Wally Schirra, one of the original Project Mercury astronauts, dies at 84

[groovychk]

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Bloomberg.com: U.S.
May 3 (Bloomberg) — Walter M. “Wally” Schirra, one of the original Project Mercury astronauts, died today in California, almost a half-century after joining the program that sent the first Americans into space. He was 84.

NASA’s Kennedy Space Center confirmed Schirra’s death. He was the only astronaut to fly in the first three U.S. space programs: Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.

The U.S. chose Schirra and Alan Shepard Jr., John Glenn, Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper and D.K. Slayton as the first seven astronauts for its Project Mercury program. Grissom died in 1967, Slayton in 1993, Shepard in 1998 and Cooper in 2004.

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Sad. All these pioneers are dying off and we are rolling ever further backwards. It’s well over forty years since these guys did their thing and where are we now?