- Born
- Died
- Birth nameWalter Marty Schirra Jr.
- Nickname
- Jolly Wally
- Height5′ 10″ (1.78 m)
- Wally Schirra was born on March 12, 1923 in Hackensack, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for Outdoor Rambling (1972), Moonbug (2010) and Bicentennial Minutes (1974). He was married to Josephine Cook Fraser. He died on May 3, 2007 in La Jolla, California, USA.
- SpouseJosephine Cook Fraser(February 23, 1946 - May 3, 2007) (his death, 2 children)
- Selected in 1959 as one of the first astronauts.
- Only astronaut to fly on Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecraft. Flew on MA-8, Gemini 6, and Apollo 7.
- Member of Sigma Pi Fraternity at the Alpha Mu chapter at the Newark College of Engineering (renamed the New Jersey Institute of Technology) Astronaut, Pilot of Mercury-Atlas 8 "Sigma 7" (1962) Command Pilot of Gemini 6 (1965) Commander of Apollo 7 (1968).
- Was a member of NASA's Mercury 7 project, introduced in April 9, 1959, only six months after the agency was established (together with Deke Slayton, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, Gordon Cooper)
- Inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1986.
- [Associated Press interview in April 2007] I left Earth three times. I found no place else to go. Please take care of Spaceship Earth.
- Somebody said ... when you come to within three miles, you've rendezvoused. If anybody thinks they've pulled a rendezvous off at three miles, have fun! This is when we started doing our work. I don't think rendezvous is over until you are stopped - completely stopped - with no relative motion between the two vehicles, at a range of approximately 120 feet. That's rendezvous! From there on, it's station- keeping. That's when you can go back and play the game of driving a car or driving an airplane or pushing a skateboard - it's about that simple.
- [1981 interview about the first space shuttle] Mostly it's lousy out there. It's a hostile environment, and it's trying to kill you. The outside temperature goes from -450 degrees to +300 degrees. You sit in a flying Thermos bottle.
- We went to the moon; it took us about three days at the speed we went there. To go to the sun, I keep kidding about it: At the speed of light, it takes eight minutes, but you have to go at night.
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