Walter Cunningham

Ronnie Walter Cunningham (March 16, 1932 – January 3, 2023) was an American astronaut, fighter pilot, physicist, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and author of the 1977 book The All-American Boys. NASA's third civilian astronaut (after Neil Armstrong and Elliot See), he was a Lunar Module pilot on the Apollo 7 mission in 1968.

Early life, education and military career Cunningham was born in Creston, Iowa, on March 16, 1932. According to Cunningham, he intended to serve as a lieutenant commander in the Naval Air Corps, apparently inspired by a movie around 1940, named by Cunningham as Hell Divers. He graduated from Venice High School in Los Angeles, California, in 1950. The science building is named Cunningham Hall in his honor.

Thereafter, Cunningham continued his education at nearby Santa Monica College, intending to become an architect, From 1956 to 1975, he continued to serve in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, ultimately retiring at the rank of colonel.

Following the Apollo 7 mission, Cunningham went on to head up the Skylab branch of the Astronaut Office at Johnson Space Center from 1968 to 1971. In this role, Cunningham coordinated the operational development, system integration, and habitability of Skylab hardware. In 1974, Cunningham attended Harvard Business School's six-week Advanced Management Program and later worked as a businessman and investor in a number of private ventures. He was also a major contributor to and foreword writer for the 2007 space history book In the Shadow of the Moon. In 2018, Cunningham joined the Back to Space organization as an Astronaut Consultant with the goal of inspiring the next generation to go to Mars.

In 2008, NASA awarded Cunningham the NASA Distinguished Service Medal for his Apollo 7 mission. He became a radio talk-show host and public speaker, worked as a consultant to start-up technology companies, and was chairman of the Texas Aerospace Commission. Cunningham died in Houston on January 3, 2023, at age 90, from complications resulting from a fall.

Global warming views Cunningham rejected the scientific consensus on climate change. His biography page at the Coalition said "Since 2000, he has been writing and speaking out on the hoax that humans are controlling the temperature of the earth." In an editorial published in the Houston Chronicle on August 15, 2010, Cunningham claimed that the empirical evidence did not support global warming. In 2012, he and other former astronauts and NASA employees sent a critical letter to the agency highlighting what they believed to be "unproven assertions that man-made carbon dioxide was a major factor in global warming."

Organizations Cunningham was an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, fellow of the American Astronautical Society, and member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, American Geophysical Union, Explorers Club, Sigma Pi Sigma and Sigma Xi, Association of Space Explorers, CO2 Coalition, Houston American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, Aviation Subcommittee, Houston Chamber of Commerce, Earth Awareness Foundation, and National Association of Small Business Investment Companies.

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

NASA Distinguished Service Medal AIAA Haley Astronautics Award, 1969 U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame, inducted in 2003

In popular culture In the 1998 HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, Cunningham is portrayed by Fredric Lehne.