SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
We want to take a few minutes to remember an aviation pioneer who died this week.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Wally Funk spent most of her life chasing one dream - going to space. She finally got there at the age of 82.
DETROW: But that journey started six decades earlier. In 1961, Funk was one of 13 women selected by NASA to undergo rigorous tests to determine how female astronauts might fare in space. The group later became known as the Mercury 13.
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WALLY FUNK: I get a call - said, do you want to be an astronaut? I said, oh, my gosh, yes. And he said, be here on Monday to take these tests.
KELLY: Funk recounted the experience for StoryCorps back in 2017.
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FUNK: I had needles stuck in every part of my body, tubes running up my bottom, so I went along with it. It didn't bother me. And then they said, we want you to come with a swimsuit. You're going to go into the isolation tank. Well, I didn't know what that was. The lights come down. They said, try not to move. Well, I didn't have a whole lot to think about. I'm 20, had $10 in my pocket. And then finally, they said, Wally, you are outstanding. You stayed in 10 hours and 35 minutes. You did the best of the guys that we've had and of the girls.
DETROW: She outperformed many of the men who had taken the same tests, but the Mercury 13 program was scrapped before any of the women got to space.
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FUNK: When we got the telegram, that was it, and I never heard anything more. So I went on about my own business. I'm not going to sit back and pine over anything. I applied to NASA four times. And finally, they said, Wally, you know, we're sorry, but you don't have an engineering degree. I said, well, I'll get one. So I never let anything stop me.
KELLY: And it didn't stop her. NASA would not begin accepting women into its astronaut program until 1978. So Funk turned her attention back to the Earth's atmosphere and resumed her career as an aviator.
DETROW: She taught people to fly, investigated crashes, logged more than 19,000 hours in a cockpit. And in 1971, she became the first female inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration. Then in 2021, at the age of 82, the call she'd been waiting for finally came.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: We have liftoff.
KELLY: Blue Origin's New Shepherd Rocket carried Funk and three others more than 60 miles above Earth. She broke the record for the oldest person ever to travel in space, finally achieving the dream she had refused to give up.
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FUNK: I've been waiting a long time...
(LAUGHTER)
FUNK: ...To finally get it up there, and I've done a lot of astronaut training through the world - Russia, America - and I could always beat the guys.
DETROW: After the roughly 10-minute flight, she could hardly contain her excitement.
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FUNK: It was great. I loved it. I can hardly wait to go again.
KELLY: Wally Funk - she died at her home in Grapevine, Texas, on Wednesday. She was 87.
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