Thirteen tales that must be told
Jessica Wade reviews Wally Funk’s Race for Space: the Extraordinary Story of a Female Aviation Pioneer by Sue Nelson
Next year will see the world celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of the most incredible human endeavours – the first Moon landing. While the names of the first two men to set foot on the Moon will forever be remembered in history, it is likely that the name Wally Funk will ring no bells for most people. But it should. Funk was the youngest of NASA’s First Lady Astronaut Trainees, or FLATs, selected by NASA physician William Randolph Lovelace II to take part in a privately funded project testing women for spaceflight in the early 1960s. Wally Funk’s Race for Space – written by physicist-turned-broadcaster Sue Nelson – documents the Mercury 13, the world’s first all-woman astronaut squad, who regrettably never flew in space.
In Women with the Right Stuff, an award-winning BBC World Service documentary made by Nelson and Funk in 2016, the endlessly energetic 78-year-old Funk states “The only thing a woman needs to compete in a man’s world is ability.” Funk and her dozen Mercury 13 colleagues were not only entirely able, but utterly exceptional. They passed rigorous medical examinations, had extensive flying experience and were easily as patriotic and passionate as the male astronauts part of the historic Mercury Friendship 7 mission that, in February 1962, saw John Glenn become the first American in orbit. Funk broke all records (including those of all her male counterparts) by spending 10 hours and 35 minutes in a sensory isolation tank. The reason that the Mercury 13 did not become astronauts was not that they weren’t qualified – it was because they were women.
Wally Funk’s Race for Space is not only the story of a historic space mission that never happened, but a story of frustration, friendship and feminism. What starts as a tale of sisterhood – the programme was originally funded by Jacqueline Cochran, an aviation pioneer – becomes a contemporary tale of betrayal. The final test in their training was never conducted, and the Mercury 13 programme was suddenly shut down in 1961. A year after their funding was withdrawn, two of the Mercury 13 took their case to the US House Subcommittee on Space. President Eisenhower had dictated that all astronauts must have experience flying military jets, but in the 1960s women weren’t allowed join the Air Force flight programmes. Cochran eventually provided testimony against the programme, and Glenn – whose own journey to space relied on the mathematics of NASA’s female “computers” – was worried it would disrupt the “social order”. Unfortunately, this investigation into the capabilities of the 13 female astronauts took place two years before sexual discrimination was made illegal by the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Only a couple of years later, Russia would send Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman cosmonaut, to space – and she wasn’t even a pilot.
Funk’s public rejection never deflated her eagerness – at the time she was only 21 years old, and decided she would go to space with or without NASA. In the decades since she has kept fit, been part of further astronaut selection tests and trained thousands of young pilots. In 2010 she even bought a $200,000 ticket to be part of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo. Her relentless excitement for space travel is evident on every page and, despite never having been remotely interested in becoming an astronaut myself, I found myself inspired, thanks to her endless optimism and tenacity. Funk does not waste any energy on resenting NASA, and is only temporarily flattened when she meets Jessica Meir, a member of NASA Astronaut Group 21, who shows little interest in the story of the Mercury 13.
At a time when women are still fighting to gain the recognition that they deserve, Wally Funk’s Race for Space is much more than a biography. It is bigger than Nelson calling out the transparent sexism of the space sector in the 1960s. It is the story of a 20-year relationship where, through adventures and discussions, Nelson makes up for everything that Funk missed out on by not being the first woman in space. Together they travel the world, from NASA to the European Space Agency, Virgin Orbit to the BBC, meeting eminent engineers and astronauts. Nelson could not be a better person to write this book – empathetic and enthusiastic, with a contact list that easily rivals the well-connected Funk. In fact, there are so many fascinating threads that I found myself folding over page corners, keeping lists of names and dates to research, wishing that there was a proper appendix and index of everyone Funk and Nelson met.
After the success of Hidden Figures (both the film and the book), and the announcement of the third ever female Nobel prize winner in physics, Wally Funk’s Race for Space feels immensely important and timely – like the world is finally waking up to women’s contributions to science and engineering. Indeed, Funk’s fascinating story has not gone overlooked by producers – Amazon, Netflix and ITV America are all developing television series about the FLATs.
In 2019 Wally Funk will turn 80 years old. She is still just as fearless and committed as she was when she was selected to be one of the Mercury 13. She still wears a Space Shuttle mission patch on her flight suit and introduces herself as an astronaut candidate when she visits space centres. I will keep my fingers crossed that she eventually makes it into space. Thanks to Nelson, Wally Funk’s legacy will not be forgotten.