Walter Marty "Wally" Schirra Jr. (1923–2007) is the only astronaut to have flown on all three of America's first human spaceflight programmes: Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. A Navy pilot and test pilot selected as one of the Mercury Seven in 1959, his Mercury flight aboard Sigma 7 (October 3, 1962, 6 orbits) was widely regarded as the programme's most precise and well-controlled mission. He later commanded Gemini 6A (1965) and Apollo 7 (1968), the first crewed Apollo mission.