American astronaut Walter Cunningham has died at the age of 90. Cunningham was the last living astronaut on the first successful manned space mission in NASA’s Apollo program.
The US space agency confirms the death on social media with a tribute at Cunningham. He was the pilot of the Apollo 7 mission in 1968, which he flew with two other astronauts.
That eleven-day spaceflight, according to NASA, played a “major role” in the success of the lunar landing program less than a year later. With the Apollo 7 mission, live television images were broadcast as the spacecraft orbited the Earth.
Apollo 7 astronauts received an Emmy for their daily television reports from space. In reports they joked, held up humorous signs and taught the people of Earth about space flight.
Apollo 7 was NASA’s first manned space mission since the deaths of the three Apollo 1 astronauts in a launch pad fire in January 1967. Cunningham flew around the Earth with Air Force Major Donn Eisele and the Navy Captain Wally Schirra.
Last August, Cunningham said he never dreamed of a spaceship because he came from a poor family. “We didn’t even know there were astronauts when I was growing up,” he said The spokesperson’s review.
