In 2012, filmed her life story for the Traveling Space Museum. She was the keynote speaker for the United States at the World Aviation Education and Safety Congress in 1986. In addition to scholarly publications with top presses, she has written for Atlas Obscura and Ranker. Aviator Wally Funk in a video released to announce her participation in Blue Origin's first crewed flight on July 20, 2021. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. An undated photograph of aviator Wally Funk. On July 20, 2021, Blue Origins New Shepard rocket successfully landed back in West Texas deserts after making a successful journey into space, carrying Wally Funk and three fellow passengers Jeff Bezos, Mark Bezos, and an 18-year-old physics student Oliver Daemen. Her aim was to not only to just do it to the best of her ability, every test, but to try to do better than whoever had gone before her, said Nelson, who traveled with Funk to research her book, Wally Funks Race for Space. She just is immensely driven and competitive, which is a sort of the typical early astronaut, test pilot type really she fits the mold of those early astronauts.. Ms. Funk, who goes by Wally, was one of 13 American women who went through a rigorous astronaut-training program in the 1960s to determine whether women were fit for space.Despite testing just as . [5][19][20] During the successful flight Funk, at age 82, became the oldest person to fly to space, exceeding John Glenn's record at the age of 77 in 1998 (aboard STS-95). Funk, already an accomplished pilot in her early 20s, learned about the project in 1960 when she read about Jerrie Cobb, a female pilot who volunteered to undergo tests meant to determine whether a human body could withstand the strain of spaceflight. Wally dropped everything and rushed to Albuquerque. The New Shepards flight will be the first of its kind when it reaches an altitude of 100 kilometers. All of these women were pilots who had logged hundreds or thousands of flight hours in some cases more than the men who were selected for the astronaut program. To convince NASA, Wally knew she would need to outlast the Mercury astronauts. Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. In the video released with Blue Origin about her joining the flight, she said that she has racked up 19,600 flight hours on a variety of aircraft and has taught more than 3,000 people to fly. At the age of 14, President Dwight Eisenhower sent her a letter of appreciation, after the National Rifle Association praised about her shooting results. Wally Funk is unmarried (as of July 2021). In an interview, she revealed that when she entered Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, she hadnt even completed high school. In an interview, Wally talked about this. Some of those women see Ms. Funk as a personal hero who broke down gender barriers, and they hope she will again become an example to women and girls. Funk is listed in "Who's Who in Aviation". She said. "There's some interest and then it doesn't necessarily have a direct legacy. A pilot gave Wally Funk her first flying lesson at age nine, letting her help steer the plane and telling her parents she did a great job. '"[4][8] She became interested in mechanics and built model airplanes and ships. Today, Funk will have a lifelong dream fulfilled as a member of the Blue Origin flight crew. Wally Funk didnt wait for an invitation from the female astronaut trainees program. [24] She enjoys sports and restoring antique automobiles, with a collection that includes a 1951 Hooper Silver Wraith. The Mercury 13 were skilled pilots that trained to be a part of NASAs spaceflight program before it began including women. In her early 40s, Wally applied to the training program four times. And from Nelson's description of calling to congratulate her friend on the invitation, Funk is conscious of the weight of history that she'll carry into the capsule. And then she said, Im going up for all of us.. Ive waited a lifetime, honey, Nelson told Space.com. The Blue Origin crew meeting up at the companys rocket barn in Texas: Wally Funk: Honey, I couldnt be better Im gonna be in that window! And when she tried to enroll in an engineering program, Wally was told, Youre a girl go to home ec.. In 1961, three years before Jeff Bezos was born, Ms. Funk and 12 other women went through testing as part of the Woman in Space Program. Wally Funk broke the record she floated, alone, for 10 hours and 35 minutes. Numerous books and movies have acknowledged Wally Funks role in the history of the space program like Martha Ackmanns 2003 history The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space Flight and the Netflix documentary Mercury 13. They werent taking anyone under 24, but they took Ms. Funk. She said. [16], Like the other participants in the program, Funk was put through rigorous physical and mental testing. Wally Funk, who was five at the time, jumped from her fathers barn in Taos, New Mexico, while wearing a Superman cape. From left: Gene Nora Jessen, Wally Funk, Jerrie Cobb, Jerri Truhill, Sarah Rutley, Myrtle Cagle, and Bernice Steadman. Obviously, as we can see with Wally Funks case, agencies like NASA can make bad choices, and choose to exclude people who would be excellent astronauts. Wally Funk is an American aviator and commercial pilot who became the oldest person to fly into space after accompanying Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and two others on a suborbital trip on July 20, 2021. By the age of 21, Wally Funk had become a professional aviator and started working as a Civilian Flight Instructor of noncommissioned and commissioned officers of the United States Army after she joined Fort Sill, Oklahoma in 1960. American aviator and Mercury 13 astronaut (born 1939), "First on CNN: The US gives Bezos, Branson and Shatner their astronaut wings", "FAA Commercial Human Spaceflight Recognition", "Woman in Space: The Long-Delayed Flight of Wally Funk", "Blue Origin launches Bezos on first crewed New Shepard flight", "Longtime friend of Wally Funk recalls trailblazer's dream of space flight", "Wally Funk: the woman cheated out of space by gender politics", "Advancing Women Pilots | Women Pilots Today | Wally Funk", "Female aviation pioneer to share her fervor for flight at Stephens College", "Wally Funk: still ready for space travel", "Her Dream of Spaceflight: Female Aviation Pioneer Wally Funk Has A Ticket and Awaits a Ride to Space", Best Day Ever: Highlights From Bezos and Blue Origin Crews Short Flight to Space, "Book Review: Higher Faster Longer - National Space Society", "Wally Funk will fly to space on New Shepard's first human flight", "Jeff Bezos Has Picked an Unusual Space Crew", "Trailblazing Pilot Wally Funk Will Go to Space 60 Years After Passing Her Astronaut Tests", "William Shatner, TV's Capt. Wally Funk in an undated photo provided by Blue Origin. [10] In 1961, Funk was among a group of . Weitekamp also wrote a book about the Mercury 13. She applied to three commercial airlines but was turned down because of her gender, as were other qualified female pilots. [9], In 1974, Funk was hired by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as its first female Air Safety Investigator. New York, In 1995, Wally Funk witnessed the launch of Eileen Collins, who went on to become the first female pilot and first female commander of a Space Shuttle. Mary Wallace Funk (born February 1, 1939) is an American aviator, commercial astronaut,[1][2] and Goodwill Ambassador. There was nothing I couldnt do., One day, Funk picked up a copy of Life magazine. She became the first female safety inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration and continued to rack up flight hours, topping out at more than 19,000 hours. With 19,600 hours of flight time, Wally Funk has taught more than 3,000 people to fly, and she has also trained thousands of Private, Commercial, Multi-engine, Seaplane, Glider, Instrument, CFI, Al and Air Transport Pilots. Wally Funk, one of the First Lady Astronauts, in the cockpit of an AT-6 training plane in 1961.CreditDon Cravens/Getty Images. The Mercury 13 were skilled pilots who trained to be a part of NASAs spaceflight program before women were allowed to participate. At an early age, Wally Funk was fascinated by flying, and the interest developed at such an early age that according to Funk, she cant remember a time when she wasnt fascinated by flying. Funk and the others were skilled pilots who,. At Oklahoma State University (OSU), Wally Funk became an officer of the famous Flying Aggies, and she also flew for them in the International Collegiate Air Meets. But I loved it I can hardly wait to go again., 'Mercury 13' pilot Wally Funk will carry 60 years of history to space on Blue Origin flight https://t.co/NQoSvpd4pQ pic.twitter.com/umGiObzkm4. Funk and Bezos will make up half the crew of the first crewed flight of Blue Origin's reusable suborbital space tourism vehicle, dubbed New Shepard, when it launches from the west Texas desert on Tuesday morning (July 20). A biography titled Wally Funks Race for Space by Wally Funks friend Sue Nelson was published by the Chicago Review Press in March 2019. Wally Funk has really never given up on her dream of spaceflight, Margaret Weitekamp, curator of the Smithsonians National Air and Space Museums space history department, told Space.com. "I just got a lump in my throat and tears welled up." Her father owned a five-and-ten store in Taos, New Mexico, while her mother was an art enthusiast. In 1961, pilot Wally Funk donned a one-piece bathing suit and entered a pitch black isolation tank. On the one hand, I am thrilled for her that she is getting to live this dream she has held for so long, said Lucianne Walkowicz, an astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. [4] At OSU, Funk earned a large number of aviation certificates and ratings, including her Commercial, Single-engine Land, Multi-engine Land, Single-engine Sea, Instrument, Flight Instructor's, and all Ground Instructor's ratings. Although all 13 participants of Mercury 13 proved that they could endure extreme physical conditions, the program was shelved on the pretext that sending women into space was against the natural order, after its private funding was pulled and several prominent NASA figures lobbied against sending women astronauts into space. As a member of the 11th track on Pleasure Seekers, the youngest of the 11th track Pleasure! Revealed that when she tried to enroll in an undated photo provided by Blue Origin flight crew Funk she. 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