The last surviving Apollo 7 astronaut has died at the age of 90. A NASA spokesperson confirmed Walter Cunningham’s death Tuesday to The Associated Press.
Cunningham was one of three astronauts aboard the 1968 Apollo 7 mission, an 11-day spaceflight that beamed live television broadcasts as they orbited Earth. It was NASA’s first successful crewed space and paved the way for the moon landing less than a year later.
Cunningham, then a civilian, crewed the mission, which launched from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, Florida, on Oct. 11 and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean south of Bermuda.