October 3, 1962: The Flight of Wally Schirra

October 3, 1962: Wally Schirra flies into space as one of the "Mercury Seven" astronauts.

Walter Marty Schirra was born on March 12, 1923 in Hackensack, New Jersey, and grew up in Oradell, also in Bergen County. He went to the Newark College of Engineering, and, after America's entry into World War II, he was accepted into the U.S. Navy Academy, graduating in time to serve in the final days of the Pacific Theater of the War.

(A personal note: My father was also from North Jersey, from Newark, and also attended NCE, and was always fascinated by space travel, real and imagined. And he did serve during wartime, in the Army during the Vietnam era. But he never became a pilot, military or civilian. In 1975, NCE merged with the New Jersey College of Architecture to form the New Jersey Institute of Technology, NJIT.)

Schirra flew fighter jets in the Korean War, was accepted as 1 of America's 1st 7 astronauts, and had the rank of Captain when he flew aboard the Mercury-Atlas 8 mission, named Sigma 7 in connection with his engineering background. He completed 6 orbits, in a flight that lasted a little over 9 hours.

He was the 1st person to go into space 3 times, and was the only astronaut to serve on each of NASA's 1st 3 Projects: Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. He flew on Gemini 6A with Thomas P. Stafford on December 15, 1965; and commanded Apollo 7, with Donn Eisele and Walter Cunningham, on October 11, 1968.

He became a consultant for CBS News, sitting at the anchor desk with Walter Cronkite for all subsequent Apollo missions, including Apollo 11. In the 1983 film The Right Stuff, he was played by Lance Henriksen. He died on May 3, 2007, at the age of 84.

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October 3, 1962 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that the Giants beat the Dodgers in a Playoff for the National League Pennant again -- this time on the West Coast, and at the Dodgers' home. At Dodger Stadium, San Francisco wins the rubber game, beating Los Angeles, 6-4. I have a separate entry for this event.

Football was in midweek. The NHL season wouldn't start for another 7 days, the NBA season for another 13 days. 

And Tommy Lee, the drummer for heavy metal band Mötley Crüe, was born.