Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Walter Marty Schirra Jr. (/ ʃ ɜː ˈ r ɑː / shur-AH; March 12, 1923 – May 3, 2007) was an American naval aviator, test pilot, and NASA astronaut.In 1959, he became one of the original seven astronauts chosen for Project Mercury, which was the United States' first effort to put humans into space.
They are also referred to as the Original Seven and Astronaut Group 1. Their names were publicly announced by NASA on April 9, 1959: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton. The Mercury Seven created a new profession in the United States, and established the image of the American ...
Gemini 6A (officially Gemini VI-A) [2] was a 1965 crewed United States spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program.The mission, flown by Wally Schirra and Thomas P. Stafford, achieved the first crewed rendezvous with another spacecraft, its sister Gemini 7.
Mercury-Atlas 8 (MA-8) was the fifth United States crewed space mission, part of NASA's Mercury program.Astronaut Walter M. Schirra Jr., orbited the Earth six times in the Sigma 7 spacecraft on October 3, 1962, in a nine-hour flight focused mainly on technical evaluation rather than on scientific experimentation.
According to Cunningham, Schirra originally had limited interest in making a third spaceflight, beginning to focus on his post-NASA career. Flying the first mission after the fire changed things: "Wally Schirra was being pictured as the man chosen to rescue the manned space program. And that was a task worthy of Wally's interest."
During the 1962 Mercury-Atlas 8 mission (part of the United States space program), astronaut Wally Schirra was asked by ground controller Deke Slayton whether he was a turtle. Not wanting to use vulgar language while his communications were being broadcast worldwide, he temporarily stopped transmitting in order to record the required response.
Stafford visited space four times in his astronaut career. During his first space mission in 1965, Stafford piloted Gemini 6 with fellow astronaut Wally Schirra.
Wally Schirra flew aboard Sigma 7 on Mercury-Atlas 8 on October 3, 1962. The mission's main goal was to show development of environmental controls or life-support systems that would allow for safety in space, thus being a flight mainly focused on technical evaluation, rather than scientific experimentation.