APOLLO 7: A CREW INTO SPACE FOR FIRST TIME

Apollo 7 Spacecraft

Apollo 7 was a 1968 human spaceflight mission carried out by the United States. It was the first mission in the United States' Apollo program to carry a crew into space. It was also the first U.S. spaceflight to carry astronauts since the flight of Gemini XII in November 1966. 

The AS-204 mission, also known as Apollo 1, was intended to be the first manned flight of the Apollo program. It was scheduled to launch in February 1967, but a fire in the cabin during a January 1967 test killed the crew. 

Manned flights were then suspended for 21 months, while the cause of the accident was investigated and improvements made to the spacecraft and safety procedures, and unmanned test flights of the Saturn V rocket and Apollo Lunar Module were made. Apollo 7 fulfilled Apollo 1's mission of testing the Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM) in low Earth orbit.

The Apollo 7 crew was commanded by Walter M. Schirra, with senior pilot/navigator Donn F. Eisele, and pilot/systems engineer R. Walter Cunningham. Their mission was Apollo's 'C' mission, an 11-day Earth-orbital test flight to check out the redesigned Block II CSM with a crew on board.

More information: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

First Crew of the Apollo 7

It was the first time a Saturn IB vehicle put a crew into space; Apollo 7 was the first three-person American space mission, and the first to include a live TV broadcast from an American spacecraft. It was launched on October 11, 1968, from what was then known as Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, Florida.

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. 

The flight would prove to be the final space flight for all of its three crew members, and the only one for both Cunningham and Eisele, when it splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean on October 22, 1968. It was also the final manned launch from Cape Kennedy.

The Apollo program had its best success with the Apollo 11, which was the first spaceflight that landed humans on the Moon.

Download Apollo 7 Mission Report

There are extraordinary men and women and extraordinary moments when history leaps forward on the backs of these individuals that what can be imagined can be achieved that you must dare to dream but that there's no substitute for perseverance and hard work and teamwork because no one gets there alone and that, while we commemorate the greatness of these events and the individuals who achieve them, we cannot forget the sacrifice of those who make these achievements and leaps possible. 

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