Wally Funk: Who is the 82-year-old rocketwoman joining Jeff Bezos in space?

The veteran pilot will be the oldest person ever to travel into space today, after more than half a century of waiting - so who is she? Katie Strick meets the Amazon founder’s “honoured guest”
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‘I can hardly wait’: Wally Funk will be the oldest person in space
BLUE ORIGIN/AFP via Getty Images

They say good things come to those who wait. In which case, Wally Funk, 82, should be in for a wild ride when she joins Jeff Bezos on the historic launch of his rocket New Shepard today.

The US veteran pilot has been waiting six decades for her shot at going into space - she earned her pilot’s licence as a teenager and went through rigorous training as part of a NASA scheme in 1961, but never made it because of her gender - despite outperforming her male counterparts.

Funk was the youngest female graduate of the scheme at the time and her CV since then has been trailblazing. She went on to serve as the first female air safety investigator for the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) and is the first woman to be an inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US.

Now, after 19,600 flight hours and a further 3,000 teaching others how to fly, Funk will finally make history (again) as she leaves the Earth and joins the Amazon founder, his brother Mark and a mystery bidder up in the stars. If successful, she will become the oldest person to go into space (the current record holder, her former NASA peer John Glenn, was 77).

“I didn’t think I’d ever get to go up,” she said in a video interview after Bezos invited his “honoured guest” aboard the landmark flight. “No one has waited longer,” the Amazon and Blue Origin founder wrote in an Instagram post announcing his new crewmate.

So what do we know about the lifelong rocketwoman and why was she picked? From her fearless childhood ambition to the piloting BFF she calls every night, this is everything you need to know about America’s hottest new astronaut.

FILE PHOTO: Wally Funk, a Virgin Galactic ticketholder and one of the First Lady Astronaut Trainees or ‘Mercury 13’ women, is pictured holding a photo of herself at the International Women’s Air and Space Museum in Cleveland
REUTERS

Who is Wally Funk?

Funk was born in Las Vegas and grew up in New Mexico. Her parents owned a variety store, but Funk’s dream career was clear from an early age. She is said to have been fascinated with planes since she was a young child, trying to turn the wheel of an airliner at the age of one, building model planes by seven and going on her first flying lesson at nine years old.

She gained her pilot’s licence as a teenager and dropped out of school at 16 after being frustrated that girls weren’t allowed to study mechanics. By 20, she had graduated as a professional aviator and at 21, she volunteered for NASA’s Women In Space programme and was accepted, despite being below the recruitment age bracket of 25-40.

A total of 19 women enrolled on the privately-funded scheme and 13 graduated, earning them the nickname the Mercury 13. Funk was the youngest to graduate and set a record for the test which saw volunteers placed in sensory deprivation tanks (floating in a tank of water in a pitch black soundproofed room. She managed 10 hours and 35 minutes without hallucinating and was removed from the tank “not because she was done, but because the doctor administering the test decided it might be time to pull her out”.

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BLUE ORIGIN/AFP via Getty Images

Overall, she scored third in the programme overall and scored better in some tests than John Glenn, the current record holder for the oldest person to go into space. “They told me I had done better or completed the work faster than any of the guys,” Funk recalls in Bezos’ promo video.

But despite their extraordinary talent and rigorous training, Funk and her 12 fellow Mercury volunteers never made it into space. The program was abruptly cancelled when the federal government decided women should not be allowed to use the military facilities needed for space training.

Instead, Funk became a Goodwill Ambassador and never gave up on her dream. Though she was rejected by NASA for not having an engineering degree or career as a test pilot (she applied four times when it started accepting women in the late 1970s), her CV certainly hasn’t been short on world records.

She went on to become a safety inspector at the Federal Aviation Administration, the first woman in such a role, alongside being the first female air safety investigator for the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB). She has logged more than 19,600 flying hours and taught more than 3,000 people how to fly private and commercial aircraft.

“I never let anything stop me,” Funk has said. “I know that my body and my mind can take anything that any space outfit wants to give me — high altitude chamber test, which is fine; centrifuge test, which I know I can do five and six G’s. These things are easy for me.” Her friend and former flight student Mary Holsenbeck calls her “the most fearless person” she’s ever known.

In 2012, Funk paid £145,000 for a ticket to be one of the first people to fly in space with Blue Origin’s competitor — Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic programme — though it is not yet known if she will now proceed with that plan following Bezos’ offer.

AP

She currently lives in Roanoke, Texas and spends her time enjoying sports and restoring old cars. As of 2019, she was still flying every Saturday as an instructor and she and Holsenbeck still chat on the phone at 10pm every night, calling it their 10 o’clock “flight”. Funk’s mantra, according to Holsenbeck, is simple: “When you have problems? Go to the clouds.”

Who will her crewmates be?

Funk might not have her co-pilot Holsenbeck for the trip but her crewmates will certainly make for interesting conversation. Joining her and the Amazon founder will be his younger brother, Mark, and a mystery bidder, whose identity is yet to be revealed.

The billionaire tech mogul has long spoken of his close relationship with his youngest sibling (they also have a middle sister called Christina and Jeff once called Mark the “funniest guy in [his] life”). But Mark’s recruitment for the mission is unlikely to solely come down to their shared history and sense of humour. The 53-year-old father of four is also a successful businessman, marathon-runner and volunteer firefighter who has spoken in the past of wanting to make a difference in the world through small acts of kindness and generosity.

Mark Bezos, a volunteer firefighter for 15 years, will join his older brother and “best friend” on the trip
AP

Mark currently owns his own private equity firm in New York and has juggled this with his job as a volunteer firefighter in Scarsdale, an upmarket New York neighbourhood, a short train ride outside Manhattan, where he lives with his wife and their four children.

Mark has been firefighting for 15 years and he’s done a TED Talk about it. The speech, titled ‘A life lesson from a volunteer firefighter’ has been viewed more than three million times. In it he talk about “an act of heroism that didn’t go quite as expected” as he recounts a humorous story about having to retrieve shoes for a woman whose house was on fire.

The job didn’t seem too glamorous at the time but Mark says the woman’s appreciation taught him the importance of small acts of kindness and one big lesson: “Don’t wait to be a hero”.

Blue Origin Founder Jeff Bezos Makes Announcement At Satellite 2019 Conference In DC
Getty Images

What does the trip involve?

“I can’t tell people that are watching how fabulous I feel to be picked by Blue Origin to go on this trip,” Funk said in Bezos’ promo video. “You’re going to be an astronaut!” an unnamed person is heard saying. “Finally,” she replied. “I can hardly wait.”

Indeed, the trip has been a lifetime coming and will certainly be worth the more than half a decade build-up - not that she needed it. Bezos’ spacecraft is designed to be fully autonomous, allowing virtually anyone to become an astronaut after just a few hours of safety briefs and training at Blue Origin’s facility in West Texas.

The rocket’s suborbital flights hit around three times the speed of sound — that’s 2,3000 miles an hour — and reach a height of 62 miles above the Earth. Funk and her three fellow passengers will blast off into the sky in the pressurised six-person capsule and experience a few moments of weightlessness.

They will be able to view Earth’s curvature through viewing windows before returning using parachutes, which slow the descent to less than 20 miles an hour before the rocket hits the ground.

The 10-minute flight will involve just a few magical minutes of weightlessness, but for Funk, they will surely be the most memorable of her life.

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