SkyMan says Fifty years ago today Apollo 7 launched
SkyMan
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Fifty years ago today Apollo 7 launched. It was the first launch of a manned Apollo spacecraft.
Over the next year or so I'll be writing a thread for each of the Apollo missions, the first time that humans ever left the Earth, and landed on another heavenly body. To give you an idea of just how difficult this was to do, humans have not been back to the Moon since 1972, and we currently couldn't go even if we wanted to.
The first launch for a manned Apollo spacecraft, Apollo 1, had been planned for February 1967. Unfortunately the crew, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, were killed in a disastrous fire in the spacecraft while still on the ground. More than a few astronauts, and NASA technical personnel, have said that the fire was in many ways the luckiest thing that could have happened to the Apollo program. Before the fire, many astronauts and technical personnel had complained about the shoddy workmanship and problems with the Apollo spacecraft, but under the strain of, "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth by the end of the decade", and the success of the Mercury and Gemini programs, acceptance of "deviation from the norm" (e.g. underperforming equipment et al.) became the standard working condition at NASA.
The fire brought everyone up short, and the "lucky" aspect of it was that the spacecraft was still on the ground, so it could be taken apart piece by piece, and NASA could figure out what the problems were. If the spacecraft had had a fatal problem in space, as it almost certainly would have, the "fixes" would all have had to be done by educated guesswork, which would have been much more problematical.
The Apollo spacecraft was composed of two main parts, the Command Module (CM), and the Service Module (SM). The CM was the only part of the entire rocket that was launched that would return (hopefully) safely to Earth. At the back of it was the re-entry heat shield. It contained the command instruments and the living space for the mission. There were 3 crew members, and the CM had 210 cubic feet of habitable space, or roughly the amount of space in an old VW Beetle front and back seats. The batteries within the CM could only sustain it for 2 hours.
The SM was attached to the back of the CM (in this configuration it was called the Command and Service Module, CSM). The SM contained all the oxygen, water, power, fuel, and the most important engines for the spacecraft.
Apollo 7 was designed to test the CSM for 11 days, which was well more than it would take to go to the Moon, land for a day, and return (which took about 8 days). The crew consisted of Wally Schirra, Walt Cunningham and Donn Eisele. They did a wonderful job in completing their mission requirements, but were known as a difficult crew to work with, and none of them ever flew again. Wally Schirra was a Mercury 7 astronaut, had flown arguably the most successful Mercury flight, and had commanded the Gemini 6 spacecraft which was the active spacecraft in the first ever rendezvous in space.
Unfortunately Wally had a bad head cold that cropped up soon after launch that left him grumpy throughout the mission (just think about having a clogged nose etc. in zero G, where the snot would not drip out of your sinuses). Also, there were more than a few people that were thinking that if Apollo 7 had failed then Congress would have pulled the plug on the Apollo program, so Schirra was VERY aware of the need for a perfect mission. Because of this Schirra constantly fought with Mission Control to not change the previously agreed upon mission goals and tests while the mission was in flight. Then Eisele caught the cold from Schirra and was also grumpy throughout the flight.
After the full mission duration of 11 days the crew landed back on Earth on October 22, 1968. The mission was a complete success, so successful in fact that the higher management at NASA decided that the next mission, Apollo 8, would try to go to the Moon.
Here is a Robbins medallion that was flown on the flight. The obverse is a metallic representation of the mission patch, while the reverse gives the launch date of the mission. It is roughly the size of a half dollar.
Here are a couple of pictures from the mission. The first one shows the launch of the Saturn IB rocket, while the second picture is of the S IV-B second stage as seen from the CSM. I had Walt Cunningham sign it. In the background, just above "Walt", you'll notice the Kennedy Space Center, which is where the spacecraft was launched from.
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Great historical information and very well presented. Thank you !!!
Thanks! I remember those days well. Always wanted to see a Saturn 5 liftoff.
I was 12 when Apollo 7 and Apollo 8 were launched in 1968. I, like many others, was fascinated by NASA, the manned flight space program (Mercury, Gemini and Apollo), JFK's goal of landing astronauts on the moon and returning them to earth before 1970, competition with the USSR in the space race and humans leaving their home to visit other worlds.
The original Star Trek TV series was televised during 1968 and it also stirred my imagination.
Seeing the Apollo 7 launch on television, following the mission and seeing the safe return to earth was great. It stoked the enthusiasm for the encore mission, Apollo 8 during the Christmas Holidays in 1968.
Apollo 11 with the first manned landing on the moon in July, 1969 was and is a great accomplishment. However, for me I have a much more emotional attachment to Apollo 8. I remember like it was yesterday the televised broadcast on either Christmas Eve or Christmas day from the astronauts orbiting the moon and the "earth rise" above the moon. That was truly amazing.
Wow Sy, Great write up, I've had quite a few VW beetles (old school ones) and 3 guys for 8 days.........Dang
Look forward to your next installment
Steve
I used to follow this stuff closely-Mercury and Gemini, too-at the time of the missions many years ago. I used to keep the newspapers that were associated with each one. I only have a few left.
My Father-in-law was a first cousin to Gus Grissom who was killed in the Apollo 1 fire.
Great write up. I look forward to the rest. Apollo in my view is mankind’s most impressive scientific & engineering achievement of the millennium.
Thanks for sharing. I was 10 years old and playing with model rockets and my Dad was a subcontractor for the NASA moon shot. Cheers!
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Recalling the space program by you reminds me of where I was during the first moon landing. At a Mets/Expos baseball game in Montreal with my Dad. I still remember as a young boy when I purchased my first space related model kit. Was of the Gemini capsule with the 2 astronauts. I believe it was made by Revell or Monogram. And upon assembling it, I had all the childhood awe of what being "up there" would be like.
I remember that day with my dad.
Thanks for the 50-year old show report. Will look for the others to come.
Great recounting of the Apollo mission... I was always in awe of our space program. I have been greatly disappointed with how it has declined and the complete neglect over the last decade. I look forward to your future installments - they will rekindle the pride I have always felt for our incredible achievements in this field. Cheers, RickO
The designs for the 50th Anniversary coin for Apollo 11 were just released.
When my grandfather gazed back fifty years, he recalled the Wright brothers. My father remembered Lindberg. We can recollect men walking on the Moon, multiple times.
Our kids will remember Pac man.
While part of me agrees with you, another part somewhat disagrees.
With regards to the unmanned (e.g. robotic) programs of the last 20 years, they have been truly amazing. Just the thinking that produced the "Skycrane" that lowered the Mars rover Curiosity to the surface of Mars shows how audacious we can still be. The images from Mars, Saturn and Pluto we have seen over the last 5 years have been nothing short of spectacular.
With regards to the manned space program, after going to the Moon, I was BORED with it after the Challenger explosion. At least before the explosion astronauts were pushing the envelope on doing new things... flying untethered in space, repairing satellites in space, capturing satellites in space and bringing them home etc.
After the Challenger explosion it seemed things were, "same old, same old". A lot of launches for some boring project or other... nothing new. Over time I've come to appreciate various of these later missions. Obviously the two biggest publicly known accomplishments of the Shuttle era were the Hubble Telescope (HST) and the International Space Station (ISS).
The HST has truly revolutionized our scientific understanding of the Universe, and at the same time has brought beautiful images that bring the WOW!!! factor into our everyday lives. The ISS IMO is a political construction that could have been done for far less cost. Still for all that, it is a useful structure for learning about the effects of long duration space missions on the human body. Also, one neat aspect about the ISS is that it is easily visible by the naked eye on a regular basis, so you can point it out to your kids or other everyday people that are interested in space, so that they can dream. If you have a telescope you can even see some of the structure of the ISS, which is pretty neat.
Clearly, the political boondoggle nature of the newest NASA rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS) is an obvious failure with regards to the next manned steps into space. It's development costs have been horrendous, and there is still a LOT more wastage of money to go on it before it flies. Even then it will be unrecoverable after launch, which is ridiculous given current technology. Unfortunately this is a function of politics. This rocket's design was MANDATED by CONGRESS. We all know how well Congress functions, so allowing them to design anything more complicated than a paper clip (and even then, one shudders at what the end cost would be) is a recipe for disaster.
I am lucky enough to know various of the Shuttle and ISS astronauts. IMO many of them would compare favorably with the Wright brothers or Lindberg. The issue here is more with Presidential leadership, Congress and the American people giving NASA an aggressive objective, the funding to do the objective, and then getting out of the way and letting NASA design from scratch the necessary components and procedures to accomplish the mission.
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Watched the landing with my Grandmother who was born in 1890. I asked her if she remembered hearing about the Wright Brothers. She said she remembered reading about it in the newspapers, but did not think that it would ever affect her.
After Grandpa died she and a girlfriend used to fly to Vegas every other year!
Skycrane was nothing short of miraculous. As much so was we caught an image of it from a Mars satellite. Beyond the space geeks though, that will not get a kid, or his parents on the edge of their seat as Apollo 11 did.
Short of a manned Martian landing which is still a fairytale, I guess that nothing will.
Yes, but do you believe him?
My grandpa (1893-1972, a WW I veteran) watched every launch of at least Gemini and Apollo live on tv.
So this stuff always reminds me of him.
Like many folks I suppose, I remember watching Neil Armstrong walking on the moon live on tv.
But I especially seem to remember the space walk stamp pair, from Gemini days.
I remember how avidly the space program was followed in those days. I am looking forward to seeing the new movie about Neil Armstrong and wonder how accurate it will be. From the clips I have seen on TV it will apparently deal with the fire on board Apollo 1. I was told back in the early 1980's that the official story of the astronauts deaths was made up to hide the truth about just how terrible a situation it actually was. The astronauts did not die quickly. The lack of explosive bolts on the spacecraft's entry hatch prevented the ground crew from getting to the astronauts in time to save them.
Nice pic @yosclimber !
It's a neat stamp, and while generally I don't collect stamps, I've got a couple of those. One signed by Gene Cernan, who was the second American to walk in space (the third human in history), on Gemini 9, and one signed by Michael Collins the third American to walk in space, on Gemini 10.
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...and Gene Cernan was of course the last man to walk on the Moon.
Image of Curiosity landing.
And this clip gives a good simulation of the landing process.
There's quick, and there's quick. While the astronauts did not die instantly, they did not burn to death, and died fairly quickly. They died by inhalation of smoke, and were passed out somewhere between 20 - 45 seconds of the ignition of the fire. Not a good way to go.
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Great thread, Sy! Thanks for the history.
Here's a roughly 20+ minute current interview with Walt Cunningham, about Apollo 7. There are lots of pictures and some video from the 1960's and the Apollo 7 mission during the interview.
https://vimeo.com/294710745
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@SkyMan
This was great historical information. I am looking forward to your future posts.
Thank you for this! Just read an article about this mission in Smithsonian's 'Air & Space' magazine.
As always, @SkyMan , thanks for the history and memories
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Looking forward to future installments! I was 11 years old at the time and was avidly following all the developments in the space program. I also had a model rocket with detachable stages and modules.
Good stuff, thanks for posting. I always enjoy these posts as pretty much every one of my 'what I want to be when I grow up' notes from when I was a kid is 'Astronaut'. We were living in Spain at Rota NAS when the moon landing occurred and and although it was in Spanish we were glued to the TV! Good times..
K
Awesome read and a great presentation... Thank you Skyman looking forward to seeing more of the Apollo program...
I recently obtained several groups of NASA transpancies of images taken during the Apollo 7 mission. Each group of 5 or 6 transparencies is stored in a paper sleeve which has been signed by the mission's Lunar Module Pilot, Walter Cunningham. I have several extra sets. If anyone would be interested in a set please PM me.
My earliest memory of the space programme is Dec. 1972 and Apollo 17. I can remember watching the landing on TV live and going out in the evening and was sure I could see the astronauts up there. I have many more memories of the Apollo-Soyuz linkup in 1975 and would like to get one of the gold medals the USSR made to commemorate the event.
Recently saw the film "First Man" about Neil Armstrong and the first moon landing. Excellent.