On this day in 1968, Apollo 7 was successfully launched on 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 launch Apollo 8 around the Moon two months later. However, the flight would prove to be the last NASA space flight for all of its three crew members when it splashed down in Atlantic Ocean on October 22, 1968. It was also the final manned launch from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station. Apollo 7 was a 1968 human spaceflight mission carried out by the United States of America. It was the first mission in the United States Apollo program to carry a crew into space. It was also the first American space flight to carry astronauts into low Earth orbit after a cabin fire killed the Apollo 1 crew in 1967. Apollo 1, also known as AS-204, originally was to be the first flight. Instead, Apollo 7 carried out the mission that Apollo 1 was scheduled to do. The crew was commanded by Walter M. Schirra, with Command Module Pilot Donn F. Eisele, and Lunar Module Pilot R. Walter Cunningham. It was a C type mission—an 11-day Earth-orbital test flight, using the first Saturn IB launch vehicle to put a crew into space, test and checkout of the redesigned Block II Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM) with a crew on board, the first live TV broadcast from an American spacecraft, and the first three-person American space mission. In January 1969, the Apollo 7 Command Module was displayed on a NASA float in the inauguration parade of President Richard M. Nixon. For nearly 30 years the Command Module was on loan (renewable every two years) to the National Museum of Science and Technology, in Ottawa, Ontario, 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. Currently, the Apollo 7 CM is on loan to the Frontiers of Flight Museum located next to Love Field in Dallas, Texas. In October 2008, NASA administrator Michael D. Griffin awarded the crew of Apollo 7 NASAs Distinguished Service Medal, in recognition of their crucial contribution to the Apollo program. They were the only Apollo and Skylab crew not granted this award. Cunningham was present to accept the medal, as were representatives of his deceased crew members, and other Apollo astronauts including Neil Armstrong, Bill Anders, and Alan Bean. Former Mission Control Flight Director Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., who was in conflict with the crew during the mission, also sent a conciliatory video message of congratulations, saying: We gave you a hard time once but you certainly survived that and have done extremely well since...I am frankly, very proud to call you a friend.
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 10:47:21 +0000
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