At the peak of Walter’s life he was selected to be on the mercury seven mission in NASA during April of 1959 and became one of the seven original Mercury astronauts. During that mission all of the men piloted at some point in orbit. Walter was also apart of other missions which included Gemini 6a, Apollo 7, and Sigma 7 throughout his career at NASA. In fact, during 1963, Walter was appointed to pilot the six orbit Sigma 7 mercury flight that was in space for approximately 9-hours and 15 minutes which at that time has been the longest U.S manned flight and helped win the Space Race which was going on between the United States and The Soviet Union during that time. Shortly after, he became the command pilot on the Gemini III mission and on that …show more content…
Although, he lived a normal life his parents did not they were “barnstormers” which means that they were daredevil pilots who gave impromptu shows throughout the United States (nmSpace). His parents career in being pilots some say pushed Walter to lean towards Engineering and being a pilot, which showed when he attended Newark College of Engineering now known as New Jersey Institute of Technology but not long after that helped him get appointed to the U.S Naval Academy in 1942. Before he became apart of NASA, he went through ten years of training known as the Astronaut Training which was funded and created by NASA and it helped them create great astronauts. Amongst his time at NASA, he went back to school many times like Lafayette College to get his doctorate in Astronautical Engineering, Science at U.S.C, and Astronautics at New Jersey Institute of Technology all in 1969 after his Mercury mission. Throughout his life he has been honored by many Colleges but some of the biggest honors included Trustee of Detroit Institute of Technology and National College, South Dakota after that he was honored as an Advisor at Colorado State University (jsc.NASA). Also he was a member of the Belgian Consul of Colorado and on the board for the Department of Interior's Advisory Board on National parks …show more content…
Not long after receiving his wings he served as a Navy fighter for about 3 years, then decided to volunteer for the Korean War as an exchange pilot which earned him a Distinguished Flying Cross for his accomplishments at the time of the war. Once the Korean War was over, he decided to take a break from combat and became a testing pilot at the Naval Weapons Center, in which he helped in the development of the Sidewinder air-to-air missile and at the time of the development was appointed the chief test pilot (nmSpace). After being a test pilot for a year or so, he started to fly for the USS Lexington and soon after graduated from Naval Test Pilot School in 1958, and during his time there he logged 4,577 hours of flight time and 267 carrier landings (NASA).
Throughout his life, Walter has won many awards during his time in the military and NASA like the Distinguished Service Medal, Air Medal, and Exceptional Service Medal. Even though he won all of those awards, the biggest accomplishment for him was being inducted to the International Aviation Hall of Fame in 1970 and it didn’t end there he also got inducted to New Jersey Aviation Hall of Fame and soon after the International Space Hall of Fame (NASA). After