EFE.- Former NASA astronaut Walter Cunninghamwho was the pilot of the Apollo 7 lunar module, the first crewed flight in the US agency’s Apollo Program, He died in Houston (Texas) in the early hours of Tuesday, at the age of 90.
As reported by NASA in a statement, “Walt Cunningham was a fighter pilot, a physicist, and an entrepreneur, but above all, he was an explorer.”
“On Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission launch, Walt and his companions made history, paving the way for the Artemis Generation we see today,” NASA chief Bill Nelson explained in the note.
Cunningham was born on March 16, 1932 in Creston, in the state of Iowa. He graduated with honors in Humanities and Physics in 1960 and received a Master of Arts with distinction in Physics in 1961 from the University of California, Los Angeles.
He joined the Army in 1951 and served on active duty with the US 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.
“On behalf of 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, director of the center.
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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.
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 Johnson was head of the Skylab branch of the Flight Crew Directorate and retired from the space agency in 1971, where he would continue directing multiple technical and financial tasks.