“Wally Funk’s Race for Space” is a delightful meandering book — part travelogue, part homage to the space race and particularly women’s role in it, and partly a biography of a very memorable character. Wally Funk was one of the original Mercury 13, women who were tested at the same time as the Mercury Seven male astronaut corps in the 1960s, but ultimately denied the opportunity to go up in space by Congress. It would be 20 more years, in fact, before Sally Ride made her historic trip on the shuttle!
Wally, still living today, spent her post-Mercury 13 life working in aviation and trying to get up in space, eventually buying a ticket on one of the commercial space flight services that have been popping up over the last decade. She is also a Stephens College alumna, although how she got there is never really explained since she grew up in New Mexico.
This book captures Wally in a moment in time when she was working with British radio personality and author, Sue Nelson, to develop a podcast about women in space. Nelson presumably got Funk’s permission to include some of the details about her and her very big personality, but sometimes I was surprised at how very candid Nelson was about Funk (who definitely has some personality quirks).
Nonetheless, the portrait is affectionate and the details woven throughout about women, and Wally, in terms of space exploration, are fascinating. In some ways I feel like these women are the ‘frontierswoman’ of the 20th century, and encountered just as many challenges as the Oregon Trail pioneers in many ways. This book was published in 2019 — Wally finally made it up on the Blue Origin spacecraft in 2021.
Three words that describe this book: Quirky, captivating, info-packed
You might want to pick this book up if: You like women’s history or space history.
-Anonymous
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. We will continue to share them throughout the year.
