Wally Schirra
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Walter Marty Schirra, Jr. (born March 12, 1923 in Hackensack, New Jersey) was one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts chosen for the Project Mercury, America's first effort to put men in space. He was the only man to fly in America's first three space programs: Mercury, Gemini and Apollo and has logged a total of 295 hours and 15 minutes in space.
Wally Schirra was born into an aviation family. Schirra's father, Walter M. Schirra, Sr., went to Canada during World War I and became an ace with the RAF. He later became a barnstormer. Wally'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.
Wally graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1945 and spent the final months of World War II as an officer aboard the cruiser USS Alaska. After the war ended, he trained as a pilot at NAS Pensacola and joined a carrier aviation squadron.
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 shooting 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. He tested weapons systems such as the Sidewinder missle 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 proof the F-4H fighter fighter for naval service.
On April 2, 1959, Schirra was chosen as one of the original seven American astronauts. 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 8 (Sigma 7) on a six-orbit mission lasting 9 hours, 13 minutes, and 11 seconds. The capsule attained a velocity of 17,557 miles per hour and an altitude of 175 statute miles, and landed within four miles of the main Pacific Ocean recovery ship.
On December 15, 1965, Schirra flew into space a second time in Gemini 6A with Tom_Stafford, rendezvousing with astronauts Frank Borman and James Lovell, Jr. in Gemini 7. This was the first rendezvous of two manned spacecraft in orbit. The two vehicles, however, were not able to actually dock.
On October 11, 1968, Schirra flew into space a final time as commander of Apollo 7, the first manned flight in the Apollo program after a fatal fire during tests of Apollo 1. The three-man crew, including Donn Eisele and Walter Cunningham, performed rendezvous exercises with the upper stage of the Saturn 1-B launch vehicle and provided the first television pictures from a U.S. spacecraft.
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. Years later, he would become a spokesman for Actifed and would appear in television commercials advertising the product.
He is currently a semi-retired consultant and lives in Rancho Santa Fe, California.
During his time in college, Schirra was a member of Sigma Pi Fraternity, headquartered in Vincennes, Indiana.
References
- Wally Schirra & Richard N. Billings, "Schirra's Space", 1995 ISBN 1-55750-792-9
- Robert Godwin "Sigma 7: The NASA Mission Reports", 2003 ISBN 1-894959-01-9
- Robert Godwin "Gemini 6: The NASA Mission Reports", 2000 ISBN 1-896522-61-0
- Robert Godwin "Apollo 7: The NASA Mission Reports", 2000 ISBN 1-896522-64-5de:Walter Schirra