Wally Schirra
Encyclopedia
Walter Marty Schirra, Jr. (March 12, 1923 – May 3, 2007) was an American
test pilot
, United States Navy
officer, and one of the original Mercury 7
astronauts chosen for the Project Mercury
, America's effort to put humans in space. He is the only person to fly in all of America's first three space programs (Mercury
, Gemini and Apollo). He logged a total of 295 hours and 15 minutes in space.
Schirra was the fifth American and the ninth human to ride a rocket into space. He was the first person to go into space three times.
, New Jersey
. Schirra's father, Walter M. Schirra, Sr., who was born in Philadelphia, went to Canada
during World War I
and earned his pilot
rating. He later became a barnstormer
. Schirra's mother, Florence Leach Schirra, went along on her husband's barnstorming tours and performed wing walking
stunts. By the time he was 15, Wally was flying his father's airplane.
Schirra was a Boy Scout and earned the rank of First Class in Troop 36
in Oradell
, New Jersey.
Schirra graduated from Dwight Morrow High School
in Englewood, New Jersey
and attended the New Jersey Institute of Technology
in 1941, where he was a member of Sigma Pi
Fraternity, Alpha Mu Chapter . He later finished schooling with the navy and received a Bachelor of Science in aeronautical engineering. He graduated in 1944.
He attended the United States Naval Academy
and graduated in 1945. He was commissioned as an officer in the United States Navy
, serving the final months of World War II
aboard the large cruiser USS Alaska
. After the war ended, he trained as a pilot at NAS Pensacola and joined a carrier
fighter squadron. He became only the second naval aviator to log 1,000 hours in jet aircraft.
Upon the outbreak of the Korean War
, Schirra was dispatched to South Korea
as an exchange pilot on loan to the US Air Force. He served as a flight leader with the 136th Bomb Wing, and then as operations officer with the 154th Fighter Bomber Squadron. He flew 90 combat missions between 1951 and 1952, mostly in F-84s. Schirra was credited with downing one MiG-15
and damaging two others. Schirra received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal
with an oak leaf cluster
for his service in Korea.
After his tour in Korea, Schirra served as a test pilot
. At China Lake he tested weapons systems such as the Sidewinder missile
and the F7U-3 Cutlass
jet fighter. After spending time as a flight instructor and carrier based aviator, he later returned to his test pilot duties and helped evaluate the F-4 fighter for naval service. In the image at left, Schirra is shown taking delivery of a F3H Demon
from McDonnell Design Chief, Dave Lewis
. They remained good friends, later working together on the McDonnell Mercury 7 program.
. He entered Project Mercury
and was assigned the specialty area involving life support systems.
On October 3, 1962, Schirra became the fifth American in space, piloting the Mercury-Atlas 8
(Sigma 7) on a six-orbit mission lasting 9 hours, 13 minutes, and 11 seconds. The capsule attained a velocity of 17557 mi/h and an altitude of 175 smi, and landed within 4 miles (6.4 km) of the main Pacific Ocean recovery ship.
with Tom Stafford
. During the first launch attempt, the booster rocket unexpectedly shut down seconds after ignition. Although mission rules called for the crew to eject from the spacecraft in that situation, Schirra used his pilot's judgement and did not eject, which turned out to be the correct call. The flight launched successfully three days later, conducting the first manned space rendezvous with astronauts Frank Borman
and James Lovell, Jr.
in Gemini 7
. The two vehicles, however, were not capable of actually docking. Gemini 6 landed in the Atlantic Ocean the next day, while Gemini 7 continued on to a record-setting 14-day mission.
While on the Gemini mission, Schirra attracted notoriety for playing "Jingle Bells" on a four-hole Hohner
harmonica
he had smuggled on board, and a "Wally Schirra" commemorative model was later produced.
to make the second manned flight test of the Apollo Command/Service Module
sometime in 1967, after the first such flight to be made by Gus Grissom
, Edward White
and Roger Chaffee. But soon after, this second test flight was considered unnecessary, and Schirra's crew was reassigned as Grissom's backup. But in January 1967, Grissom and his crew were killed in a cabin fire during a ground test of Apollo 1
.
Schirra's crew was then assigned to the first manned flight, Apollo 7
, in the fall of 1968, after safety improvements were made to the Command Module. Schirra, like most of the Mercury and Gemini astronauts, had come to gain a sense of security from the Pad Leader responsible for the spacecraft's launch readiness, an extremely diligent, uncompromising McDonnell Aircraft
employee named Guenter Wendt
. But since the Apollo contractor was North American Aviation
, Wendt was no longer Pad Leader. After the Apollo 1 accident, Schirra felt so strongly he wanted none other than Wendt as Pad Leader for his Apollo flight, that he pulled strings with his boss Deke Slayton
and North American's launch operations manager Bastian "Buz" Hello to hire Wendt so he could be Apollo 7 Pad Leader. Wendt remained Pad Leader for the remainder of the Apollo and Skylab
programs, and stayed on with NASA into the Space Shuttle
program before retiring.
Apollo 7 was launched on October 11, 1968, making Schirra the first person to fly in space three times. Schirra, Eisele and Cunningham spent eleven days in Earth orbit, performed space rendezvous
exercises with the upper stage of the Saturn 1-B
launch vehicle that sent them into space, and provided the first live television pictures
publicly broadcast from inside a manned spacecraft, for which Schirra received an Emmy award. (An experimental TV transmission had been made during Gordon Cooper's
Mercury flight, which was not broadcast to the public. The Soviet Union
may have made television transmissions from their spacecraft, but in keeping with their policy of secrecy and not announcing flights until after the fact, these would not have been broadcast live either.)
During the Apollo 7 mission, Schirra caught what was perhaps the most famous cold
in NASA history. He took Actifed
to relieve his symptoms upon the advice of the flight surgeon
. Schirra soon passed the cold to Eisele, and the crew became known for their grumpy exchanges with Houston. Interaction with ground controllers became so strained that the crew was taken out of rotation for future missions, and none of the three flew for NASA again. Schirra had made the decision to retire before launch, and left the astronaut corps after the mission. Years later, he became a spokesman for Actifed and would appear in television commercials advertising the product.
During later Apollo missions he served as a news consultant, often being interviewed by Walter Cronkite
on CBS
News. He co-anchored the first manned landing on the Moon
with Cronkite and Arthur C. Clarke
, and continued to co-anchor all the remaining Apollo Moon landing missions, including the ill-fated Apollo 13
.
Schirra's logbooks show a total of 4,577 hours flight time (including 295 in space) and 267 carrier landings.
In 2008, NASA posthumously awarded Schirra the NASA Distinguished Service Medal
for his Apollo 7 mission.
In 1995 Schirra co-authored the book Wildcats to Tomcats: The Tailhook Navy with fellow Navy Captains Richard L. (Zeke) Cormier, and Phil Wood, with Barrett Tillman as the writer. It has a section by each of these Naval Aviators that cover five decades of flight experiences, including combat tours in World War II, Korea & Vietnam.
In 2005 Schirra co-authored the book The Real Space Cowboys with Ed Buckbee. The book is an account of the 'Mercury Seven' astronauts. It follows them through the process of selection for the program, their entire careers, and into retirement. Wernher von Braun
, NASA
, Space Camp
, and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center are given special attention.
Schirra was also a major contributor to the 2007 book, In the Shadow of the Moon
, which captured his final published thoughts on his life and career.
in California. The ceremony concluded with a 21-gun salute and a flyover by three FA-18s. Schirra was cremated and his ashes were committed to the sea on February 11, 2008. The burial-at-sea ceremony was held aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) and his ashes were released by Cmdr. Lee Axtell, command chaplain aboard.
, a Lewis and Clark class dry cargo ship
named for Schirra, was christened and launched March 8, 2009.
In 2010 Schirra was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame
.
A street and a small park are named for Schirra in Oradell, New Jersey.
in the film The Right Stuff and by Mark Harmon
in the miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
test pilot
Test pilot
A test pilot is an aviator who flies new and modified aircraft in specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques or FTTs, allowing the results to be measured and the design to be evaluated....
, United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
officer, and one of the original Mercury 7
Mercury Seven
Mercury Seven was the group of seven Mercury astronauts selected by NASA on April 9, 1959. They are also referred to as the Original Seven and Astronaut Group 1...
astronauts chosen for the Project Mercury
Mercury program
Mercury Program might refer to:*the first successful American manned spaceflight program, Project Mercury*an American post-rock band, The Mercury Program...
, America's effort to put humans in space. He is the only person to fly in all of America's first three space programs (Mercury
Project Mercury
In January 1960 NASA awarded Western Electric Company a contract for the Mercury tracking network. The value of the contract was over $33 million. Also in January, McDonnell delivered the first production-type Mercury spacecraft, less than a year after award of the formal contract. On February 12,...
, Gemini and Apollo). He logged a total of 295 hours and 15 minutes in space.
Schirra was the fifth American and the ninth human to ride a rocket into space. He was the first person to go into space three times.
Biography
Schirra came from an aviation family in HackensackHackensack, New Jersey
Hackensack is a city in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States and the county seat of Bergen County. Although informally called Hackensack, it was officially named New Barbadoes Township until 1921. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 43,010....
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. Schirra's father, Walter M. Schirra, Sr., who was born in Philadelphia, went to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and earned his pilot
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
rating. He later became a barnstormer
Barnstorming
Barnstorming was a popular form of entertainment in the 1920s in which stunt pilots would perform tricks with airplanes, either individually or in groups called a flying circus. Barnstorming was the first major form of civil aviation in the history of flight...
. Schirra's mother, Florence Leach Schirra, went along on her husband's barnstorming tours and performed wing walking
Wing walking
Seen in airshows and barnstorming during the 1920s, wing walking is the act of moving on the wings of an airplane during flight.-The beginning of air walkers:...
stunts. By the time he was 15, Wally was flying his father's airplane.
Schirra was a Boy Scout and earned the rank of First Class in Troop 36
Scouting in New Jersey
Scouting in New Jersey has a long history, from the 1910s to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the environment in which they live...
in Oradell
Oradell, New Jersey
Oradell is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. At the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 7,978. The borough's territory includes a dam on the Hackensack River that forms the Oradell Reservoir...
, New Jersey.
Schirra graduated from Dwight Morrow High School
Dwight Morrow High School
Dwight Morrow High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in Englewood, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Englewood Public School District. The school also serves students from Englewood Cliffs, who attend as part of a sending/receiving relationship...
in Englewood, New Jersey
Englewood, New Jersey
Englewood is a city located in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 27,147.Englewood was incorporated as a city by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township and the remaining portions of...
and attended the New Jersey Institute of Technology
New Jersey Institute of Technology
New Jersey Institute of Technology is a public research university in Newark, New Jersey. It is often also referred to as Newark College of Engineering ....
in 1941, where he was a member of Sigma Pi
Sigma Pi
Sigma Pi is an international college secret and social fraternity founded in 1897 at Vincennes University. Sigma Pi International fraternity currently has 127 chapters and 4 colonies in the United States and Canada and is headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee...
Fraternity, Alpha Mu Chapter . He later finished schooling with the navy and received a Bachelor of Science in aeronautical engineering. He graduated in 1944.
Navy career
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located in Annapolis, Maryland, United States...
and graduated in 1945. He was commissioned as an officer in the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
, serving the final months of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
aboard the large cruiser USS Alaska
USS Alaska (CB-1)
USS Alaska —the third ship to be named after the then-territory and present state—was the lead ship of a planned six "large cruiser"sMany contemporary historians believe that the Alaskas should be classified as battlecruisers instead. See Alaska class battlecruiser#"Large cruisers" or...
. After the war ended, he trained as a pilot at NAS Pensacola and joined a carrier
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
fighter squadron. He became only the second naval aviator to log 1,000 hours in jet aircraft.
Upon the outbreak of the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, Schirra was dispatched to South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
as an exchange pilot on loan to the US Air Force. He served as a flight leader with the 136th Bomb Wing, and then as operations officer with the 154th Fighter Bomber Squadron. He flew 90 combat missions between 1951 and 1952, mostly in F-84s. Schirra was credited with downing one MiG-15
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 was a jet fighter developed for the USSR by Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich. The MiG-15 was one of the first successful swept-wing jet fighters, and it achieved fame in the skies over Korea, where early in the war, it outclassed all straight-winged enemy fighters in...
and damaging two others. Schirra received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal
Air Medal
The Air Medal is a military decoration of the United States. The award was created in 1942, and is awarded for meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight.-Criteria:...
with an oak leaf cluster
Oak leaf cluster
An oak leaf cluster is a common device which is placed on U.S. Army and Air Force awards and decorations to denote those who have received more than one bestowal of a particular decoration. The number of oak leaf clusters typically indicates the number of subsequent awards of the decoration...
for his service in Korea.
After his tour in Korea, Schirra served as a test pilot
Test pilot
A test pilot is an aviator who flies new and modified aircraft in specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques or FTTs, allowing the results to be measured and the design to be evaluated....
. At China Lake he tested weapons systems such as the Sidewinder missile
AIM-9 Sidewinder
The AIM-9 Sidewinder is a heat-seeking, short-range, air-to-air missile carried mostly by fighter aircraft and recently, certain gunship helicopters. The missile entered service with United States Air Force in the early 1950s, and variants and upgrades remain in active service with many air forces...
and the F7U-3 Cutlass
F7U Cutlass
The Vought F7U Cutlass was a United States Navy carrier-based jet fighter and fighter-bomber of the early Cold War era. It was a highly unusual, semi-tailless design, allegedly based on aerodynamic data and plans captured from the German Arado company at the end of World War II, though Vought...
jet fighter. After spending time as a flight instructor and carrier based aviator, he later returned to his test pilot duties and helped evaluate the F-4 fighter for naval service. In the image at left, Schirra is shown taking delivery of a F3H Demon
F3H Demon
The McDonnell F3H Demon was a subsonic swept-wing United States Navy carrier-based jet fighter aircraft. After severe problems with Westinghouse J40 engine that was ultimately abandoned, the successor to the McDonnell F2H Banshee served starting in 1956 redesigned with the J71 engine...
from McDonnell Design Chief, Dave Lewis
David S. Lewis, Jr.
David Sloan Lewis, Jr. was an aeronautical engineer who led aerospace and defense giant General Dynamics for 14 years.- Early life :David Lewis was born in 1917, in North Augusta, South Carolina...
. They remained good friends, later working together on the McDonnell Mercury 7 program.
Mercury
On April 2, 1959, Schirra was chosen as one of the original seven American astronautsMercury Seven
Mercury Seven was the group of seven Mercury astronauts selected by NASA on April 9, 1959. They are also referred to as the Original Seven and Astronaut Group 1...
. He entered Project Mercury
Project Mercury
In January 1960 NASA awarded Western Electric Company a contract for the Mercury tracking network. The value of the contract was over $33 million. Also in January, McDonnell delivered the first production-type Mercury spacecraft, less than a year after award of the formal contract. On February 12,...
and was assigned the specialty area involving life support systems.
On October 3, 1962, Schirra became the fifth American in space, piloting the Mercury-Atlas 8
Mercury-Atlas 8
Mercury-Atlas 8 was an early manned space mission, part of NASA's Mercury program. Astronaut Walter M. Schirra, Jr., orbited the Earth six times in the Sigma 7 spacecraft on October 3, 1962, in a nine-hour flight focused mainly on technical evaluation rather than on scientific experimentation...
(Sigma 7) on a six-orbit mission lasting 9 hours, 13 minutes, and 11 seconds. The capsule attained a velocity of 17557 mi/h and an altitude of 175 smi, and landed within 4 miles (6.4 km) of the main Pacific Ocean recovery ship.
Gemini
On December 15, 1965, Schirra flew into space a second time in Gemini 6AGemini 6A
-Backup crew:-Mission parameters:* Mass: * Perigee: * Apogee: * Inclination: 28.97°* Period: 88.7 min-Stationkeeping with GT-7:* Start: December 15, 1965 19:33 UTC* End: December 16, 1965 00:52 UTC-Objectives:...
with Tom Stafford
Thomas Patten Stafford
Thomas Patten Stafford is a retired American Air Force lieutenant general and former NASA astronaut. He flew aboard two Gemini space flights; and in 1969 was the commander of Apollo 10, the second manned mission to orbit the Moon and the first to fly a lunar module there.In 1975, Stafford was...
. During the first launch attempt, the booster rocket unexpectedly shut down seconds after ignition. Although mission rules called for the crew to eject from the spacecraft in that situation, Schirra used his pilot's judgement and did not eject, which turned out to be the correct call. The flight launched successfully three days later, conducting the first manned space rendezvous with astronauts Frank Borman
Frank Borman
Frank Frederick Borman, II is a retired NASA astronaut and engineer, best remembered as the Commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the Moon, making him, along with fellow crew mates Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, the first of only 24 humans to do so...
and James Lovell, Jr.
Jim Lovell
James "Jim" Arthur Lovell, Jr., is a former NASA astronaut and a retired captain in the United States Navy, most famous as the commander of the Apollo 13 mission, which suffered a critical failure en route to the Moon but was brought back safely to Earth by the efforts of the crew and mission...
in Gemini 7
Gemini 7
Gemini 7 was a 1965 manned spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program. It was the 4th manned Gemini flight, the 12th manned American flight and the 20th spaceflight of all time . The crew of Frank F. Borman, II and James A...
. The two vehicles, however, were not capable of actually docking. Gemini 6 landed in the Atlantic Ocean the next day, while Gemini 7 continued on to a record-setting 14-day mission.
While on the Gemini mission, Schirra attracted notoriety for playing "Jingle Bells" on a four-hole Hohner
Hohner
Hohner Musikinstrumente GmbH & Co. KG is a company specialising in the manufacture of musical instruments. Founded in 1857 by Matthias Hohner , Hohner is identified especially with harmonicas and accordions. The Hohner company has invented and produced many different styles, and most of the...
harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
he had smuggled on board, and a "Wally Schirra" commemorative model was later produced.
Apollo
In late 1966, Schirra was assigned to command a three-man Apollo program crew with Donn Eisele and Walter CunninghamWalter Cunningham
Ronnie Walter Cunningham , known as Walt Cunningham, is a retired American astronaut. In 1968, he was the Lunar Module pilot on the Apollo 7 mission...
to make the second manned flight test of the Apollo Command/Service Module
Apollo Command/Service Module
The Command/Service Module was one of two spacecraft, along with the Lunar Module, used for the United States Apollo program which landed astronauts on the Moon. It was built for NASA by North American Aviation...
sometime in 1967, after the first such flight to be made by Gus Grissom
Gus Grissom
Virgil Ivan Grissom , , better known as Gus Grissom, was one of the original NASA Project Mercury astronauts and a United States Air Force pilot...
, Edward White
Edward White
Edward White may refer to:*Edward John White , Anglo-Australian meteorologist and astronomer*Edward Douglass White , Chief Justice of the U.S.*Edward Douglass White, Sr. , Governor of Louisiana and U.S...
and Roger Chaffee. But soon after, this second test flight was considered unnecessary, and Schirra's crew was reassigned as Grissom's backup. But in January 1967, Grissom and his crew were killed in a cabin fire during a ground test of Apollo 1
Apollo 1
Apollo 1 was scheduled to be the first manned mission of the Apollo manned lunar landing program, with a target launch date of February 21, 1967. A cabin fire during a launch pad test on January 27 at Launch Pad 34 at Cape Canaveral killed all three crew members: Command Pilot Virgil "Gus"...
.
Schirra's crew was then assigned to the first manned flight, Apollo 7
Apollo 7
Apollo 7 was the first manned mission in the American Apollo space program, and the first manned US space flight after a cabin fire killed the crew of what was to have been the first manned mission, AS-204 , during a launch pad test in 1967...
, in the fall of 1968, after safety improvements were made to the Command Module. Schirra, like most of the Mercury and Gemini astronauts, had come to gain a sense of security from the Pad Leader responsible for the spacecraft's launch readiness, an extremely diligent, uncompromising McDonnell Aircraft
McDonnell Aircraft
The McDonnell Aircraft Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer based in St. Louis, Missouri. The company was founded on July 16, 1939 by James Smith McDonnell, and was best known for its military fighters, including the F-4 Phantom II, and manned spacecraft including the Mercury capsule...
employee named Guenter Wendt
Guenter Wendt
Günter F. Wendt was a German-American engineer noted for his work in the U.S. manned spaceflight program. An employee of McDonnell Aircraft and later North American Aviation, he was in charge of the spacecraft close-out crews at the launch pads for the entire Mercury and Gemini programs , and the...
. But since the Apollo contractor was North American Aviation
North American Aviation
North American Aviation was a major US aerospace manufacturer, responsible for a number of historic aircraft, including the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F-86 Sabre jet fighter, the X-15 rocket plane, and the XB-70, as well as Apollo Command and Service...
, Wendt was no longer Pad Leader. After the Apollo 1 accident, Schirra felt so strongly he wanted none other than Wendt as Pad Leader for his Apollo flight, that he pulled strings with his boss Deke Slayton
Deke Slayton
Donald Kent Slayton , better known as Deke Slayton, was an American World War II pilot and later, one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts....
and North American's launch operations manager Bastian "Buz" Hello to hire Wendt so he could be Apollo 7 Pad Leader. Wendt remained Pad Leader for the remainder of the Apollo and Skylab
Skylab
Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a mass of...
programs, and stayed on with NASA into the Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...
program before retiring.
Space rendezvous
A space rendezvous is an orbital maneuver during which two spacecraft, one of which is often a space station, arrive at the same orbit and approach to a very close distance . Rendezvous requires a precise match of the orbital velocities of the two spacecraft, allowing them to remain at a constant...
exercises with the upper stage of the Saturn 1-B
Saturn IB
The Saturn IB was an American launch vehicle commissioned by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for use in the Apollo program...
launch vehicle that sent them into space, and provided the first live television pictures
Apollo TV camera
Television cameras used on the Apollo Project's missions varied in design, with image quality improving significantly with each design. A camera was carried in the Apollo Command Module...
publicly broadcast from inside a manned spacecraft, for which Schirra received an Emmy award. (An experimental TV transmission had been made during Gordon Cooper's
Gordon Cooper
Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr. , also known as Gordon Cooper, was an American aeronautical engineer, test pilot and NASA astronaut. Cooper was one of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, the first manned space effort by the United States...
Mercury flight, which was not broadcast to the public. The Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
may have made television transmissions from their spacecraft, but in keeping with their policy of secrecy and not announcing flights until after the fact, these would not have been broadcast live either.)
During the Apollo 7 mission, Schirra caught what was perhaps the most famous cold
Common cold
The common cold is a viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory system, caused primarily by rhinoviruses and coronaviruses. Common symptoms include a cough, sore throat, runny nose, and fever...
in NASA history. He took Actifed
Actifed
Actifed is a registered trademark for a combination antihistamine and nasal decongestant medication used for cold and allergy symptoms. Developed in 1958 by Burroughs Wellcome & Company , the product was later acquired by Pfizer, and was most recently sold by Johnson & Johnson...
to relieve his symptoms upon the advice of the flight surgeon
Flight surgeon
A flight surgeon is a military medical officer assigned to duties in the clinical field variously known as aviation medicine, aerospace medicine, or flight medicine...
. Schirra soon passed the cold to Eisele, and the crew became known for their grumpy exchanges with Houston. Interaction with ground controllers became so strained that the crew was taken out of rotation for future missions, and none of the three flew for NASA again. Schirra had made the decision to retire before launch, and left the astronaut corps after the mission. Years later, he became a spokesman for Actifed and would appear in television commercials advertising the product.
During later Apollo missions he served as a news consultant, often being interviewed by Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...
on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
News. He co-anchored the first manned landing on the Moon
Apollo 11
In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...
with Cronkite and Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
, and continued to co-anchor all the remaining Apollo Moon landing missions, including the ill-fated Apollo 13
Apollo 13
Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the American Apollo space program and the third intended to land on the Moon. The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 CST. The landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later, crippling the service module upon which the Command...
.
Schirra's logbooks show a total of 4,577 hours flight time (including 295 in space) and 267 carrier landings.
In 2008, NASA posthumously awarded Schirra the NASA Distinguished Service Medal
NASA Distinguished Service Medal
The NASA Distinguished Service Medal is the highest award which may be bestowed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States...
for his Apollo 7 mission.
Writing career
In 1988 (republished in 1999) Wally Schirra, with Richard N. Billings, released his first autobiography Schirra's Space.In 1995 Schirra co-authored the book Wildcats to Tomcats: The Tailhook Navy with fellow Navy Captains Richard L. (Zeke) Cormier, and Phil Wood, with Barrett Tillman as the writer. It has a section by each of these Naval Aviators that cover five decades of flight experiences, including combat tours in World War II, Korea & Vietnam.
In 2005 Schirra co-authored the book The Real Space Cowboys with Ed Buckbee. The book is an account of the 'Mercury Seven' astronauts. It follows them through the process of selection for the program, their entire careers, and into retirement. Wernher von Braun
Wernher von Braun
Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun was a German rocket scientist, aerospace engineer, space architect, and one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany during World War II and in the United States after that.A former member of the Nazi party,...
, NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
, Space Camp
Space Camp
Space Camp may refer to:*SpaceCamp, 1986 movie starring Joaquin Phoenix...
, and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center are given special attention.
Schirra was also a major contributor to the 2007 book, In the Shadow of the Moon
In the Shadow of the Moon (book)
In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility is a 2007 non-fiction book by space historians Francis French and Colin Burgess...
, which captured his final published thoughts on his life and career.
Death
Schirra died on May 3, 2007 of a heart attack due to malignant mesothelioma at Scripps Green Hospital in La Jolla, California. A memorial service for Schirra was held on May 22 at Fort Rosecrans National CemeteryFort Rosecrans National Cemetery
Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery is situated in the city of San Diego, California, on the Fort Rosecrans Military Reservation. The cemetery is located approximately 10 miles west of downtown San Diego, overlooking the bay and the city...
in California. The ceremony concluded with a 21-gun salute and a flyover by three FA-18s. Schirra was cremated and his ashes were committed to the sea on February 11, 2008. The burial-at-sea ceremony was held aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) and his ashes were released by Cmdr. Lee Axtell, command chaplain aboard.
Legacy
USNS Wally SchirraUSNS Wally Schirra (T-AKE-8)
USNS Wally Schirra is a Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship of the United States Navy, named in honor of Captain Wally Schirra , one of the Mercury Seven astronauts, who flew three times in space, on Mercury 8, Gemini 6A, and Apollo 7.The contract to build Wally Schirra was awarded to National...
, a Lewis and Clark class dry cargo ship
Lewis and Clark class dry cargo ship
The Lewis and Clark class of dry cargo ship is the next class of Combat Logistics Force underway replenishment vessels to be constructed for the United States Navy's Military Sealift Command. Lewis and Clark-class ships will replace the existing fifteen Mars- and Sirius-class combat store ships...
named for Schirra, was christened and launched March 8, 2009.
In 2010 Schirra was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame
New Jersey Hall of Fame
The New Jersey Hall of Fame is an organization that honors individuals from the U.S. state of New Jersey who have made contributions to society and the world beyond....
.
A street and a small park are named for Schirra in Oradell, New Jersey.
In media
Wally Schirra was portrayed by Lance HenriksenLance Henriksen
Lance James Henriksen is an American actor and artist best known to film and television audiences for his roles in science fiction, action, and horror films such as the Alien film franchise, and on television shows such as Millennium....
in the film The Right Stuff and by Mark Harmon
Mark Harmon
Mark Harmon is an American actor who has been starring in American television programs and films since the mid-1970s, after a career as a collegiate football player with the UCLA Bruins. Since 2003, Harmon has starred as Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the CBS series NCIS.-Early life:Harmon was born Thomas...
in the miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.