THE ASSOCIATED PRESS By. [11] Funk was drawn to OSU primarily by its famous "Flying Aggies" program. Wally dropped everything and rushed to Albuquerque. Wally Funk has been hoping for a long time to go to space. But where the agency was focused on reaching milestones in space exploration, Lovelace had a bigger picture in mind, an ideal pulled from science fiction of whole offices lofted from 1950s America into orbit. The New Shepards flight will be the first of its kind when it reaches an altitude of 100 kilometers. She adds that When Wally flies, we all fly with her.. In 2017, her name was inscribed on the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museums Wall of Honor in recognition of your contribution to our aviation and exploration heritage.. Wally was also appreciated by Sacramentos Educational Board for her efforts to encourage high school students to pursue their careers in aviation. [3], Concurrently, Funk participated in many air races. Funk contacted Lovelace, detailing her experience and achievements. Funk was a skilled outdoorswoman who enjoyed riding her bike or horse, skiing, hunting, and fishing. But, flying was my thing. ), "Like so many things that we see in women's history, the advancement happens in fits and starts," Weitekamp said. After taking these tests successfully, Wally Funk, at the age of 21, became the youngest member of the Mercury 13; Cobb and 11 other successful participants also joined the program. [6]HITC jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_5273_1_6').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_5273_1_6', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], }); In an interview, she talked about her marital status. Have a great ride, Wally Funk! Report a problem? To support our blog and writers we put affiliate links and advertising on our page. She was the first woman in the United States to be promoted to the FAA SWAP (Systems Worthiness Analysis Program) as a specialist in 1973. After attending a school in New Mexico, Wally Funk, at the age of 16, went to Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, where she graduated with an Associate of Arts degree and her pilots license in 1958.; she was rated first in her class of 24 flyers. Funk retired from her post as an Air Safety Investigator in 1985 after serving for 11 years. But for many women and nonbinary people involved in space and astronomy, the moment is more nuanced than just a lifelong dream realized. At the same time, she represented the southwestern United States as the Top Female Skier in Slalom and Downhill races in US competition. 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. 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. (Some of the tests focused on cardiovascular health, where the women had a key advantage, she noted, since most of the Mercury 7 smoked.). In the 2010s, she bought a ticket on Virgin Galactics SpaceShipTwo. Wally flew for Oklahoma State University in the International Collegiate Air Meets as an officer of the famous Flying Aggies.. Funk, age 82, is one of a dozen women who have come to be known as the Mercury 13 in pointed contrast to NASA's original astronauts, the Mercury 7. 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. According to Wally, while she was growing up, her parents never discouraged her outdoor adventures, and they always supported her outdoor ventures. Wally FunkWally Funk next to a glide plane, c. 1960. Funk was one of the Mercury 13, a group of 13 women. An undated photograph of aviator Wally Funk. This time, it wasnt Wallys gender that held her back. When she was 21, it looked as if it might happen. I wasnt a bra burner, Im not a political person, Funk told The Guardian. In 1958, Funk was rated first in her class of 24 flyers, when she graduated with an Associate of Arts degree and her pilots license from Stephens College. On June 23, 1975, Wally Funk attended a luncheon at the White House in Washington, D.C.; she joined the luncheon at the request of Mrs. Gerald Ford. A TV show called What Will the Women Be Doing In The Year 2000? interviewed Wally in November 1973. The story of the FLATs wasnt widely known until fairly recently. Wally Funk is the title of the 11th track on Pleasure Seekers, the 2022 album by The Electric Swing Circus. There was nothing I couldnt do., Wally Funk waving in front of an aircraft while riding a bicycle, I was not an A student. 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. 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. Whether you want to learn the history of a city, or you simply need a recommendation for your next meal, Discover Walks Team offers an ever-growing travel encyclopaedia. In an interview, she revealed that when she entered Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, she hadnt even completed high school. Finally, the researchers pulled Wally from the tank as the pilot promised she could go longer. Funk told The Guardian in 2002 she learned to fly at 16 after developing an early fascination in flight. Wally Funk is one of the Mercury 13, a group of women who trained to be astronauts in the early 1960s. Wally Funks father owned a five-and-ten store in Taos, New Mexico, while her mother was an art enthusiast. According to sources, Elon Musks flight promises to reach a height of 300 km above the earth, which would last about three to four days from take-off to landing. Ms. Funk is one of the few people who has directly participated in both eras of human spaceflight so far the one that started as an urgent race between rival nations, and the one that we are now transitioning into, in which private companies and the billionaires who finance them are in fierce competition for customers, comeuppance and contracts. Wally says. How to watch Blue Origin launch Jeff Bezos into space on July 20, Blue Origin's first astronaut launch updates, As space billionaires take flight, 'the right stuff' for space travel enters a new era, Blue Origin's launch with Jeff Bezos: Everything you need to know, Meet the crew launching on Blue Origin's 1st astronaut flight on July 20, Grab the Celestron Travel Scope 70 for under $100, How to watch SpaceX's 1st Starship space launch live online for free today (April 17), Watch the moon and Saturn have a close encounter in the sky tonight, The Lyrid meteor shower begins April 16 to light up the spring night sky, What's next for Europe's JUICE mission? After graduating from Stephens College, she attended Oklahoma State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary Education. Funk claims she was not an excellent student, but she was cynical about flying. In 1961, Wally Funk became the youngest member of the Mercury 13 program, a privately funded project meant to see how women held up to the pressures of spaceflight, and a program that never saw the light of day. She said. Wally Funk in an undated photo provided by Blue Origin. Meet Wally Funk, The Trailblazing Female Pilot Who Fought For Over 60 Years To Go To Space. Wally Funk, who was five at the time, jumped from her fathers barn in Taos, New Mexico, while wearing a Superman cape. This page was last edited on 5 April 2023, at 03:27. "I didn't think that I would ever get to go up. Despite this, the program was canceled before the women were to undergo their last test. 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. Including her on this flight is a nice bit of poetic justice.. A biography titled Wally Funks Race for Space by Wally Funks friend Sue Nelson was published by the Chicago Review Press in March 2019. Her first job was as a Civilian Flight Instructor for noncommissioned and commissioned officers of the United States Army at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Furthermore, the trainer became a Certified Flight Instructor and Chief Pilot in the aviation company at Hawthrone, California, in late 1961. 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. 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. Three others accompanied her including Jeff Bezos. ", Related:Meet the crew launching on Blue Origin's 1st astronaut flight on July 20. [13][14] She placed eighth in the Powder Puff Derby's 25th Annual Race, sixth in the Pacific Air Race, and eighth in the Palms to Pines Air Race. Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic crossed the 80 kilometer threshold, but has not been able to cross 100 kilometers, according to CNBC. According to Funk, she cant remember a time when she wasnt fascinated by flying. Funk and the others were skilled pilots who, like their male counterparts, dreamed of flying even higher, to space. Since then, she has logged 19,600 flight hours across her career. She joined Space.com in July 2018, with previous writing published in outlets including Newsweek and Audubon. She wrote directly to the researcher behind the study, Randy Lovelace. 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. In one test, volunteers were placed in sensory deprivation tanks. Seven members of the Mercury 13 watching a 1995 shuttle launch. [citation needed], Funk continued to dream of going to space. Her mother declared, Shes going to fly.. 'Spectacular And Unexpected' 1,500-Year-Old Visigoth Sarcophagus Unearthed In Spain, What Did Cleopatra Look Like? [8] Funk became a member of the "Flying Susies" and rated first in her class of 24 fliers. [9], Funk moved on to complete a Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary Education at Oklahoma State University. Wally said. [9][14] She applied to three commercial airlines but, like other qualified female pilots, was turned away because of her sex. [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. Wally Funk, one of the First Lady Astronauts, in the cockpit of an AT-6 training plane in 1961.CreditDon Cravens/Getty Images. She has probably spent more time in airplanes as a pilot than the three men she is going to space with have spent as airplane passengers. Wally Funk spent most of her childhood in Taos, New Mexico, where her parents owned a chain of shops. Today, Blue Origin announced Oliver Daemen will be the first paying customer to fly on board New Shepard, marking the beginning of commercial operations for the program, the July 15 statement said. 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. They sent me right into college and right into flying.. On the phone, Funk echoed a sentiment from the first female astronauts launch. 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. And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com. The researchers also shot ice water into Wallys ears to induce vertigo. More than half a century later, Wally Funk hasn't given up and at the age of 82, she'll be joining the crew on the New Shepard rocket, which will be launching on July 20th, 2021. There was nothing I couldnt do., One day, Funk picked up a copy of Life magazine. I was brought up that when things dont work out, you go to your alternative, she said. In her early 40s, Wally applied to the training program four times. Funk, whose full name is Mary Wallace Funk, was invited to be a crew member on the New Shepards first manned space flight at age 82. Wally Funk has spent her life among the clouds. she has addressed over 50 professional organizations. Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, Anyone can read what you share. Wally Funk was chosen by. [3], As a child, Funk was captivated by planes. Wally Funk is the title of the 11th track on Pleasure Seekers, the 2022 album by The Electric Swing Circus. Mary Wallace Funk (born February 1, 1939) is an American aviator, commercial astronaut,[1][2] and Goodwill Ambassador. In 1971, Wally Funk became the first woman to successfully complete the FAA General Aviation Operations Inspector Academy course, which included Pilot Certification and Flight Testing procedures, handling accidents and violations. Rare red asteroids around Neptune could reveal the secrets of the early solar system, Your monthly guide to stargazing & space science, Subscribe for just 1 per issue with our Spring Savings, Issues delivered straight to your door or device. [10] Frustrated, Funk left high school early at the age of 16 and entered Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. Go for all of us, the article said. Funk continues to hold the record for the oldest woman to travel to space. In the fall of 1961, Wally Funk started as a Certified Flight Instructor, Charter, and Chief Pilot at an aviation company in Hawthorne, California. 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. More of her fascinating facts are discussed in this article. And what youve done matters. 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. [12], After the Mercury 13 program was canceled, Funk became a Goodwill Ambassador. Not only did they poke needles in me all the time, but tubes were poked down me and stuck up me, Funk remembers. But her lifelong dream. When Wally is not flying an aircraft, she gets herself involved in other aspects of flying like ballooning, parachute jumping, and hang-gliding. On Tuesday, Wally Funk (second from right) stood with other crew members in front of the Blue Origin rocket after their launch from the spaceport near Van Horn, Texas. He wanted to put women through the same tests to see if they would be good candidates for space. 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. 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. Wally Funk has appeared on various television and radio programs, giving interviews and interacting with professionals. 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 an early age, Funk became fascinated by flying, and she would love to make planes from balsa wood. [18], On July 1, 2021, Blue Origin announced Funk would fly on the first New Shepard flight with passengers, one of four on the flight, including Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen from the Netherlands, who became the youngest ever person in space during the flight of July 20, 2021. She'll become the oldest person to fly in space when she launches. They werent taking anyone under 24, but they took Ms. Funk. 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. A total of eight European and South African publications featured her in 1969. At age 82, Wally Funk's energy is infectious and her perseverance is impressive. It was probably all of 15 minutes., I was the last Flying Susie to receive my license., I was required to do 100 miles of flying so I would fly around the countryside and even pick up my parents., Wally Funks collection of space and aviation memorabilia. Independently of his NASA work, then, Lovelace was interested in how women's bodies fared during these tests, which spanned a week. These individual stories and victories are important, but they are not justice, Dr. Walkowicz added. She is extremely driven and competitive, which is typical of an early astronaut, test pilot type she fits the mold of those early astronauts.. In 2017, Wally Funk's name was inscribed on the Smithsonian. She did her schooling in Taos, a town in New Mexico. Funk will be fulfilling a lifelong dream today by joining the Blue Origin flight crew. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. In minutes, the New Shepard passed the 62-mile threshold that is considered the edge of space, before safely touching back down. And then we get up to about ten thousand feet or forty thousand feet and climbing . The Mercury 13 were skilled pilots who trained to be a part of NASAs spaceflight program before women were allowed to participate. Funk became a professional aviator at the age of 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. As we move forward into the world where commercial spaceflight offers opportunities to go based, not on skills, but on the amount of money in ones wallet, we will have to continue to ask the question: Who is space is really for? Wally Funk, 82, will be the oldest person ever to travel to space on Tuesday, in Jeff Bezos' rocket. "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," Sue Nelson, a science journalist who later traveled with Funk to research her book, "Wally Funks Race for Space" (Chicago Review Press, 2019), told Space.com. Together with Gene Nora Jessen, Funk is one of the last two surviving members of the Mercury 13 group. The article gave detail about the achievements of aviator Geraldyn Jerrie Cobb, who had just undergone a series of terrifying endurance tests for potential astronauts and completed it successfully. Wally Funk was a member of the Flying Susies at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, where she was the last one to receive her pilots license. "I just got a lump in my throat and tears welled up." Wally Funk never gave up on her dream of going to space. ', I cant tell people that are watching how fabulous I feel to have been picked by Blue Origin to go on this trip, Funk said in an announcement video. Funk went into them with a competitive streak. She became an expert markswoman at the age of 14, earning the Distinguished Riflemans Award. [9], In 1974, Funk was hired by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as its first female Air Safety Investigator. 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. I was young and I was happy. 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. While Funk was thwarted from her mission of becoming one of the first female astronauts in space, she will still make history with her flight. 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. Jeremy Hansen: Artemis 2 Canadian astronaut will fly around the moon, Underwater spacewalks recreate the 'moon' in a giant NASA pool (photos). [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. Funk has been chief pilot for five aviation schools across the country. . The young Funk was only a year old when she got her first glimpse of an airplane; her parents had taken her to an airport near their home in New Mexico, where she saw a Douglas DC-3, an early airliner. Wally Funk took her first flying lesson at age nine. 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. I was given the gift of great confidence and born with the ability to fly.. "There's a nice bit of poetic justice in including her on this flight. Visit Ninety-Nines.org for a timeline of Wally's accomplishments. . Wally has set aside a corner of her home in Grapevine for her collection of space and aviation memorabilia that she has collected over the years. Seeing her finally get to go into space decades after proving that she was not only capable, but perhaps more capable than the men she was essentially up against during the Mercury program is so incredible, said Tanya Harrison, a planetary scientist and director of science strategy at Planet Labs. Many prominent NASA figures were also reluctant to send women to space, and they testified against the idea of female astronauts as they believed that it was against the natural order. For all the members of the Mercury 13, the space voyage never saw the light of day. But NASA rejected Wally again. [9], As a high school student, Funk wanted to take courses such as mechanical drawing and auto mechanics, but because she was a girl, she was permitted to take only courses such as home economics. Wally Funk didnt wait for an invitation from the female astronaut trainees program. Seven of the pioneering Mercury 13, including Wally Funk (second left). But the launch this week, decades after she was denied the opportunity, also raises questions about whom space is for. Weitekamp also published a book on Mercury 13. From left, seven of the FLATs in 1995: Gene Nora Jessen, Ms. 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.
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