Farewell to a National Hero

[Willowdared]

Astronaut Walter Schirra dies at 84

ASSOCIATED PRESS
9:14 a.m. May 3, 2007
SAN DIEGO – Walter M. Schirra Jr., one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts and the only man to fly on all three of NASA's early space missions, has died. He was 84.

His family said he died late Wednesday and had been suffering from cancer, David Mould, NASA press secretary in Washington, said Thursday.

In 1962, Schirra became the third American to orbit the Earth, encircling the globe six times in a flight that lasted more than nine hours.

He returned to space three years later 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 sought to land a man on the moon.

[countybear]

RIP /salute

[keith720]

I well remember when Astronauts were the hero of every American boy. Alan Shepard,John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, and such were what everyone wanted to be. We have lost a true pioneer.

[Virginian]

I got to shake Schirra's hand, along with about 10 other astronauts, when I was about 10 years old. Have a picture somewhere. Pretty neat to meet people like that.

[Andrewtx]

A national hero indeed.

[lewisipso]

Braver than I could ever be. Hero indeed.

[TXCharlie]

It's unbelievable what they put those guys through before they ever even got off the ground. Not many people would or could go through all that. Truely one in a million.

It would be nice to get the Mars mission started while some of them are still alive to see it