Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Apollo 7
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
==Background and personnel== {{Spaceflight crew |terminology = Astronaut<ref name="crew">{{cite web |url=https://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/topics/apollo/apollo-program/orbital-missions/apollo7-crew.cfm |title=Apollo 7 Crew |publisher=[[National Air and Space Museum]] |access-date=April 19, 2018 |archive-date=June 16, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220616203309/https://airandspace.si.edu/learn/highlighted-topics-/apollo |url-status=dead }}</ref> |position1 = Commander |crew1_up = [[Wally Schirra|Walter M. Schirra]] |flights1_up = Third and last |position2 = Command Module Pilot |crew2_up = [[Donn F. Eisele]] |flights2_up = Only |position3 = Lunar Module Pilot{{efn|"Lunar Module Pilot" was the official title used for the third pilot position in Block{{spaces}}II missions, regardless of whether the [[lunar module|LM spacecraft]] was present or not.}} |crew3_up = [[Walter Cunningham|R. Walter Cunningham]] |flights3_up = Only }} Schirra, one of the original "[[Mercury Seven]]" astronauts, graduated from the [[United States Naval Academy]] in 1945. He flew [[Mercury-Atlas 8]] in 1962, the fifth crewed flight of [[Project Mercury]] and the third to reach orbit, and in 1965 was the command pilot for [[Gemini 6A]]. He was a 45-year-old captain in the Navy at the time of Apollo{{spaces}}7. Eisele graduated from the Naval Academy in 1952 with a B.S. in aeronautics. He elected to be commissioned in the Air Force, and was a 38-year-old major at the time of Apollo{{spaces}}7.{{sfn|Orloff & Harland 2006|p=171}} Cunningham joined the U.S. Navy in 1951, began flight training the following year, and served in a Marine flight squadron from 1953 to 1956, and was a civilian, aged 36, serving in the Marine Corps reserves with a rank of major, at the time of Apollo{{spaces}}7.{{sfn|Orloff & Harland 2006|p=171}}{{sfn|Press Kit|p=68}} He received degrees in physics from [[UCLA]], a B.A. in 1960 and an M.A. in 1961. Both Eisele and Cunningham were selected as part of the [[NASA Astronaut Group 3|third group of astronauts]] in 1963.{{sfn|Orloff & Harland 2006|p=171}} [[File:AS-205 crew.jpg|thumb|right|Schirra's crew in training for Apollo{{spaces}}2, 1966]] Eisele was originally slotted for a position on [[Gus Grissom]]'s [[Apollo 1]] crew along with [[Ed White (astronaut)|Ed White]], but days prior to the official announcement on March 25, 1966, Eisele sustained a shoulder injury that would require surgery. Instead, [[Roger Chaffee]] was given the position and Eisele was reassigned to Schirra's crew.{{sfn|French & Burgess 2007|pp=689–691}} Schirra, Eisele, and Cunningham were first named as an Apollo crew on September 29, 1966. They were to fly a second Earth orbital test of the [[Apollo command and service module#Command module|Apollo Command Module]] (CM).{{sfn|French & Burgess 2007|pp=955–957}} Although delighted as a rookie to be assigned to a prime crew without having served as a backup, Cunningham was troubled by the fact that a second Earth orbital test flight, dubbed Apollo{{spaces}}2, seemed unnecessary if Apollo{{spaces}}1 was successful. He learned later that Director of Flight Crew Operations [[Deke Slayton]], another of the Mercury Seven who had been grounded for medical reasons and supervised the astronauts, planned, with Schirra's support, to command the mission if he gained medical clearance. When this was not forthcoming, Schirra remained in command of the crew, and in November 1966, Apollo{{spaces}}2 was cancelled and Schirra's crew assigned as backup to Grissom's.{{sfn|Cunningham 2003|pp=88–91}} [[Thomas P. Stafford]]—assigned at that point as the backup commander of the second orbital test—stated that the cancellation followed Schirra and his crew submitting a list of demands to NASA management (Schirra wanted the mission to include a lunar module and a CM capable of docking with it), and that the assignment as backups left Schirra complaining that Slayton and [[Chief Astronaut]] [[Alan Shepard]] had destroyed his career.{{sfn|Stafford 2002|pp=552–556}} On January 27, 1967, Grissom's crew was conducting a launch-pad test for their planned February 21 mission, when a fire broke out in the cabin, killing all three men.{{sfn|Chaikin 1995|pp=12–18}} A complete safety review of the Apollo program followed.{{sfn|Scott & Leonov|pp=193–195}} Soon after the fire, Slayton asked Schirra, Eisele and Cunningham to fly the first mission after the pause.{{sfn|Cunningham 2003|p=113}} Apollo 7 would use the Block{{spaces}}II spacecraft designed for the lunar missions, as opposed to the Block I CSM used for Apollo 1, which was intended only to be used for the early Earth-orbit missions, as it lacked the capability of docking with a lunar module. The CM and astronauts' spacesuits had been extensively redesigned, to reduce any chance of a repeat of the accident which killed the first crew.<ref name="Schirra's Obituary">{{cite news |last=Watkins |first=Thomas |date=May 3, 2007 |title=Astronaut Walter Schirra dies at 84 |url=http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/latest_news/article_b5ab61b9-cbe9-5db5-b76f-8cfd89096919.html |newspaper=[[Valley Morning Star]] |archive-url=https://archive.today/20131005020013/http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/latest_news/article_b5ab61b9-cbe9-5db5-b76f-8cfd89096919.html |archive-date=October 5, 2013 |agency=[[Associated Press]] |location=Harlingen, Texas |access-date=October 4, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> Schirra's crew would test the [[life support]], [[propulsion]], guidance and control systems during this "open-ended" mission (meaning it would be extended as it passed each test). The duration was limited to 11 days, reduced from the original 14-day limit for Apollo{{spaces}}1.<ref>{{cite news |last=Karrens |first=Ed (Announcer) |year=1968 |title=1968 Year in Review: 1968 in Space |url=http://www.upi.com/Archives/Audio/Events-of-1968/1968-in-Space |work=UPI.com |type=Radio transcript |publisher=[[E. W. Scripps]] |agency=[[United Press International]] |access-date=July 6, 2013}}</ref> The backup crew consisted of Stafford as commander, [[John Young (astronaut)|John W. Young]] as command module pilot, and [[Eugene Cernan|Eugene A. Cernan]] as lunar module pilot. They became the prime crew of [[Apollo 10]].{{sfn|Orloff & Harland 2006|p=568}} [[Ronald Evans (astronaut)|Ronald E. Evans]], [[John L. Swigert|John L. 'Jack' Swigert]], and [[Edward G. Givens]] were assigned to the support crew for the mission.{{sfn|Burgess & Doolan 2003|pp=296–301}} Givens died in a car accident on June 6, 1967, and [[William R. Pogue]] was assigned as his replacement. Evans was involved in hardware testing at [[Kennedy Space Center]] (KSC). Swigert was the launch [[capsule communicator]] (CAPCOM) and worked on the mission's operational aspects. Pogue spent time modifying procedures. The support crew also filled in when the primary and backup crews were unavailable.<ref>{{cite interview|url=https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral_histories/PogueWR/WRP_7-17-2000.pdf|interviewer=Kevin M. Rusnak|date=July 17, 2000|location=Houston, Texas|title=Oral History Transcript|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190501104039/https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral_histories/PogueWR/WRP_7-17-2000.pdf|archive-date=May 1, 2019|url-status=dead|publisher=NASA|page=12-15<!-- this is a single page, not a span of pages -->|series=Johnson Space Center Oral History Project}}</ref> CAPCOMs, the person in Mission Control responsible for communicating with the spacecraft (then always an astronaut) were Evans, Pogue, Stafford, Swigert, Young and Cernan. Flight directors were [[Glynn Lunney]], [[Gene Kranz]] and [[Gerry Griffin]].{{sfn|Orloff & Harland 2006|pp=171–172}}
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)