Apollo 7 launched, restoring crewed American spaceflight
On this day · 11 October 1968
On October 11, 1968, Apollo 7 carried three astronauts into orbit, the first crewed Apollo flight after the deadly Apollo 1 fire.
After the Apollo 1 cabin fire killed three astronauts during a launch rehearsal on January 27, 1967, NASA grounded crewed flights for nearly two years while it overhauled the spacecraft. The program’s return came on October 11, 1968, when Apollo 7 lifted off from Launch Complex 34 at Cape Kennedy atop a Saturn IB rocket.
The crew — commander Walter Schirra, command module pilot Donn Eisele, and lunar module pilot Walter Cunningham — spent nearly 11 days in Earth orbit, wringing out the redesigned Command and Service Module.
It was the first chance to test the new Block II spacecraft with people aboard.
Despite friction between an irritable, head-cold-stricken crew and ground controllers, every system performed. The flawless shakedown gave NASA the confidence to send Apollo 8 around the Moon just two months later — and kept the lunar-landing goal on schedule.
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