Walter Marty Schirra, Jr. (March 12, 1923 – May 3,
2007) was one of the original
Mercury
7 astronauts chosen for the
Project
Mercury, America's first effort to put humans in space. He was
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 5th American and the 9th human to ride a rocket
into space.
Biography
Schirra
was born into an aviation family in Hackensack
, New
Jersey
. Schirra's father, Walter M.
Schirra, Sr., 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.
Navy experience
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 battle 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.
NASA experience
Mercury
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-Atlas 8
(Sigma 7) on a six-orbit mission lasting 9 hours, 13
minutes, and 11 seconds. The capsule attained a velocity of and an
altitude of 175 statute miles, and landed within four miles
(6 km) of the main Pacific Ocean recovery ship.
Gemini
On December 15, 1965, Schirra flew into space a second time in
Gemini 6A 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 the next day, 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.
Apollo
On October 11, 1968, Schirra became the first person to fly in
space three times on his final flight as commander of
Apollo 7, the first manned flight in the
Apollo program, which occurred after a fatal fire during tests of
Apollo 1. The three-person crew,
including
Donn Eisele and
Walter Cunningham, spent eleven days in
earth orbit, performed rendezvous exercises with the upper stage of
the
Saturn 1-B launch vehicle that
rocketed them into space and provided the first live
television pictures from inside a U.S.
manned spacecraft (other than an experimental broadcast during the
flight of
Gordon Cooper) for which he
received an
Emmy.
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 with Cronkite and
Arthur C. Clarke the first
Apollo landing on the Moon.
Schirra's logbooks show a total of 4,577 hours flight time (295 in
space) and 267 carrier landings.
In 2008, NASA posthumously awarded Schirra the
NASA Distinguished Service
Medal for his Apollo 7 mission.
Writing career
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.
Also, 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.
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 Cemetery in California. The ceremony
concluded with a 21-gun salute and a flyover by three
F-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 and
his ashes were released by Cmdr. Lee Axtell, command chaplain
aboard.
The
Lewis and
Clark class dry cargo ship USNS Wally Schirra ,
named for Schirra, was christened and launched March 8, 2009.
Schirra on screen
Wally Schirra was portrayed by
Lance
Henriksen in the film
The
Right Stuff and by
Mark Harmon
in the miniseries
From the Earth to the
Moon.
Notes
- NASA 40 year Mercury 7
- CBS Sunday Morning, March 23, 2008
-
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070503/ap_on_re_us/obit_schirra
- Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner report
ME07-525
- Navy NewsStand - Eye on the Fleet
- Navy NewsStand - Eye on the Fleet
References
- Wally Schirra & Richard N. Billings, "Schirra's Space",
1988 ISBN 1-55750-792-9
- Wally Schirra, Richard L. Cormier, and Phillip R. Wood with
Barrett Tillman, Wildcats to
Tomcats, Phalanx, 1995. ISBN 1-883809-07-X
- Robert Godwin, Ed. "Sigma 7: The
NASA Mission Reports", 2003 ISBN 1-894959-01-9
- Robert Godwin, Ed. "Gemini 6: The
NASA Mission Reports", 2000 ISBN 1-896522-61-0
- Robert Godwin, Ed. "Apollo 7: The
NASA Mission Reports", 2000 ISBN 1-896522-64-5
- Ed Buckbee with Wally Schirra, "The Real Space Cowboys", 2005
ISBN 1-894959-21-3
See also
External links
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