Apollo VII
Flight Details
The First Manned Apollo Mission
Right Click To
Stop Movie |
Apollo-7
Pad 34
Saturn-1B AS-205
CSM-101
1st Block II CSM
1st Manned CSM mission
1st 3 man American crew
1st Live TV downlink
Apollo 7 Crew
Left to right
Donn Eisele,
Command Module Pilot
Walter Schirra, Jr.,
Commander
Walter Cunningham,
Lunar Module Pilot
|
- Crew:
Walter M. Schirra, Jr.,
Commander
Donn F. Eisele, CSM Pilot
R. Walter Cunningham, Lunar
Module Pilot
- Backup Crew:
Thomas Stafford, Commander
John Young, CSM Pilot
Eugene Cernan, Lunar module
pilot
- Milestones:
03/28/68 - S-1B Stage
ondock at KSC
04/07/68 - S-IVB ondock at
KSC
04/11/68 - S-IU ondock at
KSC
05/11/68 - Launch Vehicle
at Pad
08/09/68 - Spacecraft at
Pad
09/17/68 - Countdown
Demonstration Test
10/11/68 - Launch
- Payload:
- CSM-101
- Mission Objective:
- The primary objectives for
the Apollo 7 engineering test flight were simple: "Demonstrate CSM/crew
performance; demonstrate crew/space vehicle/mission support facilities performance
during a manned CSM mission; demonstrate CSM rendezvous capability."
-
- Launch:
- October 11, 1968,
11:02:45am EST. October 11 at Cape Kennedy was hot but the heat was tempered by a
pleasant breeze when Apollo 7 lifted off in a
two-tongued blaze of orange-colored flame. The Saturn IB, in its
first trial with men aboard, provided a perfect launch and its first stage dropped
off 2 minutes 25 seconds later. The S-IVB second stage took over, giving astronauts
their first ride atop a load of liquid hydrogen, and at 5 minutes 54 seconds into
the mission, Walter Schirra, the commander, reported, "She is riding like a
dream." About five minutes later an elliptical orbit had been achieved, 140 by
183 miles above the Earth.
- Orbit:
Altitude: 140 x 183 miles
Orbits: 163
Duration: 10 Days, 20
hours
- Landing:
-
The CSM's service
propulsion system, which had to fire the CSM into and out of lunar orbit, worked
perfectly during eight burns lasting from half a second to 67.6 seconds.
Apollo's
flotation bags had their first try-out when the spacecraft, a "lousy boat," splashed down in the
Atlantic southeast of Bermuda, less than two kilometers from the planned impact
point. Landing location was 27deg 32min North and 64deg 04min West. The module
turned upside down; when inflated, the brightly colored bags flipped it aright. The
tired, but happy, voyagers were picked up by helicopter and deposited on the deck of
the U.S.S. Essex by 08:20am EDT. Spacecraft aboard ship at 09:03am.
|
|