Walter Cunningham, Apollo 7 Astronaut, Dead at 90

Walter Cunningham, , Apollo 7 Astronaut, , Dead at 90.

Walter Cunningham, , Apollo 7 Astronaut, , Dead at 90.

The death of the civilian astronaut was announced by NASA on Jan.

4.

Cunningham was a member of the three-person crew of Apollo 7.

Apollo 7 was also NASA's first crewed mission to space... .

... following the disastrous capsule fire that claimed the lives of three astronauts preparing for the Apollo 1 mission.

In his 1977 memoir, 'The All American Boys,' Cunningham alluded to the importance of the Apollo 7 flight.

We carried the nation’s hope with us.

, Walter Cunningham, NASA Astronaut, via 'The All American Boys' .

Twenty-one months before, a fire on the very pad from which we launched had killed three of our teammates, Walter Cunningham, NASA Astronaut, via 'The All American Boys' .

One more setback now, and the prospects of landing a man on the moon before 1970 would be gone forever, Walter Cunningham, NASA Astronaut, via 'The All American Boys' .

Apollo 7 was Cunningham's sole mission into space.

I consider it a spectacle I took part in.

I came away thinking there wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle, Walter Cunningham, NASA Astronaut, via 'The New York Times' .

When asked if his experience in space changed his outlook, Cunningham offered a grounded response.

I am a physicist, and everything I encountered in the flight can be explained.

, Walter Cunningham, NASA Astronaut, via 'The New York Times'.

It did not change my view of religion, life, earth.

It had no revelations, Walter Cunningham, NASA Astronaut, via 'The New York Times'