Wally Funk, Oldest Woman to Fly to Space, Dies at 87
Summary: Wally Funk, who in 2021 became the oldest woman to fly to space aboard Blue Origins New Shepard NS-16 alongside Jeff Bezos, died on July 9, 2026 at age 87.
According to USA Today, Wally Funk died on July 9, 2026 at the age of 87. In 2021, she flew to space aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard NS-16 mission alongside the company's founder Jeff Bezos, and was the oldest woman among the crew on that flight.
Long before that flight, Funk was a member of the privately funded Mercury 13 program in the early 1960s, in which a group of women pilots underwent medical and psychological screening tests paralleling those used for NASA's Mercury astronauts. NASA did not officially admit the women, and the program ended without producing any flights. Funk would wait decades before finally reaching space aboard a commercial suborbital vehicle.
The NS-16 mission was an uncrewed suborbital flight that crossed the internationally recognized Kármán line; the passengers experienced several minutes of weightlessness before returning to the ground. Funk set the record for the oldest woman to fly to space on that mission, and the arc from Mercury 13 to commercial spaceflight has become the main reason she is widely remembered.
The cause of death, location, and any memorial arrangements were not detailed at the time of writing; further updates will be added once her family or Blue Origin publishes an official statement.