Transcript:

Schirra: Space Pioneer ambience: NASA Ground Control: Space jargon We're listening to a recording of the Apollo 7 flight, commanded by astronaut Wally Schirra the only astronaut to have flown in Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Schirra: The lightning looks like a big blob rather than a jagged streak we're used to seeing when earthbound. It just looks like an anti-aircraft shot. A big blob of bright light and then it fades out almost instantaneously. That's Wally Schirra speaking while orbiting the earth on October 3, 1962 in the Mercury 8 space capsule. Schirra's flight made landmark contributions to long term operation of a spacecraft. Some of his recommendations came during post flight debriefings and others were made on the fly. Schirra: (from Mercury 8): In future flights, they must have some catch all device that we can stuff objects into and have them trapped there for a period of time. All in all, from 1962 to 1968 Schirra logged a total of 295 hours in space. That experience left him with questions about the future of space exploration. Schirra: We of course loss muscular tone, or the muscles atrophied. There was some evidence apparently on other flights where potassium was lost. Well these make one wonder whether the human could adapt to long time in space. It's of course the lack of gravity that causes this. And with that, one than ponders about whether we can take a trip to Mars and back, a one year trip, without some form of gravity being induced. Astronaut Wally Schirra. NASA and other space agencies have spent many years investigating the problem of bone loss in space, with solutions ranging from exercise to drugs and supplements. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.