Farewell Walt Cunningham, Apollo VII.
Ben Glazier
Owner, Glazier Design Creative Agency. Branding, Graphic and Digital Design.
We are sad to hear that Walt Cunningham has taken his last flight and now lives in the stars and the memories of those he leaves behind. He was the last surviving member of the Apollo VII crew.
Walt was a trailblazer and part of the first manned Apollo Crew that laid the pathway to the Moon. He was allocated the Lunar Module Pilot seat for the eleven-day flight of Apollo VII. Although the experimental flight carried no Lunar Module, Walt was responsible for all spacecraft systems except launch and navigation. Following his Apollo VII mission, Walt went on to head up the Skylab Branch of the Astronaut Office.
We met Walt when we were launching the first set of the official Moon Landing Stamps - 'One Small Step'. He appeared on stage with Dr Brian May, Brian Eno, Buzz Aldrin and many of the other Apollo astronauts.
We created this ground-breaking set of stamps for the Isle of Man Post Office, working with NASA and Apollo Mission leader George Abbey.
Our third stamp in the set featured a view from Apollo 7 of Florida, the location of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (now ‘Cape Kennedy’ Air Force Station). Left of the image, the stamp includes the GPS coordinates of lift-off location and upper right is the date and time of launch. Also included are the names of the crew, Schirra, Eisele and of course Walt Cunningham, and the quote is from Shirra, “look at the sunrise. There you go. That’s the thrill of this business.”
To find out more about the Moonlanding Stamps, visit:
Farewell Walt! per ardua ad astra.