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Walter Schirra
 
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Walter Schirra |
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Born on: |
12 Mar 1923 |
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Join NASA in: |
2 Apr 1959 |
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Current status: |
Retired 1 Jul 1969 |
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Spaceflight |
Position |
Date |
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Mercury 8 |
Pilot |
3.10.1962 |
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Gemini 6A |
Cmdr |
15.12. - 16.12.1965 |
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Apollo 7 |
Cmdr |
11.10. - 22.10.1968 |
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Spaceflight experience: |
Captain Schirra was one of the seven Mercury Astronauts
named by NASA in April 1959. On October 3, 1962; he
piloted the six orbit Sigma 7 Mercury flight; a flight
which lasted 9 hours, 15 minutes. The spacecraft attained
a velocity of 17,557 miles per hour at an altitude of 175
statue miles and traveled almost 144,000 statute miles
before re-entry into the earth's atmosphere. Recovery of
the Sigma 7 spacecraft occurred in the Pacific Ocean about
275 miles northeast of Midway Island.
Schirra next served as backup command pilot for the Gemini
III Mission and on December 15-16, occupied the Command
Pilot seat on the history-making Gemini 6 flight. The
highlight of this mission was a successful rendezvous of
Gemini 6 with the already orbiting Gemini 7 spacecraft,
thus, accomplishing the first rendezvous of two manned
maneuverable spacecraft and establishing another space
first for the United States. Known as a "text book" pilot,
Schirra remained in the spacecraft following his Mercury
and Gemini flight and is the first Astronaut to be brought
aboard recovery ships twice in this manner. With him on
Gemini 6, was Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford.
He was the Command Pilot on Apollo VII, the first manned
flight test of the three direction United States
spacecraft. Apollo VII began on October 11, 1968, with
Command Module Pilot Donn F. Eisele and Lunar Module Pilot
Walter Cunningham. Schirra participated in, and executed,
maneuvers enabling crew members to perform exercises in
transposition and docking and orbit rendezvous with the
S-IVB stage from the Saturn IB launch vehicle. The mission
completed eight successful tests and maneuvering ignitions
of the service module propulsion engine, measured the
accuracy of performance of all spacecraft systems, and
provided the first effective television transmission of
on-board crew activities. Apollo VII was placed in an
orbit with an apogee of 153.5 nautical miles and a perigee
of 122.6 nautical miles.
The 260 hour 4.5 million mile shake down flight was
concluded on October 22, with splashdown occurring in the
Atlantic some 8 miles from the carrier Essex (only 3/10 of
a mile from the originally predicted aiming point).
Captain Schirra has logged a total of 295 hours and 15
minutes in space. He is unique in that he is the only
Astronaut to have flown Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.
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