The son of one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts is currently awaiting sentencing on child pornography charges.
On October 3, 1962 Walter "Wally" Schirra piloted the six orbit Sigma 7 Mercury flight, which attained a velocity of 17,557 miles per hour at an altitude of 175 statue miles and traveled almost 144,000 statute miles before re-entry into the earth's atmosphere. He next occupied the Command Pilot seat on the history-making Gemini 6 flight, which featured a successful rendezvous with the already orbiting Gemini 7 spacecraft. Finally, he was the Command Pilot on Apollo VII, the first manned flight test of the three direction United States spacecraft, whoch launched on October 11, 1968. Wally Schirra is unique in that he is the only Astronaut to have flown Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.
On August 31, 2005, Schirra's son, 55 year old Walter Schirra III, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography in a federal sex tourism case. He had been arrested November 6, 2004 trying to board a Thailand-bound plane. According to authorities, a search of his luggage found "photos of shirtless Asian boys, sexual performance enhancing drugs and candy." While none of the items discovered were illegal, they led to a search of Schirrs's home, which revealed child pornography on his computer.
Schirra will be sentenced Dec. 7.
