I'm a little late getting to this, but astronaut Wally Schirra passed away last week at the age of 84.
I remember Wally Schirra as Walter Cronkite's right-hand man during the Apollo space flight broadcasts, patiently explaining the details of the mission to CBS News audiences, wiping the tears from his eyes whenever Apollo 11 marked the beginning of an era with its simple message: "Houston, the Eagle has landed."
In later years Schirra appeared on TV commercials and is probably most remembered for hawking the nasal decongestant Actifed.
Schirra was the only astronaut to fly the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecraft.
And the reason he became Walter Cronkite's right-hand man is that he repeatedly refused to obey orders while mission commander of Apollo 7. Schirra and his crew decided to forgo the written flight plan and concentrate on activities that they felt were better suited to testing the design of the spacecraft and the endurance of its crew. All three crewmembers suffered from headcolds while in space, and Schirra and his crew disobeyed a direct order from the NASA flight surgeon to wear their helmets during re-entry, fearing that the excess pressure in their pressurized suits might cause their eardrums to rupture. For this insubordination, Schirra was deemed unfit to fly in space again.
Godspeed, Wally.
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