NASA Apollo Astronaut Walt Cunningham Has Died At Age 90 (npr.org) 22
Walt Cunningham, one of the early Apollo astronauts, died Tuesday after complications from a fall. He was 90. NPR reports: Walt Cunningham flew in space just one time. His flight in 1968 was an important -- and often forgotten one -- for the lunar program. Cunningham was the lunar module pilot of the first manned Apollo mission that went to space. Apollo 7's 11-day trip around the Earth was a key stepping stone to NASA's march to the moon. "The real accomplishment, of course, was the first manned landing on the moon," Cunningham told NPR in 2016. "But that was the fifth of what I've always described as five giant steps. The first one was the Apollo 7 mission, of course. Complete test of the Apollo spacecraft."
The launch came after a difficult time for NASA. Just 21 months before, a fire on the launchpad killed three astronauts during a test of Apollo 1. In the interim, NASA changed many procedures and the command module underwent a series of safety improvements. Cunningham said in 2016 that if Apollo 7 had not gone well, the U.S. wouldn't have landed on the moon before the end of the 1960s. "Historically, what the public doesn't realize," he said, "It is still the longest, most ambitious, most successful first test flight of any new flying machine ever."
"There were so many things that had to be tested," he recalled. During the flight, the crew test-fired the engine that would place Apollo into and out of lunar orbit, simulated docking maneuvers and did the first-ever live television broadcast from an American spacecraft. "It was hard to imagine that we could get through all those things [in an 11-day mission] without something going wrong and saying, 'hey you need to gotta come home," Cunningham said. The mission was deemed a success but it was the last time these astronauts would fly in space. There was tension between Apollo 7's commander, Wally Schirra, and mission control. As the flight dragged on, Schirra caught a cold and so did astronaut Donn Eisele and the crew's squabbles worsened with ground controllers. Despite that, Cunningham said, "As I look back on it, it was a job, a challenge, and a task that in the end was very well done."
The launch came after a difficult time for NASA. Just 21 months before, a fire on the launchpad killed three astronauts during a test of Apollo 1. In the interim, NASA changed many procedures and the command module underwent a series of safety improvements. Cunningham said in 2016 that if Apollo 7 had not gone well, the U.S. wouldn't have landed on the moon before the end of the 1960s. "Historically, what the public doesn't realize," he said, "It is still the longest, most ambitious, most successful first test flight of any new flying machine ever."
"There were so many things that had to be tested," he recalled. During the flight, the crew test-fired the engine that would place Apollo into and out of lunar orbit, simulated docking maneuvers and did the first-ever live television broadcast from an American spacecraft. "It was hard to imagine that we could get through all those things [in an 11-day mission] without something going wrong and saying, 'hey you need to gotta come home," Cunningham said. The mission was deemed a success but it was the last time these astronauts would fly in space. There was tension between Apollo 7's commander, Wally Schirra, and mission control. As the flight dragged on, Schirra caught a cold and so did astronaut Donn Eisele and the crew's squabbles worsened with ground controllers. Despite that, Cunningham said, "As I look back on it, it was a job, a challenge, and a task that in the end was very well done."
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Itâ(TM)s strange that people are dying over the past year. I do not remember anyone dying before the pandemic vaccinations. Worth investigating. How can someone in their 90s die? It does not make any sense.
One would think recognizing the achievement of being an astronaut would be worthy of at least one headline you'll forget about 47 seconds from now. 7 billion humans on Earth, and only a few thousand have ever done that.
As if the clickbait bullshit you normally read is worthy of wasting brain cells on.
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You're right I should have recognized his achievements before I went off a tangent.
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The Apollo moon landings were obviously fake, so...
Re: Heard the Buzz? (Score:2)
Fake, no. Filmed in a studio, yes.
But the studio had to be on the moon, CGI was prohibitively expensive in the 1960s.
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The real heroes are the film crew who had to fly to the moon secretly. Craft services was especially tricky.
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Those who don't know history. . .
Unfortunately, this statement has already exceeded the capacity of the intended pun. Far too many humans are ignorant of history, and Greed doesn't care if we repeat the worst of it.
Again.
Cyberpunk 2077 (Score:3)
Is "Alt Cunningham" from Cyberpunk 2077 named after him? Just a question.
First manned flight (Score:3)
Apollo 7 was the first manned test flight of the Apollo command and service modules. It was preceded by unmanned test flights: AS-201 and AS-202, Apollo 4 and 6.
Apollo 7, the "forgotten Apollo" (Score:4, Informative)
Everyone remembers 11, of course, the first landing. About as many know about 8, the circumlunar flight that got us this iconic picture of the earth. And at least some will remember the test flight for the moon module (9) and the almost-landing of 10. But everyone, me included in all honesty, forget what 7 did for the Apollo program.
It wasn't glamorous and it wasn't terribly flashy. It was most of all a flight where the crew got "uppity", being very upset with a lot of capcom's decision and Schirra eventually even outright deciding that they won't put their helmets on for reentry, in direct opposition to capcom's orders. Which pretty much meant that this was the last space flight for these 3 men.
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eventually even outright deciding that they won't put their helmets on for reentry, in direct opposition to capcom's orders.
That seems like a really silly thing to hang your career on.
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Well, yes and no, you'd have to know the whole story. They had the sniffles on the capsule and stuffed noses, which meant they were in a real danger of their eardrums getting damaged because they could not regulate the air pressure in their sinuses (or ... whatever that's called in English where you squeeze your nose shut and pretend to blow it to pop your ears).
Capcom didn't care and told them to risk the eardrum damage rather than risking something going sideways at reentry and they're suffocating, but th
Re:Apollo 7, the "forgotten Apollo" (Score:4, Informative)
Apparently he was suffering from a head cold, and wanted to be able to pinch his nose to equalize his ears during reentry. I can see NASA's point, though: if there was a pressure breach during reentry, Schirra would probably pass out before he could don his helmet. Therefore, he had to wear it. Particularly in the quasi-military organizational structure of Apollo-era NASA, astronauts obey orders or they don't fly. Bummer for the junior crew, though.
On the other hand, Schirra was able to spin that incident into a commercial endorsement for Actifed cold medicine: "Can you imagine sneezing in one of these?" [link [youtube.com]]
"Did NASA fire the Apollo 7 astronauts?" (Score:2)
Not ChatGPT, but still caveat lector:
https://www.quora.com/Did-NASA... [quora.com]
"As the flight dragged on, Schirra caught a cold" (Score:2)
Did the author just drop that in there without thinking about who the fark he caught it from ?
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Did the author just drop that in there without thinking about who the fark he caught it from ?
And now you know why they quarantined Apollo astronauts for 21 days after return. You don't want to spread a space-cold to the whole planet. ...
If only the taikonauts had practiced such prudence
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: "As the flight dragged on, Schirra caught a co (Score:1)
Eventually the Chinese will make it to Mars and then they'll bring back some awful superbug and kill us all.
They sicken the entire planet with monotonous regularity.
It's even on the cards now that the Spanish Flu originally came from China and was spread by workers they provided to the Americas.
Nothing ever changes.
Condolences (Score:2)
Good Guy (Score:3)
My father in law was a close personal friend of Walt, and he came to my house a few months ago for a birthday party we hosted. He was amazingly vital till almost the very end. He didn't mind being introduced as "the astronaut" to guests and was always happy to talk about his experiences.