Walter Schirra

Schirra in uniform (wikipedia)

Walter Schirra was a famous astronaut. Before he worked for NASA he worked in the Navy. The reason he was famous was he was the first man to pilot three of the NASA ships - Gemini, Mercury, and Apollo. He was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, on March 12, 1923, then he died in La Jolla, California on March 3, 2007. Walter lived for about 84 years.

He served as an astronaut from 1959 to 1969; that was 10 years of service. Thomas P. Stafford flew Gemini 6 with Schirra. The Gemini 6 went around Earth 16 times before landing. On the Apollo 7 Schirra had help from R. Walter Cunningham and Donnald F. Eisle. Together they went around Earth 163 times! That is a long time in space!

Schirra made the first rendezvous in space. In 1959 he became one of the seven original astronauts. Walter learned to fly an airplane when he was just a small boy.