when Apollo 7 launched in October 1968 the United States and the Soviet Union
were locked in a space race however it had been almost two years since
astronauts had gone into space three astronauts had died during a test of
Apollo 1 on January 27 1967 and NASA had stopped human spaceflight while the
accident was investigated and the problems fixed three months after the
Apollo 1 fire a Soviet cosmonaut died on the first flight of their new Soyuz
spacecraft the public honestly wondered if he's sending people to the moon was
really possible this film the flight of Apollo 7 documents the 11-day mission in
Earth orbit it was produced by NASA shortly after the successful return of
the first humans in space after the loss of four brave explorers from two
different countries here it is as it happened during a rainstorm on the
morning of October 22nd 1968 in the Atlantic Ocean the United States
completed one of its most remarkably successful tests yet of man and machine
in space but this was only the ending
it was on a clear morning almost eleven days earlier at the Kennedy Space
Center's launch pad 34 in Florida that we witnessed the beginning of the first
manned mission in the United States Apollo program to land astronauts on the
moon the purpose of the flight of Apollo 7 could be stated very simply prove that
the spacecraft command and service modules would function properly in space
long enough to carry men to the moon and back accomplishing this was considerably
less simple it meant showing that a brand-new spacecraft
far more complicated than its predecessors would operate so well it
could be trusted to take men well beyond near-earth orbit the astronauts were
spacecraft commander Walter schirra and pilots Donn Eisele and Walter Cunningham
the Kennedy Space Center had spent long days in preparation and check-out
working toward a launch time which had been set for months it was not by chance
that Apollo 7 lifted off only two and three-quarter minutes after the
appointed moment
the Marshall Space Flight Center had spent years directing development and
testing of the Saturn 1b launch vehicle and it was not by chance that Apollo 7
was placed almost exactly on its planned trajectory into orbit about the earth
general pattern of goal for Apollo 7 was established in a conversation between
the spacecraft and Mission Control at the manned spacecraft Center in Houston
Texas late booster yeah we appear we may be slightly marginal on walks cutoff
date to palp I don't like photo work go all across
the board BMC looks like 25
we have you go for our bet your gopher Arbus Apollo seven was also goal for an
exhaustive series of tests of its worthiness in space one of the first
things which had to be learned was whether the astronauts could control the
spacecraft combined with the s4b Saturn stage a very similar thing would have to
be done during the early phases of a lunar mission the answer was not long
and coming next the spacecraft and s4b stage were separated the question now
was whether the astronauts could turn their spacecraft around and control it
to the degree required for future physical link ups with equipment in
space for this too would have to be done in the lunar flight and again the answer
was yes something that will not be seen in the lunar flight or in any other
forthcoming Apollo mission with the panels at the top of the s4b stage they
will simply be jettisoned in the future but they drew comment in Apollo 7
right here just like you're looking at a for child angry alligator Apollo 7
escorted it's spent s4b stage through space for perhaps 30 minutes then
departed yes the following day Apollo 7 burned its spacecraft propulsion system
for the first two times in the mission and returned to its four jawed alligator
which was now angrier than ever
okay pepper akin this maneuver Apollo seven had accomplished the first
rendezvous of the program and in so doing had proved incapable of meeting
still another requirement for lunar flight one six one eight one two two one
then as we were to see in some of the most dramatic film ever returned from
space the crew would settle down to a weightless life in a spacecraft with
four times more room than Gemma Nate
they see there would be a host of other tests
under a host of other conditions the equipment and systems required to
sustain men's lives to guide and control and propel the spaceship to provide
electric power to communicate with those on earth would time and again prove
their mettle the propulsion system for example was burned eight times and it
behaved perfectly every time
the crew worked with a telescope and a sextant taking landmark in star
sightings for navigation as will be required for lunar flight
and they discovered on occasion that water particles which have been dumped
overboard could be confused with stars care will have to be taken to avoid this
confusion on future flights
all in all though problems were minor and generally were readily overcome or
solved the spacecraft almost seemed to grow stronger as the days went by but
Apollo 7 was as much a test of man as a machine and human errors were not taken
lightly on the ground the era had led to an interruption of a sleep period for
the astronauts who were understandably irritated after days of hard work it was
imperative that this situation be remedied there were also those problems
to which man is susceptible but cannot control like the common cold
as the cold spread to all three astronauts doctors feared that there
might be discomfort even pain as neutrons as pressure increased during
re-entry the astronauts were able to cope with the problem however by taking
decongestants and holding their noses and blowing to equalize reentry
pressures always before we've had to be content with merely listening to our
astronauts during their flights in Apollo 7 through the medium of
television we could actually see them in space for the first time and become
better acquainted with weightless
clear
according to everyone in television land you're looking at the right-hand portion
of the main display console in the upper left-hand portion of your view you would
say the instrument has to do with the cryogenics that are used to power the
fuel cells and provide breathing oxygen to the spacecraft as the flight of
Apollo seven preceded day by day confidence in men and equipment grew the
astronauts became accustomed to their home high atop everything they had a
chance to evaluate it as a place to live and work in space
at all
there was a chance to photograph Hurricane Gladys which raked across
Florida and headed out into the Atlantic
there was a chance to photograph areas of the earth not previously pictured
from space for example the coast of Chile and the Andes mountain range the
crew could evaluate such things as the importance of exercising the quality of
sleeping arrangements the palatability of food seemingly small
items but things of essential importance in a lunar mission they even recorded
the preparation of a drink for a meal
all right we have comet Australian by the time Apollo 7 entered its 11th day
in space it had exceeded the time required for a flight to the moon and
back it was also well on its way to accomplishing all planned objectives and
more Apollo 7 was called 101 percent successful on the morning of October
22nd 1968 Apollo 7 began its final revolution the 163rd
at approximately two hundred fifty nine hours and 39 minutes after liftoff the
spacecraft propulsion system was burned for the final time and Apollo 7 headed
home to earth
from motion picture film recorded during an earlier unmanned Apollo mission we
get some idea what the trip back through the atmosphere was like
you
in less than an hour after touchdown in the Atlantic Ocean
the flight crew emerged from helicopters which had brought them to the recovery
ship the carrier USS Essex
and the next manned Apollo flight can be undertaken with confidence that our
brand-new spacecraft is as commander Walter schirra reported a magnificent
flying machine four days after the return of Apollo 7 the Soviets
successfully launched Soyuz three with one cosmonaut on board the race to the
moon was back on and NASA rose to the challenge with Apollo 8 that documentary
next time on as it happened how we went to the moon I'm Doris tau at the NASA
lunar Science Institute
you
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but by a bleep