At 90, the last survivor of the First Manned Apollo Mission Astronaut is dead

Walter Cunningham is the last living member of the Apollo 7 mission, a Korean War veteran, died at 90 in a Houston hospital. 

According to a family spokesperson, Jeff Carr and Cunningham died “from complications of a fall, after a full and complete life.” 

“We would like to express our immense pride in the life that he lived, and our deep gratitude for the man that he was – a patriot, an explorer, pilot, astronaut, husband, brother, and father. The world has lost another true hero, and we will miss him dearly,” Cunningham’s family said Make a statement. 

Cunningham was born March 16, 1932 in Creston (Iowa). He enlisted with the Navy in 1951. While on active duty in the Marine Corps, Cunningham served as a sailor. As a fighter pilot, Cunningham flew 54 nights in Korea. 

Following his military service, Cunningham worked for the Rand Corporation, where he researched Earth’s magnetosphere and worked on classified defense studies. 

In 1963, he joined NASA’s third astronaut class and would eventually end up assigned to the Apollo 7 Mission, the first manned Apollo missions. The mission came on Following the tragic January 1967 accident at Cape Kennedy in Florida that resulted in the deaths of three astronauts, this is considered a key precursor to the moon landing. 

Apollo 7 was launched in October 1968 from Florida with astronauts Cunningham and Wally Schirra. They completed 163 orbits of the Earth and eight technical tests. These were broadcast live on TV back to Earth. They landed in the ocean 325 miles south from Bermuda on their return.

Credit: Bettmann / Contributor via Getty Images

“We carried the nation’s hope with us,” Cunningham wrote this in 1977. “Twenty-one months before, a fire on the very pad from which we launched had killed three of our teammates. One more setback now, and the prospects of landing a man on the moon before 1970 would be gone forever.”

Cunningham flew 40 different aircraft over his entire life. He accumulated 4,500 hours of flying time.  

“Walt Cunningham was a fighter pilot, physicist, and an entrepreneur – but, above all, he was an explorer. On Apollo 7, the first launch of a crewed Apollo mission, Walt and his crewmates made history, paving the way for the Artemis Generation we see today,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson stated this in a statement. 

Cunningham completed his doctorate in Physics after his time with NASA. He did not have a thesis from Harvard Graduate School of Business. Cunningham would continue his interest in space exploration and real estate, while also becoming involved in business and real estate. 

He was well-known for his views regarding global warming in his later years. “After years of looking, I have not found one piece of empirical evidence that man-made CO2 has a significant impact on global climate,” He wrote Houston Chronicle editorial, 2012. 

Cunningham is a proud member of several hall-of fame organizations, including the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame. Cunningham also received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, and NASA Exceptional Service Medal. 

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