On 11 October 1968, Walter Cunningham, who has died aged 90, and his fellow crew members, Wally Schirra and Donn Eisele, became the first astronauts to fly in an Apollo spacecraft. Cunningham was only the second American civilian in space – Neil Armstrong had been the first. Their vehicle was Apollo 7, which Cunningham regarded as providing the first of the five highly successful “giant steps” – Apollos 8, 9 and 10 provided the next three – that culminated, 10 months later, with Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, from Apollo 11, making the first moon landing.
The first Apollo mission, Apollo 1, had ended catastrophically in January 1967 when its three crew members were incinerated during a launchpad rehearsal, and the following missions were unmanned. But by October 1968, while the US was convulsed with anti-Vietnam war and civil rights protests, Apollo 7 was orbiting faultlessly some 187 miles above, and the astronauts were testing modules for the moon landing. However, Apollo 7 was not a happy ship. “The only thing that wasn’t working smoothly was the crew,” observed their fellow astronaut Tom Stafford.
