This Pilot Is Headed To Space With Or Without NASA

Wally Funk has spent her life in pursuit of a dream. The pilot, flight instructor and almost-astronaut longs to go to outer space.

In 1961, she was part of a group of female pilots who took part in tests to determine if women were fit for space travel. The project was run by the same doctor who developed tests for NASA astronauts and the women became known as the Mercury 13.

"I get a call said, 'Do you want to be an astronaut?' I said, 'Oh my gosh, yes!' And he said, 'Be here on Monday to take these tests,' " the 78-year-old Funk recounted to her friend and flight student, Mary Holsenbeck, during a recent visit to StoryCorps in Dallas.

"I had needles stuck on every part of my body. Tubes running up my bottom. So I went along with it. It didn't bother me," she said. "And then they said we want you to come with a swimsuit you're going to go into the isolation tank. Well I didn't know what that was. The lights come down, they said try not to move. Well, I didn't have a whole lot to think about. I'm 20, I had $10 in my pocket. And then finally they said, 'Wally, you were outstanding. You stayed in 10 hours and 35 minutes. You did the best of the guys that we've had and of the girls.' "

Funk was preparing to go to Florida for more testing when she found out the program had been shut down. So, though they passed many of the same tests as the men, Funk and the other Mercury 13 women never got to go to space.

"When we got the telegram, that was it and I never heard anything more," she explained. "So I went on about my own business. I'm not going to sit back and pine over anything."

No, Funk didn't pine, instead she applied to NASA four times, but they they turned her down because she didn't have an engineering degree. But, Funk hasn't given up on going to space.

"I never let anything stop me," she 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 Gs. These things are... easy for me."

Funk bought a ticket for Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic commercial spaceship and hopes to be on board its maiden voyage into space. Holsenbeck plans to be there cheering Funk on when she finally blasts off.

"You are probably the most fearless person I've ever known in my life," she told Funk, adding that the aspiring astronaut was not just her hero, but also her mentor.

"I went through a very nasty divorce and you made a phone call at the right time one afternoon that saved my life," Holsenbeck said. "You said, 'Mary, let's go flying and I said, 'Wally, I can't afford to go flying.' And you said, 'I didn't ask you that — meet me at the airport.' "

"And taking me flying, you would pick out a cloud and you would say 'Mary, you see that cloud up there?' I'd say 'Yes ma'am.' You said, 'Point the nose of this airplane toward that cloud and just fly to it.' And it was the most freeing feeling. I felt like I was in charge of something when I was in that airplane, and that helped me to put myself back in charge of my own life," Holsenbeck continued. "So yeah, you fix the problem."

The two women talk every day at 10 p.m., recounting their days. They call it their 10 o'clock flight.

"So we go up into the clouds together because Wally, you've always told me, 'When you have problems? Go to the clouds.' "

Audio produced for Morning Edition by John White.

StoryCorps is a national nonprofit that gives people the chance to interview friends and loved ones about their lives. These conversations are archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, allowing participants to leave a legacy for future generations. Learn more, including how to interview someone in your life, at StoryCorps.org.

Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.