Walter Marty Schirra Jr. (/ʃɜːˈrɑː/ shur-AH; March 12, 1923 – May 3, 2007) was an American naval aviator, test pilot, and NASA astronaut.

On October 3, 1962, he flew the six-orbit, nine-hour, Mercury-Atlas 8 mission, in a spacecraft he nicknamed Sigma 7, becoming the fifth American and ninth human to travel into space.

Before becoming an astronaut, Schirra graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1945, and served at sea during World War II.

In 1948, he became a naval aviator, served as a fighter pilot and flew 90 combat missions in the Korean War, and then in 1958 he graduated from the U.S.

[5]: 16–20 After he completed training, Schirra received his naval aviator wings in 1948 and joined Fighter Squadron 71 (VF-71) at Quonset Point, Rhode Island.

Schirra was deployed to the Mediterranean aboard the aircraft carrier USS Midway at the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950.

[5]: 21–27 Schirra was initially deployed with the 154th Fighter-Bomber Squadron to Itazuke Air Force Base in Japan, from where he flew missions into South Korea.

At China Lake, he tested various weapons systems, including becoming the first pilot to fly with and fire the Sidewinder missile.

He was assigned to Miramar Naval Air Station to test the newest Navy jet fighter, the F7U Cutlass.

After a deployment to Asia aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lexington and aviation safety training with the University of Southern California (USC), he was accepted to the U.S.

[5]: 33–43 Schirra was a member of Class 20 at the Naval Test Pilot School, along with future fellow astronauts Jim Lovell and Pete Conrad, where he learned to fly numerous aircraft, including the F4D Skyray, the F11F Tiger, and the F8U Crusader.

After graduation, Schirra became a test pilot at Naval Air Station Patuxent River and learned to fly the F4H Phantom to determine if it could become a carrier-based aircraft.

Scott Carpenter and Schirra flew F-106 Delta Dart chase planes during Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 suborbital mission.

After the navigation issues during Carpenter's Aurora 7 mission, NASA and Schirra focused on the engineering and human factors in manually operating the capsule.

Sigma 7 landed 5 miles (8.0 km) from the recovery ship, the aircraft carrier USS Kearsarge, in the central Pacific Ocean.

After Schirra returned to the US, he and his family were invited to the Oval Office at the White House to meet President Kennedy on October 16.

Following the rendezvous, Gemini 6A deorbited on December 16 and was recovered in the Atlantic ocean southeast of Cape Canaveral by the USS Wasp.

[5]: 157–168 [11]: 50–76 While on the Gemini mission, Schirra played a Christmas practical joke on the flight controllers by first reporting a mock UFO (implying Santa Claus) sighting, then playing "Jingle Bells" on a four-hole Hohner harmonica he had smuggled on board, accompanied by Stafford on sleigh bells.

This became Apollo 7 in the program's revised mission numbering plan, and was delayed until the fall of 1968 while safety improvements were made to the Command Module.

[5]: 180–193 Schirra had gained a sense of security from having Guenter Wendt, a McDonnell Aircraft employee, as the pad leader responsible for the spacecraft's launch readiness.

[5]: 195 [13] However, Schirra was prevented from naming his spacecraft Phoenix in honor of the Apollo 1 crew, because some believed that its nickname as a metaphor for "fire" might be misunderstood.

Prior to launch, Schirra had objected because of high winds, which could have injured the astronauts in the event of an abort within the first minute of the mission.

Anticipating issues with congestion inside of a sealed spacesuit, Schirra proposed to Mission Control that they would not wear their helmets during reentry.

[5]: 206–209 [8] Prior to the Apollo 7 launch, Schirra had decided to retire after the flight,[16] and left the NASA Astronaut Corps on July 1, 1969.

[8] A combination of pseudoephedrine decongestant with triprolidine antihistamine was the cold medicine carried on board the Apollo missions and prescribed by the flight surgeon.

[19] He also worked to develop an Alaskan oil pipeline[5]: 218–221 [20] and was a member of an advisory board for U.S. National Parks in the Department of the Interior from 1973 to 1985.

It describes five decades of Naval aviation, including accounts of combat tours in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

[40] Schirra, a fellow of Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP), received its Iven C. Kincheloe Award in 1963 along with the other six Mercury astronauts.