Wally Funk, last member of Mercury 13 and the oldest woman in space, has died at the age of 87

Wally Funk, who in 2021 became the oldest woman to fly in space – 60 years after she and 12 other women sought the same opportunity as NASA’s founding scientists – died on Wednesday at the age of 87.

Funk was the last surviving member of the First Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATs, or as they were later called by the press, the Mercury 13), a group of female astronauts who volunteered to pass the same physical and mental tests as the first pilots of the United States.

Although performing as well or better than their male counterparts, the Lovelace Woman in Space Program was run differently by NASA, and the space agency wanted astronauts to become test pilots and jet-timers. The US military, however, has not accepted women into its pilot programs.

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