Former NASA astronaut Walter Cunningham, who piloted the Apollo 7 lunar module, the first manned flight of the Apollo Program of the US agency, died in Houston (Texas) in the early hours of Tuesday, at the age of 90.
“On Apollo 7, the first manned launch of the Apollo mission, Walter Cunningham and his companions made history, paving the way for the Artemis Generation we see today,” NASA Director Bill Nelson said in a statement.
On October 11, 1968, Walter Cunningham piloted the 11-day Apollo 7 flight, the first manned test run of the Apollo space project.
With Walter M. Schirra, Jr. and Donn F. Eisele, tested the necessary maneuvers for lunar orbit docking.
The crew successfully completed eight tests, according to NASA. The module crashed on October 22, 1968, in the Atlantic Ocean.
At NASA, Walter Cunningham directed the Skylab branch of the Flight Crew Directorate and retired from the space agency in 1971, where he would continue to direct various technical and financial assignments.
