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Aviator Wally Funk spoke Tuesday at Los Alamos as part of the Lab's observance of Women's History Month. Photo by LeRoy N. Sanchez, Public Affairs

Funk speaks about space career as a woman in man's world

"I want to be a pioneer. I want to go up into space in the worst way," said Wally Funk, aviator and chief pilot who will be the first civilian woman in the United States to travel into space with Interorbital Systems this year. Funk spoke on Tuesday in the Materials Science Auditorium at Technical Area 3 for Women's History Month.

Funk spoke on "From the Mercury 13 to Solaris X: Wally Funk's Dream for Space Continues."

Funk's career began in 1961 at age 21, the youngest of 13 women slated to enter the "Women in Space" program, until NASA abruptly cancelled it later that year. According to Funk, politics not pilot error caused President Johnson to prohibit women from entering space due to a 1959 federal policy stating that astronauts should come from the ranks of the military. "He never gave us a chance to prove ourselves," she said.

The tests to enter the space program were grueling and not given to normal, functioning people, but since she never drank, smoked or did drugs, Funk said she excelled. Funk scored higher on two of the tests than astronaut John Glenn, she said.

At 64, Funk, a legend in American aviation, is still fighting for an opportunity to go into space. "I was lost between the WASPS and Sally Ride," she said. In December, Funk hopes to fulfill her dream when she will be the first pilot of the Solaris X, an entry in the X-Prize competition.

The X-Prize offers $10 million to the first team to send three people to the threshold of space - about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from Earth and return them safely, then duplicate the feat in the same spacecraft within two weeks. Funk is currently training Justin Houchin, a 17-year-old high school graduate, musician, filmmaker, gymnast and Eagle Scout candidate to be the first teenager and second person in space for the X-Prize competition.

The prize is the brainstorm of aerospace entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, chairman and president of the privately funded X-Prize Foundation in St. Louis, Mo. About 25 international private teams have registered for the competition, to take place this year and next, according to the X-Prize Web Foundation Web page.

Funk was asked to be a rocket pilot for the Solaris X by Randa Milliron, CEO of Interorbital Systems Corp., headquartered at the Mojave Civilian Flight Test Center in California. Funk quoted Milliron as saying, "Wally is the most qualified woman in the world, and she should have been the first woman in space."

Solaris X is the first space system owned and operated by a woman, said Funk. "The sponsors have been men like Bill Gates . . . but we're now trying to have women sponsors who own their own companies such as Oprah," she added.

"This experience will be like what the Wright Brothers did 100 years ago. This will be the beginning of taking a journey into space," Funk said.

Funk flies almost daily and credits her mother who she says carried the gene for flying. Since 1960, Funk has been a flight instructor at aviation schools throughout the country. She now holds the title of chief pilot and is qualified to fly more than 30 types of planes including the Piper, Cessna, DC-3, Stearman, AT-6, Waco and Navion. She has participated in more than 10 air races, placed in the races and has lectured worldwide on aviation. In 1974 she was the first woman to become an accident investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.

"I owe much of my success to my parents, because they encouraged me to meet crisis with utter determination. The only thing a woman needs to compete in a man's world is ability," said Funk.

In addition to Funk's talk, student posters aimed at raising awareness of Women's History Month remain on display in the lobby of the Otowi Building at TA-3 through April 16.

Funk's talk was sponsored by the Women's Diversity Working Group, the Laboratory's Diversity/Affirmative Action Board and the Diversity (DVO) Office.

--Kathryn Ostic

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