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Cunningham, Ronnie Walter 'Walt'
Cunningham
Cunningham
Credit: www.spacefacts.de
American pilot astronaut 1963-1971.

Status: Inactive; Active 1963-1971. Born: 1932-03-16. Spaceflights: 1 . Total time in space: 10.84 days. Birth Place: Creston, Iowa.

Official NASA Biography as of June 2016:Walter Cunningham (NASA Photo S64-31816)

Official Biography

NAME: Walter Cunningham

BIRTHPLACE AND DATE: Cunningham was born in Creston, Iowa, on March 16, 1932.

EDUCATION: Cunningham received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honours in physics in 1960 and a Master of Arts degree in physics in 1961 from the University of California at Los Angeles. He attended the Advanced Management Program, Harvard School of Business, in 1974.

EXPERIENCE: Cunningham joined the Navy in 1951 and began flight training in 1952. He joined a Marine squadron in 1953 and served with the Marine Corps until 1956 and in the Marine Corps Reserve until 1975. He held the rank of Colonel, USMC (retired). After receiving his MS degree from UCLA, Cunningham worked as a scientist with the RAND Corporation.

NASA selected him as an astronaut in October 1963. On October 11, 1968, he, Commander Walter Schirra and Command Module pilot Don Eisele were launched aboard Apollo 7 - the first flight test of the redesigned Apollo after the first crew died in the Apollo 1 launch pad fire on January 27, 1967. The flight was a complete success and provided NASA with confidence to send the next Apollo crew, into orbit around the moon. However the crew suffered head colds and had numerous arguments with ground controllers. NASA management secretly decided that none of them would be allowed to fly in space again.

Cunningham retired from NASA in 1971 and published a book of his experiences as an astronaut, The All-American Boys. He later was president of Acorn Ventures.



More at: Cunningham.

Family: Astronaut. Country: USA. Flights: Apollo 204, Apollo 205, Apollo 7. Projects: Apollo. Agency: USMC. Bibliography: 4478, 5299.
Photo Gallery

Apollo 7Apollo 7
Astronaut Walter Cunningham photographed performing flight tasks
Credit: NASA


Apollo 7Apollo 7
Prime crew photographed during Apollo 7 mission
Credit: NASA



1932 March 16 - .
1963 June 5 - .
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1967 January 27 - . Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Complex: Cape Canaveral. LV Family: Saturn I. Launch Vehicle: Saturn IB.
1967 April - .
1968 October 11 - . 15:02 GMT - . Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Complex: Cape Canaveral LC34. LV Family: Saturn I. Launch Vehicle: Saturn IB.
1968 October 22 - .

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