On this date in 1968 Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, was launched. 10 things you might not know about Apollo 7.
The crew were commander Walter M. Schirra, Command Module Pilot Donn F. Eisele and Lunar Module pilot R. Walter Cunningham (even though, as they weren’t actually going to the Moon, Apollo 7 didn’t have a lunar module).
The mission's duration was 10 days, 20 hours, 9 minutes and 3 seconds, which was the second longest American spaceflight until Apollo 15 surpassed it in 1971. At the time, too, Commander Wally Schirra was the oldest person to fly in space at the age of 45. That record was also broken in 1971 by Alan Shepherd who was 47 when he went to space in Apollo 14.
It was the first manned space mission after Apollo 1, which ended tragically with a fire during a test launch, which killed three astronauts: Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. Schirra, Eisele and Cunningham had been the back up crew for that mission and were named the primary crew for Apollo 7. In the interim, crews were suspended while improvements were made to the spacecraft and unmanned test flights took place (presumably Apollos 2-6).
Schirra, who’d been a close friend of Gus Grissom, suggested that the callsign for the mission should be Phoenix, because it "rose from the ashes" of Apollo 1, and suggested that the mission insignia should include the mythical bird. NASA, however, vetoed that because they thought it was in bad taste. The insignia was redesigned to show a rocket orbiting the Earth and there was no call sign at all. Apollo 9 was the first to have one since Grissom's Gemini 3 Molly Brown in 1965.
The main purpose of the mission was to make sure that a trio of Astronauts could safely spend the amount of time in space that a trip to the moon would require, and that the spacecraft was habitable for that amount of time. The crew orbited the Earth 163 times.
There were a couple of notable firsts. This crew were the first to have a hot meal in space. Sadly, I couldn’t find a reference to what they actually ate. Schirra was possibly the first person to drink Coffee in space. NASA doctors had tried to veto his instant coffee as it didn’t have any nutritional value, but Schirra ignored them and took it anyway, and would report that he’d thoroughly enjoyed drinking his coffee out of a plastic bag! On 14 October, the first television broadcast from space took place. (Gordon Cooper had transmitted television pictures from Faith 7 in 1963, but the pictures were of poor quality and were never broadcast.) It began with a view of a card reading "From the Lovely Apollo Room high atop everything", which was a nod to 1930s radio call signs. The broadcast lasted 7 minutes and included scenes of the spacecraft and of the Earth below. At the end, Schirra held another sign, "Keep those cards and letters coming in folks", another old-time radio tag line.
All three of the astronauts had nasty colds while in space. Schirra went down with it first, about 15 hours in, and thanks to the confined working conditions, infected his crewmates with it. Weightless conditions actually make having a cold even worse than on Earth and so it was rather painful. Luckily, they had Aspirin and decongestants on board which helped somewhat, and afterwards, Schirra netted a contract advertising cold remedies.
The mission was known for the tensions and disagreements between the crew and ground control, and none of the three ever went to space again (although to be fair, Schirra had already expressed his intention to retire before the mission began). Tensions began at launch. There was an easterly Wind that day which would normally result in the launch being scrubbed for safety reasons (if anything went wrong in the early stages and they had to abort, the rocket might come down on land rather than on water). Schirra felt the safety rules should be adhered to and the launch cancelled, but Mission Control put pressure on him to continue. Thankfully, all went well, but the tensions continued. The TV broadcast was another source of dispute. Schirra felt that various tests and tasks they had to do on a new spacecraft should take precedence over performing for TV audiences. Then there was a row about re-entry: because all three astronauts had colds, and would need to be able to pinch their noses and blow to reduce the risk of perforated eardrums as pressure changed, but Mission Control insisted they should wear helmets for the descent. This time, Schirra ignored them and put his crew’s welfare first. They landed without helmets and everything was fine.
Apollo 7 splashed down at 11:11:48 UTC on October 22, 1968, 200 nautical miles (230 mi; 370 km) SSW of Bermuda and 7 nautical miles (8 mi; 13 km) north of the recovery ship USS Essex. NASA awarded Schirra, Eisele and Cunningham its Exceptional Service Medal. Despite the difficulties, the mission was deemed a technical success, paving the way for Apollo 8’s orbit of the moon a few months later.
You may well have heard the tale that NASA spent millions of dollars developing a pen to use in space while the Russians simply used a Pencil. The pen the urban legend is talking about was invented and developed by pen manufacturer Paul C. Fisher (it was he who spent the money on it, not NASA). The pen got its first trip to space on Apollo 7, and there was more to it than America showing off a fancy space pen. Pencils are actually quite flammable, and NASA were doing everything they could, understandably, to reduce fire risks on board. Not only that, but pencil lead can break off and float around the capsule, another hazard. So inventing a space pen actually made sense, and a year later, the Russians were using space pens as well.
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