The words Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo still bring back strong memories of my youth. I knew the names of the astronauts and followed each new mission with rapt attention.

Today we have lost one of the original Mercury Seven, the only man to fly on all three early space programs, Walter M. “Wally” Schirra Jr.

Astronaut Walter M. “Wally” Schirra Jr., one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts and the only man to fly on all three of NASA’s early space missions, has died at the age of 84, NASA officials confirmed Thursday.

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In 1962, Schirra became the third American to orbit the Earth, encircling the globe six times in a flight that lasted more than nine hours.

He returned to space three years later as commander of Gemini 6 and guided his two-man capsule toward Gemini 7, already in orbit. On Dec. 15, 1965, the two ships came within a few feet of each other as they shot through space, some 185 miles above the Earth. It was the first rendezvous of two spacecraft in orbit.

His third and final space flight in 1968 inaugurated the Apollo program that sought to land a man on the moon.

Of the original seven, only John Glenn and Scott Carpenter are still living.

RIP Mr. Schirra.