Apollo 7, NASA’s first successful manned space flight, lost its last living astronaut early Tuesday morning in Houston.
NASA reported the death of 90-year-old Walter Cunningham, who was part of the 1968 spacecraft that orbited the Earth for 11 days. The widely broadcast space trip contributed to the moon landing less than a year later.
“Walt Cunningham was a fighter pilot, physicist, and entrepreneur – but most importantly, he was an adventurer,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.
“On Apollo 7, the first launch of a crewed Apollo mission, Walt and his crewmates made history, laying the path for the Artemis Generation we see today. “NASA will remember his achievements to our nation’s space programme and express its sympathies to the Cunningham family.”
Cunningham died at the hospital “from effects of a fall, after a long and complete life,” according to his family. Walter Cunningham, a former NASA astronaut, died on Tuesday at the age of 90. In a statement released by NASA, his family expressed “immense pride” in the life Cunningham led.
“We would like to express our tremendous pride in the life he led and our heartfelt thanks for the man he was — a patriot, an explorer, a pilot, an astronaut, a spouse, a brother, and a parent,” his family said. “The world has lost another true hero, and we will sadly miss him.”
Cunningham was joined on the Apollo 7 mission by Navy Capt. Walter Schirra and Air Force Major Donn Eisele. Cunningham, a civilian at the time, piloted the lunar module on the space voyage. The Saturn 1B rocket, carrying astronauts Wally Schirra, Walter Cunningham, and Donn Eisele, raced away from the Cape Kennedy launch pad. In 1968, Apollo 7 rocketed away from the Cape Kennedy launch pad.
Space officials deemed the mission, which took off from Florida and landed in the Atlantic Ocean south of Bermuda, to be practically perfect. Before Apollo 11, which landed on the moon in July 1969, the space agency launched another crew, Apollo 8, into orbit around the moon.
During daily broadcasts from orbit, the Apollo 7 crew would entertain television viewers by teaching the public about space travel while clowning around and holding up amusing signs. The daily TV appearances earned them a special Emmy prize. It was the first human crew since three astronauts died in a launch pad fire on Apollo 1 in 1967.
During the Apollo 7 mission, Walter Cunningham piloted the lunar module.
Cunningham, who was born in Iowa, entered the Navy in 1951 and later served in the US Marine Corps before retiring as a colonel. As a night fighter pilot in Korea, he flew more than 50 missions.
He worked as a scientist for Rand Corporation for three years before being selected as a member of NASA’s third astronaut class in 1963. Growing up impoverished, Cunningham claimed in an interview a year before his death that he dreamed of flying planes, not spacecraft.
“When I was growing up, we had no idea there were astronauts,” Cunningham told the Spokesman-Review. He never manned another space mission after Apollo 7, but he remained an enthusiast for space exploration.
A portrait of the Apollo-Saturn 7 astronauts. They are astronauts Walter M. Schirra Jr., commander; Walter Cunningham, lunar module pilot; and Donn F. Eisele, from left to right.
The Apollo 7 crew included Walter M. Schirra Jr., Walter Cunningham, and Donn F. Eisele.
Getty Images/HUM Images/Universal Images Group
“I believe that humanity must continue to extend and push out the levels at which they can survive in space,” he told the newspaper.
After leaving NASA in 1971, he worked in engineering, business, and investing, as well as public speaking and radio show appearances. He wrote “The All-American Boys,” a biography about his career and time as an astronaut.
