Funk earned numerous aviation certificates and ratings while at OSU, including her Commercial, Single-engine Land, Multi-engine Land, Single-engine Sea, Instrument, Flight Instructor, and all Ground Instructor ratings. On June 23, 1975, in response to Mrs. Gerald Fords request, Wally Funk joined a luncheon at the White House in Washington, D.C. Wally Funk is also known for participating in air races, and she has successfully competed in many prominent womens air races including Powder Puff Derbys 25th Annual Race in which she stood 8th, Pacific Air Race in which she was placed 6th, and Palms to Pines Air Race in which she stood 8th. Sixty-two years ago, NASA's Mercury Project . Including her on this flight is a nice bit of poetic justice.. In 1965, Funk was selected as one of the Outstanding Young Women in America, "in recognition of her outstanding ability, accomplishments and service to her community, country and profession". Three others accompanied her including Jeff Bezos. By contrast, when the astronaut John Glenn was selected for the Mercury program, he also did not have an engineering degree. Wally Funk. After going through the article, Wally Funk decided that she would also pass these tests. ), "Like so many things that we see in women's history, the advancement happens in fits and starts," Weitekamp said. Later this month, the 82-year-old pilot and flight instructor will finally head there. At the same time, she represented the southwestern United States as the Top Female Skier in Slalom and Downhill races in US competition. Funk was elected as an officer of the "Flying Aggies" and flew for them in the International Collegiate Air Meets. Pilot Wally Funk sits in the cockpit of an AT-6 training plane. Funk is listed in "Who's Who in Aviation". Cady Coleman, a NASA astronaut who served aboard the space shuttle and the space station, sees in the invitation a message to Ms. Funk and many more unsung women in space and aviation. At the age of 82, Funk, who has spent six decades trying to reach space, will soon join Amazon founder Jeff Bezos onboard the Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket, in the world's first unpiloted civilian space flight. ", Related: How to watch Blue Origin launch Jeff Bezos into space on July 20 But among women and nonbinary people working in the study of space, the account of Ms. Funk and her cohort struggling to become astronauts and being blocked because of their gender has resonated. There are many books and movies that acknowledge Wally Funk's place in the history of the space program, such as Martha Ackmann's . Wally Funk has been a trailblazer for women in aviation and spaceflight since 1960. Mary Wallace Funk (born February 1, 1939) is an American aviator, commercial astronaut, and Goodwill Ambassador.Wally Funk was a member of the Mercury 13, a group of skilled female pilots who were barred from participating in NASA's first space missions. Lovelace wanted to bring those 13 in for still more tests, this time at government facilities, but couldn't get approval. Ms. Funk was in the tank for over 10 hours when the researchers finally brought her out because they wanted to go home. Wally Funk took her first flying lesson at age nine. But Funk laid the groundwork for this flight during a brief period six decades ago, when she became one of the group that was, decades later, dubbed the Mercury 13 and is often misleadingly portrayed as a sort of women's counterpart for NASA's first group of astronauts, although the agency never endorsed their efforts and only began recruiting women for spaceflight in 1978. [4]Ninety-Nines jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_5273_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_5273_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], }); According to Funk, the reason behind attending Oklahoma State University (OSU) was that she was drawn to their famous Flying Aggies program. Sue Nelson, a science journalist who traveled with Funk, called her to congratulate her on her flight, Nelson told Space.com. She said. Wally Funk is a pioneer American aviator who, at the age of 21, was the youngest member of the Mercury 13 program, a privately funded project in the 1960s that meant to see how women held up to the pressures of spaceflight. [9], She has over 18,600 flight hours[3] and as of June2019[update] still flew each Saturday as an instructor.[4]. Ms. Funk's trip to space with Jeff Bezos is reason to celebrate. Funk was elected as an officer of the Flying Aggies and participated in International Collegiate Air Meets for them. "I got a hold of NASA, four times, I said, 'I want to become an astronaut.' While growing up in Taos, her mother noticed that Funk was not like any other girl who would bake something out of a Betty Crocker cookbook, rather she was a tomboy who would ride horses and compete in marksmanship contests. Funk told CNN after returning to Earth, I loved every minute of it. 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! Wallys parents had brought their one-year-old to an airport in New Mexico. 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. 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. In 1973, when Wally was promoted as a specialist to FAA SWAP (Systems Worthiness Analysis Program), she became the first woman in the United States to hold this position. At seven, Wally was building balsa wood planes. Mary Wallace Funk (born February 1, 1939) is an American aviator, commercial astronaut,[1][2] and Goodwill Ambassador. 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). In late November 1973, Wally Funk returned to the FAA Academy, where she underwent air-taxi, charter, and aviation rental businesses-related courses, and following this, Wally inspected flight schools and air taxi operations while traveling to Arizona, Nevada, and California. She said. Those tests were developed for NASA by a team led by William Randolph Lovelace and were designed to identify any weaknesses that might identify hidden health issues before flight. "It's so much more akin in my eyes as a sort of old-fashioned astronaut experience, more similar to the one that if NASA had allowed women into the astronaut corps 20 years earlier," Nelson said. For 40 years she has taught flying, both private and commercial, (she has 16,500 hours in the air and has soloed 800 student pilots), in addition, she became the first female investigator of the National Transportation Safety Board, The Guardian reported. On February 8, 1995, NBCs Dateline aired an interview with Wally Funk, one of the original thirteen female astronaut candidates. NY 10036. Ms. Funk donned a gas mask as part of training in 1961. The space flight took place the morning of Tuesday, July 20, 2021. Visit Ninety-Nines.org for a timeline of Wally's accomplishments. [3], In July 2020 Funk published a memoir, Higher Faster Longer My Life in Aviation and My Quest for Space Flight with author Loretta Hall. [24] She enjoys sports and restoring antique automobiles, with a collection that includes a 1951 Hooper Silver Wraith. The article entitled A Lady Proves Shes Fit for Space Flight, which was published on August 29, 1960, described a series of terrifying endurance tests that aviator Geraldyn Jerrie Cobb had just successfully completed; these tests were designed to test the aspiring astronauts. An article profiled Jerrie Cobb, a female pilot undergoing NASAs astronaut tests. More than 60 years after passing her astronaut training tests, Wally would finally go to space. I first flew in a plane at eight, and by the age of 10 I had mother drive me out to an airstrip to study the planes parked there, Funk told The Guardian. According to Funk, since childhood, she was an adventure enthusiast who loved outdoor activities. She was the keynote speaker for the United States at the World Aviation Education and Safety Congress in 1986. By age 17, she already had a history of greeting you cant with defiant proof that she could. Wally talked about this in an interview. [2]Ninety-Nines jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_5273_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_5273_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], }); When Wally joined Stephens College, she hadnt even graduated from High School. Wally flew for Oklahoma State University in the International Collegiate Air Meets as an officer of the famous Flying Aggies.. [4] At nine, she had her first flying lesson. Funk and the others were skilled pilots who, like their male counterparts, dreamed of flying even higher, to space. While at OSU, Funk was a member of Alpha Chi Omega, Gamma Epsilon chapter. Funk was one of the Mercury 13, a group of 13 women. But they were never included in NASA's vision for spaceflight and never became astronauts until now. [14][17], In 1995, Lt. Col. Eileen Collins became the first woman to pilot a Space Shuttle into space; Funk was too old to qualify to become a Space Shuttle pilot by the time Collins became one. [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. She'll become the oldest person to fly in space when she launches. . Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! That year she soloed and had her pilots license at 17. Wally Funk has never given up on her dream of spaceflight, said Margaret Weitekamp, curator of the Smithsonians National Air and Space Museums space history department. 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. In an interview, Wally revealed that she barged into the local airfield office and asked, 21 years old Wally Funk as the first female flight instructor at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in 1960. 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. Theres a nice bit of poetic justice in including her on this flight.. She said, Ive waited a lifetime, honey,' Nelson told Space.com. Funk has been chief pilot for five aviation schools across the country. Wally FunkWally Funk next to a glide plane, c. 1960. Just as women were the secretaries and telephone operators on Earth, so too they would be in space, this line of thinking went, according to Weitekamp. Weitekamp also published a book on Mercury 13. Funk claims she was not an excellent student, but she was cynical about flying. She said. Wally Funk has spent her life among the clouds. Wally Funk, the oldest woman to go to space, was celebrated as a hometown and American hero in Grapevine on Aug. 7. In the book Promised the Moon by Stephanie Nolen, Ms. Funk said that during her first flight up, in a Cessna 172, The bug bit and that was it.. This page was last edited on 5 April 2023, at 03:27. Oliver Daemen, at 18 years old, and Wally Funk, at 82 years old, is the youngest and oldest astronauts to have traveled to space. 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. 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