Wally Funk, last of Mercury 13 and oldest woman in space, dies at 87

Wally Funk, a pilot who flew to the edge of space aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard in July 2021 at age 82, died on February 8, 2026. Funk was the last surviving member of the Mercury 13, a group of women pilots who underwent NASA astronaut training in the 1960s but were not selected for the space program. She held the record as the oldest woman to reach space. Funk logged over 19,600 hours as a pilot across her career.

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