Walter Cunningham

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American retired astronaut, fighter pilot, physicist

Ronnie Walter Cunningham (born March 16, 1932) is a retired American astronaut. In 1968, he was a lunar module pilot on the Apollo 7 mission. He was NASA's third civilian astronaut (after Neil Armstrong and Elliot See), and has also been a fighter pilot, physicist, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and author of The All-American Boys. Following the deaths of Donn F. Eisele in 1987 and Wally Schirra in 2007, Cunningham is the last surviving crew member of Apollo 7.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Early life, education and military career
- 1.2 NASA career
- 1.3 Post-NASA career
2 Global warming views
3 Organizations
4 Awards and honors
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links

Biography

Early life, education and military career

Cunningham was born in Creston, Iowa, on March 16, 1932. He graduated from Venice High School in Los Angeles, California, in 1950.

After graduating from high school, Cunningham studied at Santa Monica College, until he 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. Armistice discussions were still on-going when Cunningham initially left for Korea, and the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed just before he arrived. From 1956 to 1975, he served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, ultimately retiring at the rank of colonel.

Cunningham married the former Lo Ella Irby of Norwalk, California, and had two children, Brian and Kimberley. Walter and Lo Ella were eventually divorced.

Following his active duty, Cunningham resumed his studies at Santa Monica College, before transferring to the UCLA in 1958. Cunningham received his Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in 1960, and his Master of Arts degree with distinction in 1961, both in physics, from the University of California, Los Angeles. He completed all requirements save for the dissertation for a Doctor of Philosophy degree in physics at UCLA during his time at RAND Corporation, where he spent three years prior to his NASA selection.

Cunningham during the Apollo 7 mission

NASA career

Main article: Apollo 7

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 crewed Apollo mission. The flight carried no Lunar Module and Cunningham was responsible for all spacecraft systems except launch and navigation. The crew kept busy with myriad system tests and successfully completed test firing of the service-module-engine ignition and measuring the accuracy of the spacecraft systems. Schirra, with a cold, ran afoul of NASA management during the flight, but Cunningham went on to head up the Skylab Branch of the Astronaut Office and left NASA in 1971.

Cunningham has ac*ulated more than 4,500 hours of flying time, including more than 3,400 in jet aircraft and 263 hours in space.

Post-NASA career

In 1974, Cunningham attended Harvard Business School's six-week Advanced Management Program and later worked as a businessman and investor in a number of private ventures. In 1977, he published The All-American Boys, a reminiscence of his astronaut days. He was also a major contributor and foreword-writer for the 2007 space history book In the Shadow of the Moon. In 2018, Cunningham joined the Back to Space organization as an Astronaut Consultant with the goal of inspiring the next generation to go to Mars.

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.

Global warming views

Cunningham rejects the current mainstream opinion regarding anthropogenic global warming (AGW). In 2010, he published a discussion paper *led "Global Warming: Facts versus Faith". In an editorial published in the Houston Chronicle on August 15, 2010, Cunningham argued that the empirical evidence does not support the claims of global warming.

Organizations

Cunningham belongs to many organizations. He is an *ociate fellow of the American Ins*ute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, fellow of the American Astronautical Society, member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, American Geophysical Union, Explorers Club, Sigma Pi Sigma and Sigma Xi, *ociation of Space Explorers, Houston American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, Aviation Subcommittee, Houston Chamber of Commerce, Earth Awareness Foundation, National *ociation of Small Business Investment Companies.

Awards and honors

Cunningham is a recipient of numerous national and international honors, including:

NASA Distinguished Service Medal
NASA Exceptional Service Medal
AIAA Haley Astronautics Award, 1969
UCLA Professional Achievement Award, 1969
Special Trustees Award, National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Emmy Award), 1969
Medal of Valor, American Legion, 1975
Outstanding American Award, American Conservative Union, 1975
Listed in Who's Who
George Haddaway Award, 2000
Houston Hall of Fame
International Space Hall of Fame, inducted in 1983
U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997
Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame, inducted in 2003
International Air & Space Hall of Fame, San Diego Air and Space Museum, inducted in 2011.

References

External links

Official website of Walter Cunningham
Interview with Walter Cunningham for NOVA series: To the Moon WGBH Educational Foundation, raw footage, 1998
Astronautix biography of Walter Cunningham
Walter Cunningham at IMDb
Cunningham at Encyclopedia of Science
Walt Cunningham on The George Jarkesy Show

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