Wally Funk's race for space The extraordinary story of a female aviation pioneer

Mary Wallace Wally Funk began her flying career in the 1950s, eventually becoming a flight instructor and National Transportation Safety Board air-crash investigator. Her greatest achievement is often overlooked: Funk was one of the Mercury 13, the women who put the first cracks in NASA's glass ceiling with their participation in the 1961 Women in Space program. Nelson interviewed Funk in the 1990s for a BBC radio documentary on women in space and rekindled their friendship 20 years later for a follow-up program. Her unconventional biography covering their recent time together, which included several road trips in the U.S. and England, is utterly charming and often funny. Funk comes across as a determined and intrepid octogenarian she has bought a ticket on Virgin Galactic and still hopes to reach space while those currently with NASA (like astronaut Jessica Meir) who have forgotten the Mercury 13 seem lackluster in comparison. Loquacious, curious, and always disarming, Funk is undeniably an American original, and Nelson's wry style suits her subject perfectly.--Colleen Mondor Copyright 2010 Booklist

Readers hit the road with Nelson, a British science writer, and aviation pioneer Wally Funk as they travel across the U.S. and Europe, recording a radio show about women in space, in this delightful combination of travelogue, biography, and history. They interview trailblazing women such as Mary Lawrence, a NASA flight director; Shannon Moynihan, a NASA flight surgeon; and Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut. Funk, the book's main subject, was one of the Mercury 13, a group of women who underwent the same rigorous physical and mental testing as male NASA astronauts before the Women in Space program was abruptly cancelled in 1961. Funk "never gave up her dream of becoming an astronaut," eventually buying a ticket for a future space flight from Virgin Galactic that she anxiously awaits; meanwhile, she became an accomplished aviator and flight instructor and the National Transportation Safety Board's first female flight investigator. Interspersed with the narrative are well-researched and insightful sections about women's history in the space industry (Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, was unfairly called "hysterical," and Sharman's reputation as Britain's first astronaut was overshadowed by a man who went up decades after her). Funk is accomplished, charismatic, and energetic, and readers will be glad they got to spend time with her and Nelson via this well-written, entertaining book. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.