Mercury-Atlas 9 launched on May 15, 1963 from Cape Canaveral with astronaut Gordon Cooper in the Faith 7 spacecraft. It was the final crewed mission of the Mercury program and the last time an American was launched alone on a solo mission.
Gordon passed Wally Schirra's original record of seven orbits, completing twenty-two during the 34-hour mission. Gordon conducted radiation experiments, recorded status reports, took pictures, and dined on powdered roast beef mush and water.
On May 16, Faith 7 splashed down four miles from the recovery ship, USS Kearsarge, the most accurate landing to date. The Mercury program had fulfilled all its mission objectives.
Donn Fulton Eisele, born June 23, 1930, went into space only once aboard Apollo 7. He traveled with fellow astronauts Wally Schirra and Walt Cunningham. The mission was to test the spacecraft's ability to travel to the moon, since modifications had been made to the capsule after the Apollo 1 tragedy the year before.
The mission was a success but during the flight, Wally Schirra developed a head cold. In space, without the pull of gravity, one's sinuses cannot drain as they do on Earth, thus Schirra became irritable. Eisele contracted the same head cold and Cunningham might have to (or not, depending upon which story you listen to). Upon re-entry, NASA demanded the crew wear their helmets but Schirra said they would not be able to clear their congestion and their ear drums might burst.
Schirra made the final decision not to wear helmets and the crew landed safely, but none of them went into space after that.
Eisele died of a heart attack in December 1987 during a business trip to Tokyo.
Mercury-Atlas 8 astronaut Walter "Wally" Schirra, Jr.
Mission patch
Walter Schirra blasted off in Mercury-Atlas 8, Sigma 7 spacecraft, October 3, 1962. It was the fifth manned mission of NASA's Mercury program and the third orbital mission. Schirra orbited Earth 6 times in just over 9 hours.
The mission was considered a technical success since all engineering objectives were completed. The spacecraft used less fuel than expected and Schirra returned healthy after nine hours in space. However, heavy cloud cover and bad photography exposure of Earth's surface were not productive. The mission wasn't hyped as much since the success of the previous two orbital flights and the Cuban Missile Crisis had the public's attention focused elsewhere.
Thomas "Tom" Stafford, born September 17, 1930 in Weatherford, Oklahoma, is an astronaut who has flown in two Gemini missions, Apollo 10 and an Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland before being accepted by NASA to be an astronaut September 17, 1962.
What a birthday present!
In December 1965, he piloted Gemini VI which performed the first rendezvous in space with Wally Schirra. Less than six months later, he commanded Gemini IX with Eugene Cernan in June 1966.
He commanded Apollo 10 in May 1969 with Eugene Cernan and John Young to the moon. It was considered a 'dry run' for the first lunar landing.
In 1975, he commanded the Apollo spaceship with Vance Brand and Deke Slayton the first rendezvous with the Soviet Soyuz, a milestone in space history.
Cosmonaut Vladimir Mikhaylovich Komarov, born March 16, 1927 in the Soviet Union, and astronaut R. Walt Cunningham, born March 16, 1932, are both heroes but whose stories end completely different.
Komarov, close friends with Yuri Gagarin, flew his first mission on Voskhod 1 in October 1964 with crew members Boris Yegorov and Konstantin Feoktistov. The flight lasted just over twenty four hours and its success awarded Komarov the Order of Lenin and Hero of the Soviet Union.
He was assigned to the Soyuz program to fly on Soyuz 1 April 1967. Long before the launch, Komarov knew there were major problems with the space capsule and feared that he would be killed if he flew in it. He wanted to refuse the mission, but his backup was Gagarin and Komarov did not want his friend to die.
Soyuz 1 launched April 23 and experienced problems shortly after launch. Upon re-entry, the parachutes did not deploy correctly and got tangled with the spacecraft. Komarov fell several miles to Earth. His last words were of him cursing the men who put him in a botched spacecraft.
Ronnie Walter Cunningham flew on Apollo 7, October 11, 1968 with Wally Schirra (who celebrated his birthday just a couple of days ago) and Donn Eisle. During the mission, Schirra developed a head cold and without the benefit of gravity, could not clear his sinuses. When the crew prepared for re-entry, they refused to wear their helmets. Schirra feared if he blew his nose, he might suffer a pierced ear drum.
As a result of this "mutiny" none of the Apollo 7 astronauts were assigned to future missions.
Walter Marty (Wally) Schirra, Jr., born March 12, 1923, was the only person to fly
in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. October 23, 1962, Schirra flew on Mercury-Atlas 8, orbiting Earth six times in a little over nine hours.
His second trip was commanding Gemini 6A with Tom Stafford, December 15, 1965 when they rendezvoused with Frank Borman and James Lovell aboard Gemini 7.
Schirra became the first person to go to space three times on Apollo 7, launched October 11, 1968. He commanded the mission with Donn F. Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham. They replaced the original crew of Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee who perished in a fire during a ground test in the Apollo 1 capsule.
He retired from NASA after this mission. He joined Walter Cronkite as a consultant on seven Apollo missions.
Wally Schirra passed away May 3, 2007 from a heart attack he suffered during surgery for abdominal cancer.
Gemini VI-A crew: Pilot Thomas P. Stafford, Command Pilot Walter M. Schirra, Jr.
Gemini VI-A launched December 15, 1965, just eleven days after Gemini 7 lifted off December 4. The original launch for Gemini VI-A had been scheduled for October 25. The mission was to rendezvous and dock with the Agena Target Vehicle. But shortly after the unmanned Agena was launched, a catastrophic failure occured and it exploded over the Atlantic Ocean. Walter M. Schirra, Jr and Thomas P. Stafford were already in Gemini VI-A when the mission was scrubbed.
After looking at the situation, NASA decided to alter the mission, and have Gemini VI-A rendezvous with Gemini 7. The spacecraft would not actually dock, since they were not designed for such a maneuver but would 'rendezvous' which meant they would come close to each other.
The vehicles came within one foot of each other while talking over the radio.
Before returning to Earth, Schirra noticed a UFO moving south in a polar orbit:
The Gemini VI Agena Target Vehicle, launched from Cape Canaveral, October 25, 1965, was intended to be used by the Gemini VI crew, Walter Shirra and Tom Stafford. Although the unmanned craft launched successfully, a mere 6 minutes after launch, an "anomaly occured" and telemetry and radar beacon were lost. NASA tried to re-establish contact but were unable. Patrick AFB radar "picked up 5 pieces" of debris where Agena was supposed to be.
Schirra and Staffrod had been waiting in Gemini VI to launch 101 minutes after Agena, but the mission was cancelled.
On December 15, 1965, the two-man crew in Gemini VI rendezvoused with Frank Borman and James Lovell in Gemini VII, a crucial success in getting to the moon.
Apollo 7 Crew: Don F. Eisele, Walter M. Schirra, R. Walter Cunningham
Apollo 7, launched October 11, 1968, was the first manned mission of the Apollo program and the first time the U.S. sent men into space since Gemini XII in 1966. The fire that killed Apollo 1's crew put the space program on hold for almost two years.
Shortly after launch, Commander Schirra began to experience symptoms of a cold. In zero-gravity, it is much harder to expel mucous from the sinuses. As with virtually everyone else, being sick puts us in a grouchy mood, and that's what happened to Schirra. Then his foul mood brought the rest of the crew down and they started snipping at Mission Control. Although the mission was considered a success, it has been since dubbed "mutiny in space" because of the tensions between the crew and Mission Control.
