Last Surviving Apollo Astronaut Walter Cunningham Dies at 90

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The space agency confirmed that retired astronaut Walter Cunningham, who served as a pilot on the first successful crewed mission in NASA’s Apollo program, died in Houston on Tuesday. He was 90 years old.

NASA’s statement did not share a cause of death, but a family spokesperson told the Associated Press that Cunningham died “from complications of a fall after a full and complete life.”

“We want to express our immense pride in the life he lived and our deep gratitude to the man he was a patriot, explorer, pilot, astronaut, husband, brother and father,” the Cunningham family said. a phrase. “The world has lost another true hero and we will miss him terribly.”

A member of NASA’s third class of astronauts in 1963, Cunningham only went into space once, but it was the October 1968 spaceflight that revived the Apollo program and paved the way for NASA to land a man on the moon less than a year later. .

During 11 days in low Earth orbit, he and crewmates Walter Schirra and Donn Eisele also transmitted the first live television broadcast in a crewed US spacecraft. After their first seven-minute broadcast, the trio became known for their “daily 10-minute television program from orbit; a New York Times A story from 1987. They won a special Emmy for broadcasts after successfully splashing into the Atlantic Ocean.

The Apollo 7 mission comes 20 months after a cabin fire that killed three astronauts during a launch rehearsal test for Apollo 1, intended to be the program’s first crewed mission. Disaster would have been at the forefront of the astronauts’ minds, but the success of their mission strengthened the shattered confidence of the agency that sent Apollo 8 into lunar orbit in December.

Cunningham was designated as the lunar module pilot, although Apollo 7 did not carry a lunar module. “It turns out we didn’t get the lunar module in time,” Cunningham said. Spokesperson-Review last August. “But I was still listed as a lunar module pilot. But basically what happened was that we were all experts on the spaceship in one way or another.”

The mission’s main objectives included extensive testing of the capabilities of the command and service modules. “We fixed a lot of things and were able to fly a much better spacecraft…” Cunningham told NASA in a 1999 interview for an oral history project. “The plane we flew on was almost perfect! I mean, you just… you couldn’t ask for better hardware the first time.

Three American cosmonauts, Donn Eisele, Walter Cunningham and Walter Schirra, photographed in front of ‘Apollo 7’ in the United States on October 11, 1968.

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In the middle of testing, however, mission commander Schirra was drawn into escalating tensions between the crew and mission control as he battled Houston over the launch weather, the food on board, the bulky spacesuits and the availability of helmets. must be worn during re-entry. (To make matters worse, Schirra was also afflicted by the first cold in orbit.)

According to historians Francis French and Colin Burgess, after being asked to take a particularly infuriating test, Eisele also showed frustration and angrily radioed mission control, “We actually didn’t get anything… you bet your ass… to us, someone downstairs took him out.” when he threw it at us, he floundered nobly.

Cunningham continued This Spokesperson-Review that the story of a space crew that almost rioted was exaggerated by the press. “We never thought it was as bad as the floor did,” he said. “From our point of view on board, we felt we had a great time.”

But possibly because of the conflict, Cunningham was never sent back again. “I’m a little disappointed,” he said, noting that he was appointed to command another mission for a short time before being cancelled.

Born “the poorest person ever” in Creston, Iowa, in 1932, as Cunningham recalls, one of his earliest childhood dreams was to become a Navy pilot. He enlisted in the military in 1951 and flew 54 night missions in Korea with the US Marine Corps. After active duty, Cunningham went on to earn a master’s degree in physics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

“All I remember is keeping my nose on the grinding stone and wanting to do my best – I didn’t realize it at the time, but that’s because I always wanted to be better prepared for the next step.” Cunningham explained in an oral history interview. “I’ve always looked to the future.”

Despite his work in the scientific field, Cunningham would later become known for challenging the mainstream consensus on climate change, denying that human activity has greatly contributed to warming the planet.

Following Apollo 7, Cunningham rose to serve as chief of NASA’s Skylab branch, Cunningham. He left the agency in 1971 and became a businessman, venture capital investor, lecturer and radio show host.

He is survived by his wife, Dot, his sister, Cathy Cunningham, and their two children, Brian and Kimberley, from his former marriage.

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