RIP Wally Schirra
May 3, 2007 3:23 PM Subscribe
RIP Wally Schirra, 1923-2007. One of the original Mercury Seven "Right Stuff" astronauts (just two left now), Schirra flew on Sigma 7, Gemini 7, and Apollo 7. From there on, it's stationkeeping.
. and hooah.
posted by adamgreenfield at 3:30 PM on May 3, 2007
posted by adamgreenfield at 3:30 PM on May 3, 2007
They take Sudafed off the shelf and Wally Schirra winds up dead. Conincidence?
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 3:41 PM on May 3, 2007
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 3:41 PM on May 3, 2007
Crikey. I was just watching we We Have Cleared The Tower last night.
posted by veedubya at 3:41 PM on May 3, 2007
posted by veedubya at 3:41 PM on May 3, 2007
I've long had The Right Stuff on my Gotta See list, but I never seem to get around to it. Maybe this is the time to do it.
posted by spock at 4:01 PM on May 3, 2007
posted by spock at 4:01 PM on May 3, 2007
I've long had The Right Stuff on my Gotta See list, but I never seem to get around to it. Maybe this is the time to do it.
Schirra's barely in the movie. Of the seven astronauts, the focus is mainly on Shepard, Grissom, Glenn and Cooper; Carpenter, Schirra and Slayton are essentially spear carriers, IIRC.
posted by mcwetboy at 4:32 PM on May 3, 2007
Schirra's barely in the movie. Of the seven astronauts, the focus is mainly on Shepard, Grissom, Glenn and Cooper; Carpenter, Schirra and Slayton are essentially spear carriers, IIRC.
posted by mcwetboy at 4:32 PM on May 3, 2007
The Right Stuff is great, but mcwetboy's right.
posted by kirkaracha at 4:39 PM on May 3, 2007
posted by kirkaracha at 4:39 PM on May 3, 2007
Chuck Yeager's going to outlive them all.
posted by kisch mokusch at 4:50 PM on May 3, 2007
posted by kisch mokusch at 4:50 PM on May 3, 2007
When you look at the picture of them pulling him out of that old Sigma capsule you can see why they deserve every gram of respect they get, and more.
Look at how small it is, how primative his suit was. Sure, it was bleeding edge technology for 1965, but it wasn't really good enough and every one of those astronauts knew it. Hell, they were all polymath geniuses, and a lot of them were in on the design of the damn things.
Knowing perfectly well that the technology wasn't really up to what they were trying, knowing perfectly well that unpredictable and unknown environmental factors could kill them, and knowing that the entire space program was being done wrong, as a race not a proper exploration program, they still went up in those tinkertoys, and they made them work.
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posted by sotonohito at 5:07 PM on May 3, 2007 [3 favorites]
Look at how small it is, how primative his suit was. Sure, it was bleeding edge technology for 1965, but it wasn't really good enough and every one of those astronauts knew it. Hell, they were all polymath geniuses, and a lot of them were in on the design of the damn things.
Knowing perfectly well that the technology wasn't really up to what they were trying, knowing perfectly well that unpredictable and unknown environmental factors could kill them, and knowing that the entire space program was being done wrong, as a race not a proper exploration program, they still went up in those tinkertoys, and they made them work.
.
posted by sotonohito at 5:07 PM on May 3, 2007 [3 favorites]
RIP, Schirra. Astronauts passing weirds me out for some reason. The day Armstrong goes is going to be really strange.
posted by jonmc at 5:46 PM on May 3, 2007
posted by jonmc at 5:46 PM on May 3, 2007
At NASA-Ames they have the Mercury Redstone 1A capsule that you can check out. It is amazing that people went up in things like it in the 60s. It really looks like something next to the old tube tester in the back of a Radio Shack. Bare wires, toggle switches,
MR-1A was unmanned, but it broke a window when it splash landed.
posted by bottlebrushtree at 6:29 PM on May 3, 2007
MR-1A was unmanned, but it broke a window when it splash landed.
posted by bottlebrushtree at 6:29 PM on May 3, 2007
.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 6:45 PM on May 3, 2007
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 6:45 PM on May 3, 2007
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posted by gergtreble at 7:01 PM on May 3, 2007
posted by gergtreble at 7:01 PM on May 3, 2007
sotonohito's comment is right on. These guys had cast iron balls, and each of them represented the pinnacle of ability in their field.
Good on ya, Wally.
posted by popechunk at 7:20 PM on May 3, 2007
Good on ya, Wally.
posted by popechunk at 7:20 PM on May 3, 2007
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posted by Smart Dalek at 7:38 PM on May 3, 2007
posted by Smart Dalek at 7:38 PM on May 3, 2007
Call me cynical, but I could count on one finger the number of you who knew this name before today.
posted by rhizome23 at 7:42 PM on May 3, 2007
posted by rhizome23 at 7:42 PM on May 3, 2007
Call me cynical, but I could count on one finger the number of you who knew this name before today.
You are cynical, and you are wrong. Many people may not have, but there are still many who look back at those who then and now risked their lives for perhaps the greatest of all reasons: to discover.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 7:50 PM on May 3, 2007
You are cynical, and you are wrong. Many people may not have, but there are still many who look back at those who then and now risked their lives for perhaps the greatest of all reasons: to discover.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 7:50 PM on May 3, 2007
rhizome23, you're just totally wrong about that. I won't call you cynical, I'll call you provincial if you think most of us are young enough or uneducated enough not to know who Wally Schirra is.
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posted by LobsterMitten at 7:56 PM on May 3, 2007
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posted by LobsterMitten at 7:56 PM on May 3, 2007
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Wally Schirra never made it to the moon, but he broke trail for those who did.
One day all too soon, not a single person will be alive who walked on the moon. What a sad coda to the "can do" pioneer spirit that made America great. (Yeah, yeah, the whole moon program was cynically designed to show off out missile capabilities, awe the world and confound the Soviets. But we could have made it mean something real and lasting, and we failed.)
posted by orthogonality at 8:11 PM on May 3, 2007 [1 favorite]
Wally Schirra never made it to the moon, but he broke trail for those who did.
One day all too soon, not a single person will be alive who walked on the moon. What a sad coda to the "can do" pioneer spirit that made America great. (Yeah, yeah, the whole moon program was cynically designed to show off out missile capabilities, awe the world and confound the Soviets. But we could have made it mean something real and lasting, and we failed.)
posted by orthogonality at 8:11 PM on May 3, 2007 [1 favorite]
I stumbled into the aerospace industry by accident, a grad student fleeing academia at a time when jobs in my field were scarce. When I was young I was smitten by space, but had grown up and left behind my dreams. Having now fulfilled them, albeit in half-measure, is thrilling beyond belief.
And then I remember what the seven men of Astronaut Group 1 did and think, damn, how small my achievement and how amazing and wonderful and terribly frightening their deeds.
Gus, Deke, Alan, Gordo, and now Wally -- godspeed and god bless.
.
posted by sgranade at 8:13 PM on May 3, 2007
And then I remember what the seven men of Astronaut Group 1 did and think, damn, how small my achievement and how amazing and wonderful and terribly frightening their deeds.
Gus, Deke, Alan, Gordo, and now Wally -- godspeed and god bless.
.
posted by sgranade at 8:13 PM on May 3, 2007
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posted by longsleeves at 9:29 PM on May 3, 2007
posted by longsleeves at 9:29 PM on May 3, 2007
Schirra's barely in the movie.
Well, it was a book, first, which wasn't edited for running time. The movie is good at evoking the era and a fine viewing experience, but the book is actually a masterpiece of its era and genre. Tom Wolfe, doncha know.
posted by dhartung at 9:34 PM on May 3, 2007
Well, it was a book, first, which wasn't edited for running time. The movie is good at evoking the era and a fine viewing experience, but the book is actually a masterpiece of its era and genre. Tom Wolfe, doncha know.
posted by dhartung at 9:34 PM on May 3, 2007
rhizome23, you're wrong.
RIP Wally Schirra - you're a hero in my book.
posted by Space Kitty at 10:53 PM on May 3, 2007
RIP Wally Schirra - you're a hero in my book.
posted by Space Kitty at 10:53 PM on May 3, 2007
Yeah, The Right Stuff, the book, is genius, both a great story, and at times amazingly funny, as I remember (it's been ages since I read it).
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 11:58 PM on May 3, 2007
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 11:58 PM on May 3, 2007
rhizome23 I'm a space freak. I know the names of all the original US astronauts, and I can usually remember quite a bit about the missions they flew. Can't speak for anyone else of course, but I'll bet that I'm far from the only one here who knows all the names and what they did.
posted by sotonohito at 3:48 AM on May 4, 2007
posted by sotonohito at 3:48 AM on May 4, 2007
I grew up in the sixties when every manned launch was a major news event. I can't believe there are only two of the original seven astronauts left; they are the sort of legendary figures I just figured would kinda be around forever. This atheist seconds all the "godspeed" comments.
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posted by TedW at 3:51 AM on May 4, 2007
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posted by TedW at 3:51 AM on May 4, 2007
rhizome23: Yeah, it's cynical, and yeah, you're right that a lot of people probably didn't know or remember who he was until he passed. But you know what? To the people that did know who he was, and the others before him, we worship the ground those men walked on and aspire to lead lives as great as theirs.
posted by tgrundke at 5:12 AM on May 4, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by tgrundke at 5:12 AM on May 4, 2007 [1 favorite]
I can't believe there are only two of the original seven astronauts left
And the last two are in their 80s. John Glenn, born 1921, the third American in space, probably will be next to go, leaving Malcolm Carpenter, born 1925, the fourth American in space, as the last Mercury astronaut alive.
It's been almost 50 years since Sputnik.
posted by pracowity at 5:32 AM on May 4, 2007
And the last two are in their 80s. John Glenn, born 1921, the third American in space, probably will be next to go, leaving Malcolm Carpenter, born 1925, the fourth American in space, as the last Mercury astronaut alive.
It's been almost 50 years since Sputnik.
posted by pracowity at 5:32 AM on May 4, 2007
rhizome23: Not to snark, but I remember Schirra (and Slayton, Grissom, Carpenter, among others). But then, I'm old, and have a dad who worked on the LEM. Yet I do understand your cynicism. My older brother used to joke about Apollo 13. He was talking with some twenty-something "kids" and they said something like, "Yeah, I remember that." Meaning the movie.
Anyway... Ditto what sotonohito said. Goodbye to a real hero.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 6:35 AM on May 4, 2007
Anyway... Ditto what sotonohito said. Goodbye to a real hero.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 6:35 AM on May 4, 2007
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posted by seawallrunner at 8:15 AM on May 4, 2007
posted by seawallrunner at 8:15 AM on May 4, 2007
Thanks Wally.
*tips hat*
.
(and yes I knew who he was before his passing, but if his passing serves to educate a few more about this period of exploration in world history, he has provided one more service.)
And read the book before seeing the movie (Right Stuff.) From what I understand Wolfe had far more material than was put into the book - he continued into the Apollo program. I have no idea if that is true or not, but if it is anything like the material in the book I wish it would be published.
posted by fluffycreature at 10:54 AM on May 4, 2007
.
posted by languagehat at 2:19 PM on May 4, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by languagehat at 2:19 PM on May 4, 2007 [1 favorite]
.
I remember the launch, in glorious snowy black-and-white.
posted by pemungkah at 3:08 PM on May 4, 2007
I remember the launch, in glorious snowy black-and-white.
posted by pemungkah at 3:08 PM on May 4, 2007
Time to put another leaf in the table, Yuri.
Still, I bet it's good to welcome home a comrade who got the chance to be an old man.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:53 PM on May 4, 2007
Still, I bet it's good to welcome home a comrade who got the chance to be an old man.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:53 PM on May 4, 2007
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posted by saladpants at 11:11 PM on May 4, 2007
posted by saladpants at 11:11 PM on May 4, 2007
Apollo 7 launched on my birthday. This was the shakedown cruise, to prove that the damn thing worked. Test pilots? The Apollo 7 crew were the test pilots FOR the test pilots. Wally, Eisele and Cunningham were the bad-asses among the bad-asses, the steely-eyed missile men.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 11:40 PM on May 4, 2007
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 11:40 PM on May 4, 2007
Add me as another person who knew who Schirra was. I wasn't alive for his first flight, but I do remember him as one of the news commentators with Cronkite on the later Apollo missions.
Hope there's a corned beef sandwich waiting for him.
posted by quartzcity at 8:57 PM on May 5, 2007
Hope there's a corned beef sandwich waiting for him.
posted by quartzcity at 8:57 PM on May 5, 2007
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