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SAN DIEGO --Walter M. Schirra Jr., one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts and the only man to fly on NASA's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, has died. He was 84.
His family said he died of natural causes, David Mould, NASA press secretary in Washington, said today. Mould said he had been suffering from cancer but didn't know if that contributed to the death.
In October 1962, Schirra became the third American to orbit the Earth, encircling the globe six times in a flight that lasted more than nine hours. Americans in space before him were Alan Shepard and Virgil "Gus" Grissom, who flew suborbital flights in 1961, and John Glenn and Scott Carpenter, who orbited Earth earlier in 1962.
Schirra returned to space three years later as commander of Gemini 6 and guided his two-man capsule toward Gemini 7, already in orbit. On Dec. 15, 1965, the two ships came within a few feet of each other as they shot through space, some 185 miles above the Earth. It was the first rendezvous of two spacecraft in orbit.
His third and final space flight in 1968 inaugurated the Apollo program that the following year put men on the moon.
The former Navy test pilot said he initially had little interest when he heard of NASA's Mercury program. But he grew more intrigued over time and the space agency named him one of the Mercury Seven in April 1959.
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His family said he died of natural causes, David Mould, NASA press secretary in Washington, said today. Mould said he had been suffering from cancer but didn't know if that contributed to the death.
In October 1962, Schirra became the third American to orbit the Earth, encircling the globe six times in a flight that lasted more than nine hours. Americans in space before him were Alan Shepard and Virgil "Gus" Grissom, who flew suborbital flights in 1961, and John Glenn and Scott Carpenter, who orbited Earth earlier in 1962.
Schirra returned to space three years later as commander of Gemini 6 and guided his two-man capsule toward Gemini 7, already in orbit. On Dec. 15, 1965, the two ships came within a few feet of each other as they shot through space, some 185 miles above the Earth. It was the first rendezvous of two spacecraft in orbit.
His third and final space flight in 1968 inaugurated the Apollo program that the following year put men on the moon.
The former Navy test pilot said he initially had little interest when he heard of NASA's Mercury program. But he grew more intrigued over time and the space agency named him one of the Mercury Seven in April 1959.
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