Apollo 7 Flies: NASA's Comeback After Apollo 1
Apollo 7 launched on October 11, 1968, carrying the first American crew into space since the Apollo 1 fire killed three astronauts on the launch pad 21 months earlier. Commander Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, and Walt Cunningham spent eleven days in Earth orbit testing the redesigned command module. Schirra had a cold and was irritable throughout the flight, clashing repeatedly with mission control over procedures. The crew broadcast seven live television segments, the first from an American spacecraft, earning an Emmy Award. Despite the interpersonal friction, the mission proved the Apollo spacecraft was safe and reliable. NASA gained the confidence to send Apollo 8 around the Moon just two months later. None of the Apollo 7 crew ever flew in space again.
October 11, 1968
58 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on October 11
The 1138 Aleppo earthquake hit on October 11th with enough force to collapse the city's citadel — a fortress that had stood for centuries. Chroniclers wrote tha…
The earth violently fractured beneath Aleppo, leveling the city’s citadel and crushing thousands of residents in one of history’s deadliest seismic events. This…
The Jin Dynasty and Song Dynasty had been fighting for decades over northern China. The 1142 treaty froze the border along the Huai River. Song agreed to pay Ji…
The Jin and Song dynasties had been at war for fifteen years. The treaty signed in 1142 gave Jin control of all of northern China. The Song paid annual tribute …
English barons and clergy forced King Edward II to accept the Ordinances of 1311, stripping him of his power to appoint ministers or declare war without parliam…
Huldrych Zwingli died in 1531 with a sword in his hand. He was a Protestant reformer, a theologian, a preacher — and he marched with Zurich's army as a chaplain…
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