Mary Wallace "Wally" Funk, born February 1, 1939 in Las Vegas, New Mexico, is the oldest woman to go into space. At age 82, she went into space aboard Blue Origin's NS-16 in July 2021. At the time, she was the oldest person in space, but later the same year, William Shatner, at 90, broke her record.
Funk is an original member of the Mercury 13 group, thirteen women who were selected to receive the same training as the male astronauts selected by NASA. They were not part of NASA's official program and none of them went into space.
After the program ended, she completed her Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education at Oklahoma State University, and at age 20, she became a professional aviator. She became a civilian flight instructor at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. In 1971, she became the first woman to complete the Federal Aviation Administration's General Aviation Operations Inspector Academy course.
In 1974, she became the National Transportation Safety Board's first female Air Safety Investigator.
In July 1, Blue Origin announced that Funk would fly on the first New Shepard flight with passengers. On July 20, she spent over 10 minutes in space.
