Walt Cunningham | The Golden Age of Space Flight | NEAF Talks
Filmed April 2019
Apollo 7 was the first crewed spaceflight of the Apollo program that went into space. ... Apollo 7 was essentially a test flight for manned spacecraft. Apollo 7 was launched from Cape Kennedy, Fla., at 11:02:45 a.m., EST, on October 11, 1968 from launch complex 34 on top of a Saturn IB. Apollo 7 carried a lunar module pilot, but no lunar module. Apollo 7 spent more time in space than all the Soviet space flights combined up to that time. The primary objectives for the Apollo 7 engineering test flight, were simple: "Demonstrate CSM/crew performance; demonstrate crew/space vehicle/mission support facilities performance during a manned CSM mission; demonstrate CSM rendezvous capability."
Who is Walt Cunningham?
WALT CUNNINGHAM was born in Creston, Iowa on March 16, 1932. He graduated from Venice High School in Venice, California. Cunningham joined the U.S. Navy in 1951, and began flight training in 1952. He served on active duty as a fighter pilot with the U.S. Marine Corps from 1953 until 1956, flying 54 missions as a night fighter pilot in Korea. From 1956 to 1975, he served in the Marine Corps Reserve, he retired at the rank of Colonel. Cunningham received his B.A. with honors in 1960, and his M.A. with distinction in 1961, both in physics, from the University of California, Los Angeles. He completed all requirements save for the dissertation for a Ph.D. in physics at UCLA during his time at RAND Corporation, where he spent three years prior his NASA selection. In October 1963, Cunningham was one of the third group of astronauts selected by NASA. On October 11, 1968, he occupied the Lunar Module Pilot seat for the eleven-day flight of Apollo 7, the first launch of a manned Apollo mission. The flight carried no Lunar Module and Cunningham was responsible for all spacecraft systems except launch and navigation. Cunningham went on to head up the Skylab Branch of the Astronaut Office and left NASA in 1971. He has accumulated more than 4,500 hours of flying time, including more than 3,400 in jet aircraft and 263 hours in space. In 1977, he published The All-American Boys, a reminiscence of his astronaut days. In 2008, NASA awarded Cunningham the NASA Distinguished Service Medal for his Apollo 7 mission. He is currently a radio talk show host and public speaker. Cunningham also works as a consultant to start-up technology companies and is chairman of the Texas Aerospace Commission.
NEAF Talks brings you the best from the annual NEAF Astronomy & Space conference which is held just outside of New York City at the RCC campus of the State University of New York. The Northeast Astronomy Forum is in its 26th year and is a world-renowned symposium which annually searches the globe for the most relevant personalities who are making space, science and astronomy history today. Now through NEAF Talks online, these outstanding lectures are available to classrooms, universities,
professionals and the world- free of charge. Visit RocklandAstronomy.com/NEAF for more information or to learn how to see NEAF live.
NEAF Talks- supporting science and astronomy education for a quarter century, now free to the world via the web.
Like us on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/Northeast-Astronomy-Forum-Space-Expo-504029046447061/
