Former astronaut Walter Cunningham, who flew into space aboard Apollo 7 in 1968 as part of the first crewed Apollo mission, paved the way for 12 others to land on the moon in later years, NASA said. Died on Tuesday at the age of 90.
Cunningham joined crewmates Walter Schirra and Don Eisele for the successful 11-day mission, which was conducted in low-Earth orbit as the first manned test flight of the new Apollo spacecraft that would later land on the Moon. Will reach
Apollo 7 restarted NASA’s lunar spaceflight program 21 months after the deaths of all three members of the Apollo 1 crew during ground-based launch rehearsals in late January 1967.