posted 05-03-2007 10:28 AM               

Original astronaut Wally Schirra dies at 84

"It's a terrible loss of a dear friend, cherished comrade and a brother," said Schirra's fellow Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter. "Despite our good natured competition for flights into space, Wally strove to bring a smile to everyone he met and its with a smile that I will forever fondly remember him."

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said the following:

Today is a sad day for NASA and our country, as we mourn the passing yesterday in California of astronaut Walter "Wally" Schirra. With Wally's passing, we at NASA note with sorrow the loss of yet another of the pioneers of human spaceflight. As a Mercury astronaut, Wally was a member of the first group of astronauts to be selected, often referred to as the "Original Seven." Wally is remembered in the close circle of the space community as the pilot who flew a "textbook flight" on his Mercury mission in October 1962.

But Wally's spaceflight career went well beyond Mercury; on his next flight, in December 1965, he commanded the Gemini 6 mission with Tom Stafford as pilot. Wally and Tom carried out the first rendezvous in space, flying for hours in formation with Frank Borman and Jim Lovell in their Gemini 7 spacecraft, and completing one of the key steps along the path to the moon.

The fact that this mission flew at all will always be known as a testimony to Wally's cool precision under stress, for Gemini 6 experienced the first on-pad engine shutdown in human spaceflight history. Worse, the crew had a liftoff indication triggered by a faulty umbilical connection; according to mission rules, they should have ejected from the spacecraft. But Wally did not feel what he thought he should have felt had the booster really begun to take flight, and so the crew stayed aboard, saving the mission and quite possibly the program.

Wally's last flight was Apollo 7, the first to be conducted in the aftermath of the disastrous Apollo 1 fire. This flight was another enormous success, accomplishing "101% of its objectives," according to the post-flight debrief. It also made Wally the first man to command three different spacecraft, and the only one to fly Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.

It was impossible to know Wally, even to meet him, without realizing at once that he was a man who relished the lighter side of life, the puns and jokes and pranks that can enliven a gathering. But this was a distraction from the true nature of the man. His record as a pioneering space pilot shows the real stuff of which he was made. We who have inherited today's space program will always be in his debt.

posted 05-03-2007 10:57 AM               

I feel as if I've lost a close friend.

posted 05-03-2007 11:23 AM               

From a distance, I got to see Captain Schirra in person at the Apollo news center years ago. He's one of those larger-than-life characters whom you wish you could have talked to at length.

posted 05-03-2007 11:52 AM               

Godspeed Wally and thank you for your service to our country and space program. My prayers for your family.

This Saturday at the HOF Induction I'm going to wear a turtle on my shirt in his honor.

posted 05-03-2007 12:14 PM               

Wally signed an artist's image of the mercury splashdown for me a number of years ago. He commented that a number of the boats he owned were named SPLASHDOWN.

posted 05-03-2007 12:31 PM               

I dread having to tell Miranda that his is gone. We will both cherish our brief time with him.

posted 05-03-2007 12:31 PM               

I have never met any of these space heroes in person but i have always felt that i know them.