Word: schirras
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Apollo 7 whirled through orbit after orbit around the earth last week, the growing monotony of the mission was a major measure of its success. Presented with little challenge from the well-functioning spacecraft, Astronauts Wally Schirra, Walter Cunningham and Donn Eisele fought off ennui as they plodded through the humdrum housekeeping and engineering duties necessary to prove their craft moonworthy. They fired and refired the ship's big rocket engine and practiced sighting stars through a sextant; they tested their computers and cooling system, and transmitted to a ground station the same sort of signals a lunar module...
...adopted by the astronauts, Slayton was required to answer "You bet your sweet ass I am" -or pay the penalty of buying a drink for everyone within earshot. "I have recorded my answer," responded Slayton from the control center, after momentarily switching off his microphone. On one show, Astronauts Schirra and Cunningham suddenly floated up from behind their seats and swam toward the camera, vividly demonstrating the weightlessness of space flight...
...three stars of The Wally, Walt and Donn Show shared equal billing, but each performance, like the flight itself, really belonged to the spacecraft commander, Wally Schirra. The impressive efficiency of Apollo 7 and its crew was fitting tribute to the 45-year-old veteran who is making his last flight...
...everyone who has worked with him is convinced that there are really two Wally Schirras. One will be best remembered for his high jinks in space. On his first mission, he smuggled an unauthorized steak sandwich aboard the spacecraft. In mid-December 1965, during the rendezvous of Gemini 6 and 7, Schirra pulled to within a foot of the other spacecraft and held up a sign for Gemini 7's command pilot, West Point Graduate Frank Borman. It read: "Beat Army." Later, on the same flight, he reported that he had sighted "an object" going into polar orbit. "Stand...
...other Wally Schirra is a meticulous test pilot and engineer. He is an iron-spined Navy captain who has never hesitated to sound off when he is displeased. Early in the space program, he openly criticized John Glenn's NASA-sponsored public relations tours and argued that they had effectively removed Glenn from the program. When it was rumored that NASA might deny Gordon Cooper a Mercury orbital flight, Wally rescued Cooper by threatening to take the issue to the press...