Walter Cunningham held which position on the Apollo 7 mission?

• A. Lunar Module Pilot; NASA’s third civilian astronaut.
• B. Commander of the mission.
• C. Pilot of the command module.
• D. Flight director at mission control.

Answer: (A)

Understanding crew roles on Apollo missions helps explain this question. On a three-person Apollo crew, the Commander leads the flight, the Command Module Pilot flies the Command/Service Module, and the Lunar Module Pilot is responsible for operating the Lunar Module. For Apollo 7, the crew was Wally Schirra as Commander, Donn Eisele as Command Module Pilot, and Walter Cunningham as Lunar Module Pilot. The Lunar Module Pilot would handle the Lunar Module systems and be ready to pilot it if a lunar landing were to occur. Even though Apollo 7 did not land on the Moon, the LM was aboard to test its systems and the crew trained for LM operations. The other roles listed correspond to the other crew member or to a ground-based position, not to Cunningham.