Without his pivotal work, humans may have never landed on the Moon.
NASA
At 90 years old, former astronaut Walter Cunningham died this month.
He was the last living member of the Apollo 7 crew.
Along with fellow astronauts Walter Schirra Jr. and Donn Eisele, he spent almost 11 days in orbit around Earth.
HUM Images/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
It was the first time after the Apollo 1 disaster that NASA attempted to launch a crewed flight into space.
Here are 10 key moments from Cunningham’s time on Apollo 7:
10. Cunningham (left) poses with Schirra and Eisele for an official portrait.
9. A few months before launch, the crew ran through their post-splashdown rescue procedure in the Gulf of Mexico.
6. The second stage of the Saturn IB rocket that carried the crew into space drifts over Earth after separating from the crew module.
3. Cunningham gazes upward in this pensive portrait from orbit.
2. After a successful splashdown on October 22, 1968, the crew was hoisted into a helicopter and taken to the USS Essex.