October 11, 1968
Crew: Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, Walt Cunningham
Orbits: 163
Duration: 10 days, 20 hours, 9 minutes and 3 seconds
Apollo’s race to the Moon resumed on October 11th, 1968. Powered by a Saturn IB, Apollo 7 put Americans back into space for the first time in almost two years. There was a lot riding on the success of the mission.
Before launch, Schirra demanded a different Pad Leader. Gunter Wendt was the McDonnell employee who the company had installed as Pad Leader for Mercury and Gemini. But North American was the contractor for the Apollo, and they brought in their own Pad Leader. Schirra would have none of it and pressured Deke Slayton into forcing North American to hire Wendt. Then Schirra pressured North American into making sure Wendt would be the Pad Leader on duty for the launch itself.
During the countdown, Schirra wasn’t happy that NASA had chosen to ignore its own mission safety rules and launch into a wind blowing in from the east. An abort would mean the capsule might come down on land instead of in the ocean.
Everything went well with the launch, with Schirra describing the Saturn IB ride to be a lot smoother than what he had experienced with the Titan II on his Gemini VI flight. Upon reaching orbit, Command Module Pilot Eisele maneuvered to practice the rendezvous and docking procedures that would be used on later flights that carried a Lunar Module. One of the four panels at the top of the S-IVB, where the LM would have been stored, hadn’t fully opened. Had it been aboard, it might have been dangerous to try the docking and retrieval.
There were minor equipment problems throughout the duration of the flight, but they were all easy enough to overcome. But Schirra came down with a cold, and the entire crew became frustrated and testy. They’d discovered that the waste collection system took up to thirty minutes to use and it smelled bad. They argued with the CapComs working in mission control about their scheduled objectives. The astronaut’s boss, Deke Slayton, got involved in the discussion, and Schirra argued with him.
They would argue again, later, over the NASA requirement that they wear helmets when they were landing. Schirra objected, in part because sinus pressures from their colds might cause their eardrums to explode if they couldn’t equalize the pressure by holding their noses and blowing. Slayton got on the line again: “I guess you better be prepared to discuss in some detail when we land why you haven’t got them on.” Schirra responded that they had tried their helmets on that morning.
“The only thing we’re concerned about is the landing. We couldn’t care less about the reentry,” Slayton said. “But it’s your neck, and I hope you don’t break it.”
At that point, Schirra was already done with NASA, having announced his retirement before the flight began. Eisele and Cunningham never flew another mission for NASA.
Launch Complex 34, which had been built to handle the Saturn IB launches, was never used again. It was torn down, and all that remains is the launch platform, some flame deflectors, and the blockhouse. Two plaques to honor the Apollo 1 crew have been affixed to the side of the Launch Platform. The first reads:
LAUNCH COMPLEX 34
Friday, 27 January 1967
1831 Hours
Dedicated to the living memory of the crew of the Apollo 1
U.S.A.F. Lt. Colonel Virgil I. Grissom
U.S.A.F. Lt. Colonel Edward H. White, II
U.S.N. Lt. Commander Roger B. Chaffee
They gave their lives in service to their country in the ongoing exploration of humankind's final frontier. Remember them not for how they died but for those ideals for which they lived.
The second:
IN MEMORY
OF
THOSE WHO MADE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE
SO OTHERS COULD REACH THE STARS
AD ASTRA PER ASPERA
(A ROUGH ROAD LEADS TO THE STARS)
GOD SPEED TO THE CREW
OF
APOLLO 1