Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham dies

• Former NASA astronaut Walter Cunningham dies.
• He piloted the Apollo 7 lunar module.
• Cunningham died in Houston, Texas early Tuesday morning at age 90.

Former NASA astronaut Walter Cunningham, who manned the Apollo 7 lunar module, the first crewed flight in the US agency’s Apollo Program, died in Houston, Texas early Tuesday. He was 90 years old, according to Lopez Doriga.

«Walt Cunningham was a fighter pilot, physicist, and an entrepreneur – but, above all, he was an explorer. On Apollo 7, the first launch of a crewed Apollo mission, Walt and his crewmates made history, paving the way for the Artemis Generation we see today,» NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.

WALTER CUNNINGHAM’S CAREER

Cunningham was born on March 16, 1932, in Creston, Iowa. He received BAs with honors in Humanities and Physics in 1960 and received an MS with distinction in Physics in 1961 from the University of California, Los Angeles.

He joined the Navy in 1951 and served active duty with the United States Marine Corps, retiring with the rank of colonel, having flown 54 missions as a night fighter pilot in Korea. After working as a scientist in a private corporation, he was selected as an astronaut in 1963, as part of the third generation of NASA astronauts.

WHAT DID HE DO IN SPACE?

“On behalf of the NASA Johnson Space Center, we are indebted to Walt’s service to our nation and his dedication to advancing human space exploration,” said Vanessa Wyche, center director. On October 11, 1968, Cunningham piloted the 11-day flight of Apollo 7, the first manned test of the Apollo space project.

With Walter M. Schirra, Jr. and Donn F. Eisele, he tested the maneuvers necessary for lunar orbit docking and rendezvous using the third stage of his Saturn IB launch vehicle. The crew successfully completed eight tests, NASA notes. Filed Under: Astronaut Walter Cunningham Dies

AN HISTORIC FLIGHT

The 263-hour, 4.5 million-mile (about 7.2 million kilometers) flight splashed down on October 22, 1968 in the Atlantic Ocean. Cunningham’s last assignment at NASA was head of the Skylab branch of the Flight Crew Directorate and retired from the space agency in 1971, where he would continue to direct multiple technical and financial assignments.

“On Apollo 7, the first launch of a manned Apollo mission, Walt and his companions made history, paving the way for the Artemis Generation we see today,” explained NASA head Bill Nelson. Filed Under: Astronaut Walter Cunningham Dies