It's sad to hear the news that Wally Schirra, one of the original seven Mercury astronauts, has died at the age of 84.
Schirra was the only astronaut to have flown on projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. I mostly remember him for working as Walter Cronkite's sidekick during broadcasts of spaceflights. I can remember coming home from school and racing to the TV and watching the two of them explain exactly what was happening way up there as an Apollo mission unfolded. The only special effects at their disposal were a few plastic models they could hold in their hands, but they did a great job of making it all understandable. The networks can dress up broadcasts with all kinds of animations now, but they'll never be as interesting and entertaining as Walter Cronkite and Wally Schirra.
There's one other great thing I remember about Schirra. When I was in third grade I bought a Hohner Old Standby harmonica at a music store, and it came with a booklet published by Hohner. I can still remember reading a little article about how an astronaut had smuggled a harmonica aboard a Gemini capsule and a Hohner harmonica had been the first musical instrument played in space.
History will always record that the most far out harmonica of 1965 wasn't played by Dylan during the Highway 61 Revisited sessions. It was by Wally Schirra aboard Gemini 6. On December 16, 1965, to the surprise and consternation of mission control, he played "Jingle Bells" on a miniature Hohner harmonica, as his colleague Tom Stafford shook some bells. The first musical instruments played in space reside today at the National Air and Space Museum.
Crossposted from
Snaking the Drain