Walter Cunningham Obituary

Walter Cunningham was an American astronaut, fighter pilot, physicist, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and author.

Walter Cunningham passed away at a hospital in Houston on Tuesday, January 3, 2023, from natural causes at the age of 90.

Walter Cunningham was born in Creston, Iowa, on March 16, 1932.  He was NASA’s third civilian astronaut after Neil Armstrong and Elliot See and he piloted the Apollo 7 lunar module on the 1968 mission.

Walter Cunningham was the last surviving member of the Apollo 7 crew. He became a public speaker and radio host after leaving Nasa in 1971.

Despite scientists’ consensus that humans have contributed to warmer average temperatures on Earth, he became an outspoken denier of human-caused climate change.

In a 1999 interview with Nasa, he described his attitude as an astronaut. “I’m one of those people that never really looked back,” he said.

“All I remember is just kind of keeping my nose to the grindstone and wanting to do the best I could as – I didn’t realize at the time, but that was because I always wanted to be better prepared for the next step,” he continued. “I’ve always been looking to the future. I don’t live in the past.”