Apollo 7

Apollo 7 was the first manned mission in the Apollo program to be launched. It was an eleven-day earth-orbital mission, the first manned launch of the Saturn IB launch vehicle, and the first three-man American space mission.

Crew

Walter Schirra (3), commander

Donn Eisele (1), command module pilot

Walter Cunningham (1), lunar module pilot

(1) number of spaceflights each crew member has completed, including this mission.

Backup Crew

Tom Stafford, commander

John Young, command module pilot

Gene Cernan, lunar module pilot

Support Crew

Mission Parameters

Mass: 14,781 kg

Perigee: 231 km

Apogee: 297 km

Inclination: 31.63°

Period: 89.78 min

Rendezvous with spent S-IVB rocket stage

October 12, 1968, 20:58:28 UTC

Stationkeeping with spent S-IVB rocket stage was performed for 25 minutes.

Mission Highlights

Apollo 7 was a confidence-builder. After the January 1967 Apollo launch pad fire, the Apollo command module had been extensively redesigned. Schirra, the only astronaut to fly Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions, commanded this Earth-orbital shakedown of the command and service modules. With no lunar lander, Apollo 7 could use the Saturn IB booster rather than the giant Saturn V. The Apollo hardware and all mission operations worked without any significant problems, and the Service Propulsion System (SPS) the all-important engine that would place Apollo in and out of lunar orbit-made eight nearly perfect firings. Even though Apollo's larger cabin was more comfortable than Gemini's, eleven days in orbit took its toll on the astronauts. The food was bad, and all three developed colds. But their mission proved the spaceworthiness of the basic Apollo vehicle.

Goals for the mission included the first live television broadcast from an American spacecraft (Gordon Cooper had broadcast slow scan television pictures from Faith 7 in 1963) and testing the lunar module docking maneuver. First orbit: Perigee 231 km, Apogee 297 km, Period 89.78 m, Inclination 31.63 deg. Weight: C/SM 14,781 kg. The splashdown point was 27 deg 32 min N, 64 deg 04 min W, 200 nautical miles SSW of Bermuda and 13 km (8 mi) north of the recovery ship USS Essex.

For nearly 30 years the Apollo 7 module was on loan (renewable every two years) to the National Museum of Science and Technology of Canada, in Ottawa, along with the space suit worn by Wally Schirra. In November 2003 the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. requested them back for display at their new annex at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

Mission details

:Launched: October 11, 1968 16:02:45 UT from Pad 34
:Returned: October 22, 1968 11:11:48 UT (retrieved by the USS Essex)
:Crew members: Wally Schirra (commander), Donn Eisele (senior pilot) and Walter Cunningham (pilot).