Former NASA astronaut Walter Cunningham, who piloted the Apollo 7 lunar module, the first manned flight of the US agency’s Apollo Program, died in Houston (Texas) at dawn this Tuesday, at the age of 90.
“On Apollo 7, the first manned launch of the Apollo mission, Walter Cunningham and his colleagues made history, paving the way for the Artemis Generation we see today,” NASA Director Bill Nelson said in a statement.
On October 11, 1968, Walter Cunningham piloted the 11-day Apollo 7 flight, the first manned test of the Apollo space project.
With Walter M. Schirra, Jr. and Donn F. Eisele, they tested the maneuvers necessary to engage lunar orbit.
The crew successfully completed eight tests, according to NASA. The module crashed on October 22, 1968 in the Atlantic Ocean.
At NASA, Walter Cunningham led the Skylab branch of the Flight Crew Directorate and retired from the space agency in 1971, where he would go on to lead various technical and financial assignments.
Source: TSF
