Wally Funk, the oldest woman to travel into space, has died aged 87.
Ms Funk died on Wednesday at her apartment in an assisted living facility in Grapevine, Texas, according to city councilwoman and friend Duff O’Dell.
An aviation pioneer, Ms Funk was 82 when she launched into space on board Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket in 2021.
At the time, she was the oldest person to go into space – a record that has since been broken by Star Trek actor William Shatner and Ed Dwight, the first black American to be trained as an astronaut. They were both 90 during their space flight.
In the 1960s, Ms Funk was one of 13 female pilots – who became known as the Mercury 13 – to go through the same tests as NASA’s all-male astronaut corps, but they were not allowed to become astronauts.
Mr Bezos, who chose Ms Funk as an “honoured guest” on his rocket, paid tribute to her in a statement on social media, insisting “dreams have no expiration date”.
He wrote on X: “Wally Funk waited 60 years to get to space, and no one ever earned it more. She trained with the Mercury 13 in 1961, out-tested the men, and was told no anyway. She never stopped flying – 19,600 hours, thousands of students, a lifetime of firsts.
“Five years ago this month, I had the honour of flying with her on New Shepard’s first crewed flight. At 82, she was fearless, joyful, and asking to go again before we’d even landed.

Her dream took six decades, but it came true. Dreams have no expiration date. Godspeed, Wally.

source: https://news.sky.com/story/wally-funk-the-oldest-woman-to-travel-into-space-dies-aged-87-13562149