Wally Schirra, one of America's seven original Mercury astronauts, died Thursday morning in California, NASA officials confirmed.
Schirra, who was named an astromaut by NASA in April 1959, piloted the six orbit Sigma 7 Mercury flight on Oct. 3, 1962, a flight which lasted a little more than nine hours. 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.
Schirra was one of America's most experienced astronauts, logging nearly 300 hours of space travel in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.
It applies not only to Captain Schirra, but all the American and Soviet astronauts of that era - we will not see their like again. |