Astronaut Walter Schirra dies at 84
 

RIP, Sir. Another hero gone.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070503/...s/obit_schirra

By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer
Thu May 3, 2:00 PM ET



SAN DIEGO - Walter M. Schirra Jr., one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts and the only man to fly on NASA's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, died Thursday. He was 84.

Schirra died of a heart attack at Scripps Green Hospital in La Jolla, said Ruth Chandler Varonfakis, a family friend and spokeswoman for the San Diego Aerospace Museum. NASA had said he died late Wednesday but the family and the medical examiner's office both said it was Thursday.

An aviation buff since childhood, known to fellow astronauts for his colorful personality and independent streak, Schirra became the third American to orbit the Earth in October 1962. He encircled the globe six times in a flight that lasted more than nine hours.

Americans in space before him were Alan Shepard and Virgil "Gus" Grissom, who flew suborbital flights in 1961, and John Glenn and Scott Carpenter, who orbited Earth earlier in 1962. The Soviet Union had beaten the United States into space, putting cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into orbit in April 1961, weeks before Shepard's suborbital trip.

Schirra returned to space in 1965 as commander of Gemini 6 and guided his two-man capsule toward Gemini 7, already in orbit. On Dec. 15, 1965, the two ships came within a few feet of each other as they shot through space, some 185 miles above the Earth. It was the first rendezvous of two spacecraft in orbit.

His third and final space flight in 1968 inaugurated the Apollo program that the following year put men on the moon.

The former Navy test pilot said he initially had little interest when he heard of NASA's Mercury program. But he grew more intrigued over time and the space agency named him one of the Mercury Seven in April 1959.

Supremely confident, Schirra sailed through rigorous astronaut training with what one reporter called "the ease of preparing for a family picnic."

"He was a practical joker, but he was a fine fellow and a fine aviator," Carpenter recalled Thursday. "He will be sorely missed in our group." Carpenter said he last saw Schirra several months ago and talked to him just a few days ago.

Roger Launius, a space historian at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, said Schirra "had a personality that was fun and effervescent. He had the gift of gab. He was able to take complex engineering and scientific ideas and translate that to something that was understandable."

Launius recalled that Schirra smuggled a corned beef sandwich on his Gemini flight and also reported seeing a UFO ... Santa Claus.

Schirra blasted off from Cape Canaveral on Oct. 3, 1962, aboard the Sigma 7 Mercury spacecraft.

"I'm having a ball up here drifting," Schirra said from space.

At the end of his sixth orbit, Schirra piloted the capsule for a perfect splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

"No one has flown better than you," NASA Administrator James E. Webb told him a few days later.

The only Mercury Seven astronauts who survive him are Glenn and Carpenter.

Although he never walked on the moon, Schirra laid some of the groundwork that made future missions possible.

He liked to stress that NASA never planned to simply send a person to the moon.

"Moon and back," Schirra would point out. "We did confirm a round trip from the very beginning. And `moonandback' is one word. No hyphens. No commas."

His Gemini mission represented a major step forward in the nation's space race with the Soviet Union, proving that two ships could dock in space. Schirra's Apollo 7 mission in October 1968 restored the nation's confidence in the space program, which had been shaken a year earlier when three astronauts, including Grissom, were killed in a fire on the launch pad.

The Apollo 7 crew shot into space atop a Saturn rocket, a version of which would later carry men to the moon. But Schirra and his two fellow crewmembers were grumpy for most of the 11-day trip. All three developed bad colds that proved to be a major nuisance in weightlessness.

The following year, Schirra resigned from NASA and retired from the Navy with the rank of captain. He had logged 295 hours 154 minutes in space.

"Mostly it's lousy out there," Schirra said in 1981 on the occasion of the first space shuttle flight. "It's a hostile environment, and it's trying to kill you. The outside temperature goes from a minus 450 degrees to a plus 300 degrees. You sit in a flying Thermos bottle."

A native of Hackensack, N.J., Schirra developed an early interest in flight. His father was a fighter pilot during World War I and later barnstormed at county fairs with Schirra's mother, who sometimes stood on the wing of a biplane during flights.

Wally, as he liked to be called, took his first flight with his father at age 13 and already knew how to fly when he left home for the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

After graduation in 1945, Schirra served in the Seventh Fleet and flew 90 combat missions during the Korean War. He was credited with shooting down one Soviet MiG-15 and possibly a second. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross and two Air Medals.

In 1984, he moved to the San Diego suburb of Rancho Santa Fe, serving on corporate boards and as an independent consultant. His favorite craft became the Windchime, a 36-foot sailboat.

Schirra was inducted into the Naval Aviation Hall of Honor in 2000.

Survivors include his wife, Josephine, daughter Suzanne and son Walter Schirra III.

RIP
 

RIP Sir. Blue Skies.


Who can name all seven original Mercury Astronauts without your Google button ?

Thanks for having "The Right Stuff" and for answering your country's call.

RIP, Captain.

TR

Let's just say that I grew up with their kids and have a first printing of We Seven signed by all of them!! Wally Jr was my Lab Partner in Chem II in High School and the Cooper girls played neighborhood basketball at my house!!!!:D

Wally was a hometown boy from Oradell, NJ. I can remember his dad joking that he knew he was going to go to space because he used to fall asleep at night with his head out of the window just looking at the stars. We had a big ole parade for him when he came home for a visit and even built a park named after him. I was working on the town road department as a summer job back then and was responsible for putting in the garden and planting a whole bunch of geraniums. It was a simpler time then when kids jokes were take offs on old nursery rhymes. You know things like "jack be nimple jack be quick jack jumped over the candle stick and burned his #$&*". Then there was "Mary, Mary quite contrary how does your garden grow. With silver bells and cockle shells and one #@%^##$ pink petunia." Well in the garden of geraniums for ole Wally where things were all supposed to be red and white there was one friggin' pink geranium. All the grade schoolers had a big chuckle and no one could figure out how that pink flower got there. :D

WOW
 

My lab partner was nothing like Wally Schirra Jr. I'd give good money to meet and know just one of the original seven Mercury Heros. There's only two left and I doubt I'll ever meet them.

I had my 14 year old son watch "The Right Stuff" with me last summer during a rainy day. He asked lots questions, most of which I could not answer, but he did say at the end the movie. "Dad, that's what hero's are made of huh ?" I think he get's the picture. :o

RIP Captain Schirra.


Colonel that is a great story!

An Ex-SF friend of mine was killed during the filming of that movie.
Joe Svec had lived through a Claymore Mine blast in RVN that left him looking like a jig-saw puzzle and was killed during one of the jump/bail-out scenes.

A true pioneer. The Good Lord grant our Nation the vision and courage to follow in his footsteps. Rest in peace, Captain.

RIP
 

May your friend have rested in piece!. That's some high speed low drag stuff, literally and figuratively.

I'll take a stab at my own question:

Mercury Seven:

1: Alan Shepard
2: John Glenn
3. Virgil "Gus" Grissum
4. Scott Carpenter
5. Gordan "Gordo" Cooper
6. Walter "Wally" Schirra Jr
7. Deke Slayton (dont know his first name) Proof that I didn't use google:)

I believe they were also referred to as "Astronaut 1"

I tried to get them in order of their flight schedule, but I may need correction on that.

I believe perhaps Scott Carpenter went after Gordo Cooper. Grissum lived the rest of his life with the "Blown Hatch" legacy. Never the less a hero in my world.

To those, that have "Slipped the surly bonds of Earth".

Wally Schirra was a member of a truly "elite" club. He and the other "First 7", paved the way for others to follow. He will be missed.


Order of flight for the Mercury....

1) Alan Shepard....his flight lasted only 15 minutes and was only sub orbital. He did not fly again until Apollo 14, to which he played golf on the Moon.

2) Gus Grissom....his flight was like Shepard's, lasting only 15 minutes, but he was know for the "blown hatch" SNAFU, He flew Gemini and was killed in Apollo 1 on the pad, during a "Plugs Out Test" in a flash Fire in the capsule.

3) John Glenn.....was supposed to orbit the Earth 7 times, but only made 3 orbits because of a warning light saying that his heat shield had failed. He did not fly again until he flew on one of the STS missions.

4) Scott Carpenter....was the first to orbit the Earth 6 times, in a nearly flawless flight.

5) Wally Schirra.....Again made a nearly flawless flight, and flew the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.

6) Gordo Cooper.....the "Hot Dog". At that time flew father and faster than any person alive.

Deke Slayton never flew in space due to medical problems, but NASA couldn't drop him, because of his "fame and notoriety" of being one of the "Mercury 7". He stay with NASA and worked as the "Flight Coordinator" for all missions. Assigning which astronaut flew, what mission and with whom.


Aside from The Right Stuff, another good NASA show/movie/mini-series to watch is From The Earth To The Moon. It's a 12 part mini series produced by Tom Hanks, for HBO, but is available on DVD.

I was lucky enough to work on all 12 episodes while they filmed in Orlando and on the KSC/Cape Canaveral. The technical advisor was Dave Scott. He flew with Neal Armstrong on a Gemini mission and was "lost at sea" for several hours, when they splashed down. He also flew Apollo 15, and was the first person to "drive" on the Moon.

Here's a pic of me, (I'm in the front row, 2nd from the right....those hats itched:( ), while we were filming on KSC. That is the actual LEM form Apollo 18. Hanks brought it down from the Smithsonian for this episode. There were still a lot of people that worked at NASA, that actually worked on this space craft. It was fun talking to them and hearing their, "Yeah I worked on that baby" stories.

Great Feats
 

Since we've got the Mercury Seven covered and their flight schedule (TY SDIVER)

What was the highest recorded skydive ? By whom ? and what year ? What was the project called ?;)

Here's a whole thread, about Capt. Kittinger's amazing jump.

http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/...ad.php?t=14122

A Whole Thread
 

And to think, I wasn't even going use Google. And there's a whole thread (Why was it in the comedy zone?). Shame on me for thinking I had one. :munchin

I stumbled on Captain Kittengers Excelsior III jump while looking for prints of military skydiving about 3 years ago. That's where I found the print of Special Forces Freefall teams freefalling with SEC's (Stablized equipment containers) There's nice print of Kittengers jump also for about $240.

RIP, Captain.