F 1228 Apollo 7 News Release
Video from the channel San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives about Apollo 7, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 6:03. Language: English. Video type: Archive footage.
What it shows
NASA informational film ahead of Apollo 7, the program's first crewed mission. It introduces the crew: Walter M. Schirra Jr., commander; Donn Eisele, command module pilot; and Walter Cunningham, lunar module pilot. The flight director explains that the goal was to check out and qualify the command and service module's systems in Earth orbit, above all life support, propulsion and control, on an open-ended mission of up to about 163 revolutions and some ten days, limited by the oxygen available.
When and where it was filmed
It was filmed a few days before launch, at Complex 34 of the Kennedy Space Center, and includes footage of the countdown demonstration test at Cape Kennedy.
Context
The spacecraft incorporated changes made over the previous year and a half, such as a one-piece hatch that opens quickly from inside or outside and non-flammable materials in the cabin. The crew logged nearly 1,200 hours of training and Houston's controllers more than 525 hours of rehearsals. Five experiments are mentioned, three medical, plus a television camera weighing about four and a half pounds. Schirra remembers the three lost crewmates.