Walter Cunningham took half within the first profitable crewed mission of NASA’s lunar program
US astronaut Walter Cunningham, who took half in NASA’s landmark Apollo 7 mission in 1968, has died on the age of 90.
The house explorer handed away on Tuesday, his spouse Dot Cunningham introduced, with out revealing the reason for demise or the place it occurred.
Along with Walter M. Schirra, and Donn F. Eisele, Cunningham was a member of the Apollo 7 mission, which grew to become NASA’s first crewed house flight following the deaths of the three Apollo 1 astronauts in a launchpad fireplace in 1967.
The Apollo 7 mission orbited Earth for eleven days between October 11 and 22, 1968, its goal being to check the power to dock and rendezvous in house. Cunningham’s job on the crew was lunar module pilot.
The mission turned out to be a whole success for the US house company, paving the way in which for the Moon touchdown lower than a 12 months later, in July 1969.
The Apollo 7 flight additionally made historical past as the primary NASA mission to broadcast reside TV from orbit. The three crew members went on air day-after-day, not solely educating the viewers about house, but additionally playing around and cracking jokes.
After returning to Earth, the astronauts acquired particular Emmy awards for his or her broadcast.
It was Cunningham’s solely house flight, who went on to work in engineering, enterprise and investing after leaving NASA. Nonetheless, he stored selling house exploration as a public speaker.
“I feel that people must proceed increasing and pushing out the degrees at which they’re surviving in house,” he stated in considered one of his final interviews in 2022.
NASA Administrator Invoice Nelson described Cunningham as “a fighter pilot, physicist, and an entrepreneur – however, above all, he was an explorer.” Alongside together with his crewmates, who’ve all additionally handed away, he “made historical past, paving the way in which for the Artemis Technology we see immediately,” Nelson stated, including that Cunningham’s contribution would all the time be remembered.
