Apollo 7 (October 11 – 22, 1968) was the first crewed flight in NASA's Apollo program, and saw the resumption of human spaceflight by the agency after the fire that killed the three Apollo 1 astronauts during a launch rehearsal test on January 27, 1967. The Apollo 7 crew was commanded by Walter M. Schirra, with command module pilot Donn F. Eisele and lunar module pilot R. Walter Cunningham (so designated even though Apollo 7 did not carry a lunar module).
The three astronauts were originally designated for the second crewed Apollo flight, and then as backups for Apollo 1. After the fire, crewed flights were suspended while the cause of the accident was investigated and improvements made to the spacecraft and safety procedures, and uncrewed test flights made. Determined to prevent a repetition of the fire, the crew spent long periods of time monitoring the construction of their Apollo command and service modules (CSM). Training continued over much of the 21-month pause that followed the Apollo 1 disaster.
Apollo 7 was launched on October 11, 1968, from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, Florida, and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean eleven days later. Extensive testing of the CSM took place, and also the first live television broadcast from an American spacecraft. Despite tension between the crew and ground controllers, the mission was a complete technical success, giving NASA the confidence to send Apollo 8 into orbit around the Moon two months later. In part because of these tensions, none of the crew flew in space again, though Schirra had already announced he would retire from NASA after the flight. Apollo 7 fulfilled Apollo 1's mission of testing the CSM in low Earth orbit, and was a significant step towards NASA's goal of landing astronauts on the Moon.
Apollo 7 Crew, NASA Astronauts Walter Cunningham, Walter M. Schirra, Jr., and Donn Eisele pause outside their spacecraft following satisfactory crew compartment tests at North American Rockwell Space Division, Downey, California, where the craft was produced and tested. The 3-man crew is scheduled to fly 11 day space mission later this year.
Offered is a 9.75” x 8” Original Press Photo by NORTH AMERICAN ROCKWELL STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER from 1968.
Paper caption reads, “Apollo 7 Crew, NASA Astronauts Walter Cunningham, Walter M. Schirra, Jr., and Donn Eisele pause outside their spacecraft following satisfactory crew compartment tests at North American Rockwell Space Division, Downey, California, where the craft was produced and tested. The 3-man crew is scheduled to fly 11 day space mission later this year.”
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