And now, there are only two.

Wally Schirra died this morning.

He was chosen as one of America's first astronauts, the Mercury Seven. He had the singular distinction of flying on all three of the space programs of the 1960's -- Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. (Gus Grissom would have made it too, but was killed on the launch pad fire of Apollo 1. Alan Shephard would have as well if he hadn't gotten a rare inner ear syndrome that took him off the flight roster for Gemini.)

Schirra's Apollo flight, Apollo 7, was the first flight after the launch pad fire that took the lives of Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. As the flight's commander, Schirra was determined that the flight would run absolutely by the book. He and his crew, Walt Cunningham and Don Eisele, oversaw every aspect of their spacecraft. The spacecraft performed flawlessly -- Schirra and his crew didn't get that lucky. They all had head colds during the flight, which led some years later to Schirra doing TV commercials for Sudafed when it was learned the crew took the cold medicine during the flight to deal with their colds. Like Wally said, would you want to sneeze inside a spacesuit helmet?

Schirra's earlier flight in Gemini 6 had a terrifying moment before it had even properly begun. One second after ignition, the Titan booster malfunctioned and shut itself down, leaving Schirra and his co-pilot Tom Stafford sitting on top of what was essentially an armed bomb. Schirra, unaware of what had happened but knowing they weren't going anywhere, remained typically cool-headed and elected not to eject from the spacecraft. The pad crew were able to drain the propellant safely and get Schirra and Stafford out. The problem was fixed (a dust cap mistakenly left in a fuel line) and Schirra and Stafford launched a few days later. During this mission Gemini 6 rendezvoused with Gemini 7, proving that rendezvous and dockings could be performed reliably and precisely in space. Schirra's flights in Gemini 6 and Apollo 7 were true test flights that proved critical mission operation objectives vitally important for the journey to the Moon. Like all the Mercury Seven, Schirra was a test pilot, and as such he flew all three of his missions -- by the book, with his primary objective to evaluate the hardware that got him there.

So another true hero leaves the world. Now, of the original Mercury Seven, only John Glenn and Scott Carpenter are left.

Goodbye, Wally. You'll be missed.