US astronaut Walter Cunningham, the last surviving member of the first successful manned space mission in NASA's Apollo programme, passed away at the age of 90 on Tuesday, US space agency NASA confirmed.
Cunningham, alongside Navy Captain Walter Schirra and Air Force Major Donn Eisele, manned NASA's 1968 Apollo 7 mission, an 11-day manned space flight during which he tested manoeuvres necessary for docking and lunar orbit rendezvous. It was the first ever to be broadcasted on live television as the spacecraft orbited Earth.
In a statement shared by NASA to confirm his passing away, a family representative said Cunningham died at a hospital in Houston, Texas, from natural causes "after a full and complete life."
"We would like to express our immense pride in the life that he lived, and our deep gratitude for the man that he was a patriot, an explorer, pilot, astronaut, husband, brother, and father," the Cunningham family said. "The world has lost another true hero, and we will miss him dearly," the statement read.
Mission's success
“Walt Cunningham was a fighter pilot, physicist, and an entrepreneur — but, above all, he was an explorer," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. "On Apollo 7, the first launch of a crewed Apollo mission, Walt and his crewmates made history." The mission paved the way for the moon landing which took place less than a year later (July 1969).
The mission's crew successfully completed eight tests, igniting the service module engine, measuring the accuracy of performance of all spacecraft systems, and providing the first live television transmission of onboard crew activities.
The 263-hour, 4.5-million-mile flight splashed down on 22 October 1968, in the Atlantic Ocean.
Archive image dated 16 June 1967 showing the Apollo astronauts Don Eisele, Walter Cunningham and Walter Schirra as they practised capsule exit after a splash-down. Credit: Belga Archives
After the mission, the Apollo 7 astronauts won an Emmy award for their daily TV reports from their spacecraft, still remembered years later for the jokes they made, the funny signs they held up during the broadcast and for teaching viewers at home about space flight during the reports.
His numerous awards include the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and NASA Distinguished Service Medal. For his service, he was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame, International Space Hall of Fame, Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame, San Diego Air and Space Museum Hall of Fame, and Houston Hall of Fame.
