Astronaut Walt Cunningham has died.

[Antares JS]

Two hours ago, the NASA Watch Twitter account posted that Walt Cunningham has died. This is the only place I have seen this news so far, but it's not unreasonable to assume it's true. Just note that there is a small chance this news is incorrect since there is only one source claiming it thus far.

Walt Cunningham was the Apollo 7 LMP. Apollo 7 was the first manned Apollo flight and performed the mission of Apollo 1: testing the command module in Earth orbit. It was his only flight into space. He was the last surviving crew member of Apollo 7, which joins Apollos 12 and 14 in having no remaining living crew.

Remaining Apollo astronauts, with their mission and position:

Frank Borman, CDR 8
Jim Lovell, CMP 8, CDR 13
Bill Anders, LMP 8
Dave Scott*, CMP 9, CDR 15
Rusty Schweickart, LMP 9
Tom Stafford, CDR 10, CDR ASTP
Buzz Aldrin*, LMP 11
Fred Haise, LMP 13
Ken Mattingly, CMP 16
Charlie Duke*, LMP 16
Harrison Schmitt*, LMP 17
Joseph Kerwin, Science Pilot, Skylab 2
Jack Lousma, Pilot, Skylab 3
Edward Gibson, Science Pilot, Skylab 4
Vance Brand, CMP ASTP

* - Walked on the moon

 

[Hobie1dog]

nothing comes up on Google about it.

 

[Antares JS]

nothing comes up on Google about it.

I pointed out at the beginning of the post that I only saw this in NASA Watch's twitter feed. It may just be that other news hasn't picked up on it yet or is still putting their stories together, but there is a chance it may not be true. I don't consider that likely though. If it comes out that it's mistaken though, I will say so.

You can see the tweet by scrolling down here until you see the twitter feed on the right side. As of this writing, the tweet reporting Cunningham's death is the second from the top.

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/

 

[CalebJ]

I pointed out at the beginning of the post that I only saw this in NASA Watch's twitter feed. It may just be that other news hasn't picked up on it yet or is still putting their stories together, but there is a chance it may not be true. I don't consider that likely though. If it comes out that it's mistaken though, I will say so.

You can see the tweet by scrolling down here until you see the twitter feed on the right side. As of this writing, the tweet reporting Cunningham's death is the second from the top.

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/

 

[Antares JS]

NPR.

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/03/517135016/nasa-apollo-astronaut-walt-cunningham-died

 

[Curtis Enlow]

As a 60's space kid who dulled my Mom's kitchen knives carving cardboard boxes into Mercury capsules I would play in for hours there is something very odd and sad about living long enough to see all your heroes pass away.

 

[fyrwrxz]

If you ignore the national paranoia that drove the "space race" it was a daring time establishing incremental goals ultimately leading to the lunar landings. I agree with Curtis that living this long is a bit harder on us 'rocket kids" than it is for the ones borne after the lunar landings. I knew Pete Conrad personally and was devastated when he died in a motorcycle crash. Of course, all the national press hype contributed to our idolatry, but in the end, they were still human, representing our species reaching for the stars. When you have the generation that accepts as fact there will be a Star Trek" version of space exploration in the future, they tend to discount all the steps we as a country took to get to the moon. Indeed, public sentiment echoed all the way up as the enthusiasm diminished and funding was cut. We could have and should have gone back sooner. Now, with SpaceX, driving the main exoatmospheric goals and objectives, some of the objections and pork barreling has been eliminated, leaving more room for more science. I may not agree with a lot of Musk's plans but the fact of the matter is now he is the elephant in the room. Kudos to all those brilliant "kids" and their laptops on Costco folding tables to bring the reusable boosters to fruition. We will never have such a nucleus of "heroes" like my generation grew up with. Kinda sad in way, but also encouraging we have become more democratic if you have the qualifications. The dreams are still there. I hope our generation can still honour and share those. Ad Astra.

 

[Antares JS]

Remaining Apollo astronauts, with their mission and position:

Frank Borman, CDR 8
Jim Lovell, CMP 8, CDR 13
Bill Anders, LMP 8
Dave Scott*, CMP 9, CDR 15
Rusty Schweickart, LMP 9
Tom Stafford, CDR 10, CDR ASTP
Buzz Aldrin*, LMP 11
Fred Haise, LMP 13
Ken Mattingly, CMP 16
Charlie Duke*, LMP 16
Harrison Schmitt*, LMP 17
Joseph Kerwin, Science Pilot, Skylab 2
Jack Lousma, Pilot, Skylab 3
Edward Gibson, Science Pilot, Skylab 4
Vance Brand, CMP ASTP

* - Walked on the moon

I was just thinking about this today and did a quick roll-call via google and no one else has died yet... but I thought to check one other thing, and it turns out the youngest of these guys is Edward Gibson at age 86.

Bit of trivia... The only missions from Mercury to Skylab with all crew still living are Gemini 7, Gemini 12, and Apollo 8. Jim Lovell flew all three of those missions with Frank Borman, Buzz Aldrin, and Frank Borman again with Bill Anders, respectively.