Wally Schirra
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"Walter Marty "Wally" Schirra, Jr.", (Captain (United States)/Capt, United States Navy/USN), was an United States/American United States Navy/naval officer and United States naval aviator/aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and one of the Mercury Seven/original seven astronauts chosen for Project Mercury, America's first effort to put humans in Outer space/space. He flew the six-orbit, nine-hour Mercury-Atlas 8 mission on October 3, 1962, becoming the fifth American, and the ninth human, to ride a rocket into space. In the two-man Project Gemini/Gemini program, he achieved the first space rendezvous, orbital station-keeping/station-keeping his Gemini 6A spacecraft within of the sister Gemini 7 spacecraft in December 1965. In October 1968, he commanded Apollo 7, an 11-day low Earth orbit shakedown test of the three-man Apollo Command/Service Module. He was the first person to go into space three times, and the only person to have flown in Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo program/Apollo, logging a total of 295 hours and 15 minutes in space. He retired from the U.S. Navy at the rank of Captain and from NASA after his Apollo flight, becoming a consultant to CBS News for its coverage of the subsequent Apollo flights. He joined Walter Cronkite as co-anchor for the seven Moon landing missions.

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Always that sibling rivalry.

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After the Apollo 1 crew was lost, we said that we wore a black armband for a few weeks, and we wear it in our hearts forever.

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John's going to get some unbelievable surprises, ... Some people get quite sick in space and it's quite normal. It's not a macho thing -- it's something that can happen.

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I liked that the book brought von Braun to the surface. People didn't know much about him. He was a very gracious man who did some amazing things.

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The Real Space Cowboys.

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[Still] Jolly Wally, ... delighted that John is going up, instead of me. He needs the flying time, I don't. I even gave up my pilot's license. Can't afford it.

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[Along with a gallery of photos displayed throughout, the book comes with a DVD that has save-for-your-grandchildren moments, like a mini-documentary on Shepard's first flight, as well as some whimsical moments with elaborate practical jokes.] Levity is lubricant of crises, ... gotcha.

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This morning I drove the back roads to our Mercury launch pad, Complex Fourteen. There was a plaque with all our names on it. Now anyone who is happy to see his name engraved in marble really has something to worry about.

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