  As author of LAUNCH Magazine's Viewpoint column, former Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham is known for straight talk—a trait sorely missing in today’s world of political correctness. Cunningham’s unquestioned credibility on matters involving space, science, the military, finance and corporate management stems from 45 years of experience accumulated during separate careers in the United States Marine Corps, NASA and private industry.
Since 1971, Cunningham has been in private business in Houston—where he has served as president of two engineering companies, each with extensive overseas operations, and as vice president of operations for one of the largest commercial property developers in the U. S. He is also the former president of an interactive voice response company, and has been involved in the start-up and early stage development of more than 30 companies and financial institutions. In addition, he served as host of Lift-off to Logic, a radio talk show in Houston.
A former Marine Corps fighter pilot, Cunningham is best known as one of the nation’s pioneering astronauts. In 1967, he served as a member of the Apollo 1 fire investigation board, and in 1968 he orbited the Earth 163 times as the pilot of Apollo 7—the first manned Apollo flight. Following that mission, he became Chief of the Skylab Astronauts.
Cunningham presently holds the rank of Colonel, USMCR, Retired, with 4,500 hours of flying time, including 263 hours in space. He has a Master's Degree in Physics from UCLA and is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Business. A member of the Astronaut Hall of Fame, he is author of The All American Boys, a book about the human side of the space program. For more details on Walt Cunningham’s career, visit www.waltercunningham.com.
And click below to read Cunningham’s Viewpoint columns that have appeared in LAUNCH, along with an in-depth interview published by the magazine.
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“On the plains of hesitation lie the bones of countless millions, who, at the dawn of victory sat down to rest, and resting, died.” —George W. Cecil Before we know it, 2010 will be here. Hundreds of thousands will be flocking to Florida for a view of the liftoff of the last mission of the space shuttle. On its return to Earth, the orbiter will be grounded—permanently. NASA’s resources will be devoted to the Constellation Program and development of the Ares rocket and the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV). An American astronaut will not be going into space on an American spacecraft again until 2015, assuming policy changes, funding, presidential elections, and any number of other unknowns don’t push the date back further. The road map for the early demise of the Space Shuttle was laid out in a 2004 private report, “Extending Human Presence into the Solar System,” issued by a Planetary Society committee, chaired by Mike Griffin. The committee, which included several astronauts, recommended as few as 10 launches before grounding the shuttle. The following year, now NASA administrator, Mike Griffin, was executing that plan, albeit with a few additional missions. The self-inflicted hiatus is driven partially by fear of the space shuttle, but mostly by the unwillingness of Congress and the American public to adequately fund manned spaceflight. Timing for terminating the Shuttle and ramping up the Constellation program seems to be driven by the Office of Management and Budget, even though NASA’s share of the Federal Budget is a miniscule one-seventh of its peak in the 60s. |
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