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Wally Schirra Dead at 84

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the rare-breed-of-heroes dept.

UglyTool writes "Wally Schirra, the only astronaut to have flown on the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions, died of a heart attack at a hospital in San Diego. Wallyschirra.com has much more on the man, his life, and his contributions to the American Space Program."

2 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. In the future by SAN1701 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Altough he didn't walked in the moon in his Apollo mission, his death made me think if there will be a time when, as before, no living person had actually went to some other world. With no moon mission schedulled by any nation capable of it, and the ageing of Apollo astronauts (it's almost 4 decades since the landings after all), it seems possible that in some point in the future we will have no moon walkers among us.

    Kind of sad. Reminds me that, for some decades, civilians (rich civilians, of course), could cross the north atlantic in less than for hours, and now, well, only the military can do it that fast.

  2. From a different time by Gription · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wally excelled in quite a different era. It was a time where men were creating a new type of future where anything was possible with the application of human ingenuity and effort. He was a shining example of this stage of history.

    We now seem to see a future where human ingenuity is being bent to restrict mankind.

    Wally, we need more like you. You will be missed.