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Walter Cunningham
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Walter Cunningham Infographic timeline of NASA's Apollo missions, showing key dates, mission patches, astronaut names, mission achievements, time and distance statistics, and a map of Apollo landing sites on the Moon. Includes milestones such as Apollo 11's first Moon landing, Apollo 13's survival after an explosion, and total moonwalkers and human visitors.
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Edwin E. Aldrin (Buzz Aldrin) stands on the moon, Apollo 11
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In full:
Ronnie Walter Cunningham
Born:
March 16, 1932, Creston, Iowa, U.S.
Died:
January 3, 2023, Houston, Texas (aged 90)
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Walter Cunningham
Walter Cunningham

Walter Cunningham

American astronaut
Also known as: Ronnie Walter Cunningham
Written and fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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History

Walter Cunningham (born March 16, 1932, Creston, Iowa, U.S.—died January 3, 2023, Houston, Texas) was an American astronaut and civilian participant in the Apollo 7 mission (October 11–22, 1968), in which the first crewed flight of Apollo Command and Service modules was made.

Explore the timeline of the Apollo missions that led the United States to land the first humans on the Moon.
Explore the timeline of the Apollo missions that led the United States to land the first humans on the Moon. Timeline and infographic of the Apollo space missions.

Cunningham enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1951 and transferred to the Marine Corps, where he served as a fighter pilot (1953–56). He majored in physics at the University of California, Los Angeles, receiving bachelor’s (1960) and master’s (1961) degrees but abandoning a doctoral program in favor of the crewed space project in 1963. He left the space program in 1971 and became a corporation executive.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Mindy Johnston.
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