Walter Cunningham, the US astronaut who was the final surviving member of NASA’s Apollo 7 mission, has died aged 90.
The Iowa native was lunar module pilot on the Apollo 7 mission in 1968, the primary profitable crewed flight of NASA’s Apollo programme.
Mr Cunningham was certainly one of three astronauts aboard Apollo 7, an 11-day spaceflight that paved the best way for the primary moon touchdown lower than a 12 months later.
NASA confirmed his dying however didn’t embrace its trigger, though a household assertion stated he died in hospital ‘from issues of a fall, after a full and full life’.
Astronaut Walter Cunningham, Apollo 7 lunar module pilot, is photographed through the Apollo 7 mission on this October 1968 NASA picture
Mr Cunningham speaks on the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Expertise in Cambridge, Massachusetts throughout a program ‘Celebrating 100 Years of MIT Aerospace’ in October 2014
In an announcement, NASA Administrator Invoice Nelson paid tribute to Mr Cunningham, who was additionally a physicist and a fighter pilot with the US Marine Corps earlier than being chosen by NASA.
Apollo 7 was NASA’s first crewed house mission because the deaths of the three Apollo 1 astronauts in a launch pad hearth January 27, 1967.
‘Walt Cunningham was a fighter pilot, physicist, and an entrepreneur – however, above all, he was an explorer,’ stated Nelson.
‘On Apollo 7, the primary launch of a crewed Apollo mission, Walt and his crewmates made historical past, paving the best way for the Artemis Era we see in the present day.
‘NASA will at all times bear in mind his contributions to our nation’s house program and sends our condolences to the Cunningham household.’
Ronnie Walter Cunningham was born in Creston, Iowa, on March 16, 1932 and joined the US Navy in 1951 after finding out at Santa Monica School in California.
Following his lively responsibility, which included flying 54 missions as an evening fighter pilot in Korea, he resumed his research at Santa Monica School after which transferred to the College of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1958 the place he studied physics.
He additionally labored as a scientist for the RAND Company, a US non-profit organisation, earlier than his NASA choice in October 1963.
He crewed the Apollo 7 mission with Navy captain Walter Schirra (who died in Could 2007) and Air Drive main Donn Eisele (who died in December 1987).
Pictured left to proper, on this Apollo 7 crew portrait, are astronauts R. Walter Cunningham, Walter Schirra and Donn Eisele
Pictured, the three astronauts of the Apollo 7 mission are all smiles following their profitable splashdown and restoration on October 22, 1968. Left to proper: R. Walter Cunningham, Walter Schirra and Donn Eisele
Frogmen assist astronauts throughout egress coaching. Walter Cunningham and Donn Eisele are proven pulling Walter Schirra out of an area capsule onto a rubber raft
From left to proper, Donn Fulton Eisele, Walter Cunningham and Walter Schirra on the deck of the ‘MV Retriever’ throughout coaching for water egress procedures from their capsule within the Gulf of Mexico, August 5, 1968
The mission launched from Cape Kennedy Air Drive Station, Florida, on October 11 and splashed down within the Atlantic Ocean south of Bermuda on October 22.
The crew orbited the Earth 163 instances and spent 10 days and 20 hours in house – a close to good mission, NASA stated.
Their spacecraft carried out so properly that the company despatched the following crew, Apollo 8, to orbit the moon as a prelude to the Apollo 11 moon touchdown in July 1969.
Apollo 7 astronauts additionally received a particular Emmy award for his or her each day tv experiences from orbit, utilizing a black-and-white tv digicam that was carried aboard.
Walter Cunningham through the Apollo 7 mission, October 1968. The mission launched from Cape Kennedy Air Drive Station, Florida, on October 11 and splashed down within the Atlantic Ocean south of Bermuda on October 22
Portrait of Cunningham in 1964. Apollo 7 was NASA’s first crewed house mission because the deaths of the three Apollo 1 astronauts in a launch pad hearth January 27, 1967
In an interview the 12 months earlier than his dying, Mr Cunningham recalled rising up poor and dreaming of flying airplanes, not spacecraft.
‘We by no means even knew that there have been astronauts once I was rising up,’ he advised The Spokesman-Evaluation.
After retiring from NASA in 1971, he labored in engineering, enterprise and investing, and have become a public speaker and radio host.
He wrote a memoir about his profession and time as an astronaut, ‘The All-American Boys’, revealed in 1977.
He additionally expressed skepticism in his later years about human exercise contributing to local weather change, bucking the scientific consensus in writing and public talks, whereas acknowledging that he was not a local weather scientist.
Members of the Apollo 7 crew (L-R Donn F. Eisele; Walter Schirra and Walter Cunningham) throughout a briefing with Deke Slayton (standing), director of Flight Crew Operations
Cunningham arrives in Sydney together with his spouse, Loella, on Could 6, 1969 – a few months earlier than the success of Apollo 11
Right here, Walter Cunningham attends a celebration of the Apollo 11 mission, which took people to the moon for the primary time, on the thirtieth anniversary of the flight, on the Kennedy Area Heart in Cape Canaveral, Florida, July 17, 1999
Though Mr Cunningham by no means crewed one other house mission after Apollo 7, he remained a proponent of house exploration.
‘I believe that people have to proceed increasing and pushing out the degrees at which they’re surviving in house,’ he stated final 12 months.
Mr Cunningham is survived by his spouse Dot, his sister Cathy Cunningham, and his kids Brian and Kimberly.
In an announcement, the Cunningham household stated: ‘We want to specific our immense delight within the life that he lived, and our deep gratitude for the person that he was – a patriot, an explorer, pilot, astronaut, husband, brother, and father.
‘The world has misplaced one other true hero, and we are going to miss him dearly.’
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Walter Cunningham: The final surviving crew member of Apollo 7
Walter Cunningham was born March 16, 1932, in Creston, Iowa.
He graduated from Venice Excessive Faculty, in Venice, California, earlier than occurring to obtain a Bachelor of Arts with honors in physics in 1960 and a Grasp of Arts with distinction in physics in 1961 from the College of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
He then accomplished a doctorate in physics with exception of thesis on the Superior Administration Program within the Harvard Graduate Faculty of Enterprise in 1974.
He joined the Navy in 1951 and served on lively responsibility with the US Marine Corps, retiring with the rank of colonel.
This can be a portrait of the Apollo-Saturn 7 crew members. They’re, left to proper, astronauts Walter M. Schirra, commander; Walter Cunningham, lunar module pilot; and Donn F. Eisele
He flew 54 missions as an evening fighter pilot in Korea.
He labored as a scientist for the Rand Company for 3 years. Whereas with Rand, he labored on labeled protection research and issues associated to the Earth’s magnetosphere.
Cunningham has gathered greater than 4,500 hours of flying time in 40 completely different plane, together with greater than 3,400 in jet plane.
Cunningham was chosen as an astronaut in 1963 as a part of NASA’s third astronaut class.
Previous to his task to the Apollo 7 crew, Cunningham was on the prime crew for Apollo 2 till it was cancelled and the backup lunar module pilot for Apollo 1.
Walter Cunningham acknowledges the group earlier than an Alliance of American Soccer recreation between the Orlando Apollos and the Atlanta Legend, Feb. 9, 2019, in Orlando
Cunningham was designated the lunar module pilot for the 11-day flight of Apollo 7, which launched on October 11, 1968 and was the primary human flight take a look at of the Apollo spacecraft.
With Walter Schirra and Donn Eisele, he examined maneuvers crucial for docking and lunar orbit rendezvous utilizing the third stage of their Saturn IB launch car.
The crew efficiently accomplished eight exams, igniting the service module engine, measuring the accuracy of efficiency of all spacecraft techniques, and offering the primary dwell tv transmission of onboard crew actions.
The 263-hour, 4.5-million-mile flight splashed down October 22, 1968, within the Atlantic Ocean.
Cunningham’s final task at NASA Johnson was chief of the Skylab department of the Flight Crew Directorate.
FILE – Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham, left, factors to footage of fellow astronaut the late Charles ‘Pete’ Conrad whereas talking with Apollo 10 astronaut Dick Gordon, centre, and Andy Conrad, the son of Charles Conrad, on the opening of the Rendezvous in Area exhibit on the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington., July 22, 2000
On this capability, he was chargeable for the operational inputs for 5 main items of manned house {hardware}, two completely different launch automobiles and 56 main experiments that comprised the Skylab Program.
Cunningham retired from NASA in 1971 and would go on to guide a number of technical and monetary organizations.
He served in senior management roles with Century Growth Corp., Hydrotech Growth Firm, and 3D Worldwide. Cunningham additionally was a longtime investor and entrepreneur, organizing small companies and personal funding corporations.
He additionally was a frequent keynote speaker and radio discuss present host.
His quite a few awards embrace the NASA Distinctive Service Medal and NASA Distinguished Service Medal.
For his service he was inducted into the Astronaut Corridor of Fame, Worldwide Area Corridor of Fame, Iowa Aviation Corridor of Fame, San Diego Air and Area Museum Corridor of Fame, and Houston Corridor of Fame.
Cunningham and the Apollo 7 crew additionally earned an Emmy within the type of the Nationwide Academy of Tv Arts and Sciences Particular Trustee Award.
