Wally Schirra

Vice President Humphrey praises NASA's "spacemanship" in letter to astronaut Schirra. Today is the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Hubert H. Humphrey. If you don’t remember him, Humphrey was Vice President under Lyndon Johnson. He also nearly won the presidency in 1968—but was beaten by a tiny margin by Richard M. Nixon. (How different would history have been if he had won?) In any case, an Op-Ed piece in today’s New York Times drew my attention to this largely forgotten occasion...Read Full Story

Vice President Humphrey praises NASA's "spacemanship" in letter to astronaut Schirra. Today is the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Hubert H. Humphrey. If you don’t remember him, Humphrey was Vice President under Lyndon Johnson. He also nearly won the presidency in 1968—but was beaten by a tiny margin by Richard M. Nixon. (How different would history have been if he had won?) In any case, an Op-Ed piece in today’s New York Times drew my attention to this largely forgotten occasion...Read Full Story

Wikizines are interactive magazines that anyone can create or edit - and this one is called "Wally Schirra". Here you can find fresh voices and respond in real time. Some members write articles about recent news and trends related to the wikizine's topic, others recount relevant personal stories or share their favorite pictures and video clips. Got an interesting idea or story to share with other members of this wikizine? Well, then put on your journalist's cap and add your own article...Read Full Story

Last week during the blogger fam tour, we had a tremendous tour of the Cosmosphere by the CEO, Chris Orwoll. During our behind the scene tour, he showed us a photo of Guenter Wendt, known as the "Padleader" during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. When he showed us this photo I was instantly reminded of how important so many people are to any project of this magnitude. Those of us outside the industry may not know their names, but they play a critical role. It was Guenter Wendt who...Read Full Story

Wally Schirra was the only astronaut to fly on Mercury, Gemini and Apollo flights. He was the third American into space when he orbited Earth six times in an October 1962 Mercury flight.Read Full Story

March 12, 1923: was born in Hackensack, New Jersey. One of the original Mercury 7 astronauts, Schirra went on to fly in Mercury, Gemini and Apollo, America's first three space programs. He died on May 3, 2007 of a heart attack due to malignant mesothelioma at Scripps Green Hospital in La Jolla, California. Read more about . Image Credits: NASARead Full Story

Eisele: one flight, no book Donn Eisele, an Apollo astronaut, had one flight: Apollo 7. This was the shakedown flight to test out America’s moonship—and put the country back on track after the tragic Apollo 1 fire. Eisele performed his job well on the mission. But he had problems nonetheless which contributed to his short career as an active astronaut. Before the flight, Eisele was distracted. He was having an affair and covering it up poorly. It interfered with his work; at least that...Read Full Story

I don’t know why, but I woke up this morning thinking about Wally Schirra.  Unless you’re older than 50 or just a science geek, you’ve probably never heard of him.  But back in the day, he was well known in America. You see, when the space program first started taking off (pun intended) in the 60s, NASA selected a group of guys to be the first ones in space.  They were called the “Mercury 7″.  The earliest model spaceship was called “Mercury” and there was 7 of them, so…Mercury 7.  Guess it...Read Full Story