Walter Cunningham

R. Walter Cunningham
NASA Astronaut
Nationality American
Status Retired
Born (1932-03-16) March 16, 1932
Creston, Iowa, U.S.
Other names
 Walter Cunningham
Other occupation
 Fighter pilot, physicist
UCLA, B.A. 1960, M.A. 1961
Rank Colonel, USMCR
Time in space
 10d 20h 08m
Selection 1963 NASA Group 3
Missions Apollo 7
Mission insignia
Retirement August 1, 1971
Awards

Ronnie Walter Cunningham (born March 16, 1932), (Col, USMCR, Ret.), better known as Walter Cunningham, is a retired American astronaut. In 1968, he was a Lunar Module Pilot on the Apollo 7 mission. He was NASA's third civilian astronaut (after Neil Armstrong and Elliot See), and has also been a fighter pilot, physicist, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, author of The All-American Boys, lecturer, and host of the radio show Lift-off to Logic. Walter Cunningham attended UCLA.

Biography

Early life, education and military career

Cunningham was born in Creston, Iowa on March 16, 1932.[1] He graduated from Venice High School in Venice, California.[1]

After high school, Cunningham joined the U.S. Navy in 1951, and began flight training in 1952. He served on active duty as a fighter pilot with the U.S. Marine Corps from 1953 until 1956, flying 54 missions as a night fighter pilot in Korea. From 1956 to 1975 he served in the Marine Corps Reserve program, ultimately retiring at the rank of Colonel.[1]

Cunningham received his B.A. with honors in 1960, and his M.A. with distinction in 1961, both in physics, from the University of California, Los Angeles. He completed all requirements save for the dissertation for a Ph.D. in physics at UCLA during his time at RAND Corporation, where he spent three years prior his NASA selection.[1]

Cunningham during the Apollo 7 mission

NASA career

In October 1963, Cunningham was one of the third group of astronauts selected by NASA. On October 11, 1968, he occupied the Lunar Module Pilot seat for the eleven-day flight of Apollo 7.[1] Although the flight carried no Lunar Module, Cunningham was kept busy with the myriad system tests aboard this first launch of a manned Apollo mission. The crew successfully completed eight tests, including service module engine ignition and measuring the accuracy of the spacecraft systems.[2] Because Schirra, Cunningham, and Eisele ran afoul of NASA management during the flight, none of them were assigned to future missions.[3] He then worked in a management role for Skylab and left NASA in 1971.[1]

He has accumulated more than 4,500 hours of flying time, including more than 3,400 in jet aircraft and 263 hours in space.[1]

Post-NASA career

In 1974, Cunningham graduated from Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program and later worked as a businessman and investor in a number of private ventures.[1]

In 1977, he published The All-American Boys, a reminiscence of his astronaut days.[4] He was also a major contributor and foreword-writer for the 2007 space history book In the Shadow of the Moon.[5]

In 2008, NASA awarded Cunningham the NASA Distinguished Service Medal for his Apollo 7 mission.[6]

He is currently a radio talk show host and public speaker. Cunningham also works as a consultant to start-up technology companies and is chairman of the Texas Aerospace Commission.[1]

Global warming views

Cunningham rejects the scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic global warming (AGW). In 2010, he published a pamphlet titled "Global Warming: Facts versus Faith" in which he states: "The current debate is not unlike Galileo's historic disagreement with the Catholic Church, or the battle over evolution versus creationism. In all three cases, facts are pitted against faith and science against religion. The conflict over global warming has deteriorated into a religious war between true believers in AGW and non-believers, the so-called 'skeptics.'"[7]

In an editorial published in the Houston Chronicle on August 15, 2010, Cunningham argued that the empirical evidence does not support the claims of global warming. The editorial, titled "Climate change alarmists ignore scientific methods", stated his opinion that the global warming debate hinged on four key points. "About 20 years ago," he stated, "a small group of scientists became concerned that temperatures around the Earth were unreasonably high and a threat to humanity. In their infinite wisdom, they decided: 1) that CO2 (carbon dioxide) levels were abnormally high, 2) that higher levels of CO2 were bad for humanity, 3) that warmer temperatures would be worse for the world, and 4) that we are capable of overriding natural forces to control the Earth's temperature. Not one of these presumptions (opinions) has proven to be valid."[8]

Organizations

Cunningham is a member of numerous organizations. He is an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, fellow of the American Astronautical Society, member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, American Geophysical Union, Explorers Club, Sigma Pi Sigma and Sigma Xi, Association of Space Explorers, Houston American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, Aviation Subcommittee, Houston Chamber of Commerce, Earth Awareness Foundation, National Association of Small Business Investment Companies.[9][1]

Awards and honors

Cunningham is a recipient of numerous national and international honors, including:

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 "Walter Cunningham". NASA JSC. July 2014. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo flight". New Mexico Museum of Space History. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  3. ↑ Wade, Mark. "Apollo 7". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  4. ↑ Cunningham, Walter; Herskowitz, Mickey (1977). The All-American Boys. New York: Macmillan Co.
  5. ↑ "In the Shadow of the Moon". University of Nebraska Press. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  6. ↑ "First Apollo flight crew last to be honored". collectSPACE. Retrieved 2008-10-20.
  7. ↑ Cunningham, Walter (2010). Global Warming: Facts versus Faith: One Astronaut's Views (PDF). Chicago, Illinois: The Heartland Institute. p. 2. ISBN 978-1-934791-30-1. Retrieved April 3, 2012.
  8. ↑ Cunningham, Walter (August 15, 2010). "Climate change alarmists ignore scientific methods". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved April 3, 2012.
  9. ↑ "Walter Cunningham's memberships". Walter Cunningham. Retrieved December 14, 2016.

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