Print

Mail

wiki links

US astronaut Schirra of Mercury Seven dead at 84

Veteran astronaut Walter Schirra, one of the "Mercury Seven" who flew the first manned US space flights, has died of natural causes at a hospital in California, NASA said on Thursday. He was 84.

"With the passing of Wally Schirra, we at NASA note with sorrow the loss of yet another of the pioneers of human spaceflight," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said.

Schirra died of natural causes on Wednesday night at a hospital in La Jolla, California, NASA said.

He was the only astronaut to have flown aboard all three US manned space programs -- Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.

He was one of the seven astronauts chosen in 1959 for Project Mercury, the first US effort to send man into space, which inspired the Tom Wolfe book The Right Stuff that was later made into a movie.

"His record as a pioneering space pilot shows the real stuff of which he was made," Griffin said.

"We who have inherited today's space program will always be in his debt," he said.

US President George W. Bush mourned the loss of an "American hero" who was the fifth American to go into space.

"His ventures into space furthered our understanding of manned space flight and helped pave the way for mankind's first journey to the Moon," the president said in a statement.

On October 3, 1962, Schirra became the fifth American in space, piloting the Sigma 7 Mercury flight on a six-orbit mission that lasted just over nine hours.

He flew back into space on Dec. 15, 1965, as commander of Gemini 6A. He also commanded the first crew to fly into space aboard an Apollo capsule, Apollo 7, after a launchpad fire claimed the lives of the crew of Apollo 1.
This story has been viewed 1612 times.