Amna Nawaz
@PBSNewsHour·5.3M subscribers·62.2K videos
Remembering Wally Funk, oldest woman to go into space
Posted
July 10, 2026
Views
7,833
Likes
398
Engagement
5.08%
July 10, 2026
7,833
398
5.08%
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1:00Now PlayingTrailblazing aviator Wally Funk has died.
In the early 1960s, she was among the Mercury 13, a privately funded effort intended to train women to fly into space.
The 13 women in the program undertook the same training and testing required of the seven men selected by NASA for the Mercury space flight program.
She didn’t make it to space then, but Funk continued to fly and later served in high-level roles at the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.
In 2021, at age 82, she was chosen for Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket crew and became the oldest woman ever to reach space.
Funk was 87 years old.
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