Author Topic: Happy 49th Anniversary Apollo 7  (Read 6848 times)

Offline RIB

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Happy 49th Anniversary Apollo 7
« on: 10/11/2017 09:53 pm »
49 years ago today, a crew flew behind an hydro-lox upper stage for the first time  and America orbited it's first 3 manned spacecraft.

Offline eric z

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Re: Happy 49th Anniversary Apollo 7
« Reply #1 on: 10/16/2017 09:35 am »
 Just like Apollo 9 and 10 set the table for Apollo 11, Apollo 7 is another extremely under-rated mission...The complexity of the CSM, with the horrible Apollo 1 fire to overcome, gave Wally Schirra, Walt Cunningham and Donn Eisele one of those flights that gets lost in the shuffle as the years go by, but remains to be viewed as the "base-camp" enabling the glorious Apollo 8's flight into history. 8)

Offline Ronpur50

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Re: Happy 49th Anniversary Apollo 7
« Reply #2 on: 10/17/2017 03:43 am »
I posted this on Facebook on the anniversary date.  This is my model with  the Apollo 7 patch and the Apollo 7 Phoenix patch.

Offline MATTBLAK

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Re: Happy 49th Anniversary Apollo 7
« Reply #3 on: 10/17/2017 03:47 am »



And this one:

« Last Edit: 10/17/2017 03:49 am by MATTBLAK »
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Online catdlr

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Re: Happy 49th Anniversary Apollo 7
« Reply #4 on: 10/17/2017 11:55 am »
APOLLO 7 first manned mission: Wernher von Braun and Walter Cronkite, October 1968

Dan Beaumont Space Museum
Published on Oct 17, 2017

(From VCRRepair76) 
NASA-Mission Objective.  The primary objectives for the Apollo 7 engineering test flight were simple: Demonstrate command and service module, or CSM, and crew performance; demonstrate crew, space vehicle and mission support facilities performance during a crewed CSM mission; and demonstrate CSM rendezvous capability.



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Offline 4throck

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Re: Happy 49th Anniversary Apollo 7
« Reply #5 on: 10/17/2017 02:24 pm »
An attempt at speed correcting the stage inspection footage (original at 1 or 6 fps).

Highlights:



Full sequence:


Offline Proponent

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Re: Happy 49th Anniversary Apollo 7
« Reply #6 on: 10/17/2017 03:00 pm »
I posted this on Facebook on the anniversary date.  This is my model with  the Apollo 7 patch and the Apollo 7 Phoenix patch.

Nice model!

What's the story behind the Phoenix patch, which I don't believe I've seen before?

Offline Ronpur50

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Re: Happy 49th Anniversary Apollo 7
« Reply #7 on: 10/18/2017 05:01 am »
I posted this on Facebook on the anniversary date.  This is my model with  the Apollo 7 patch and the Apollo 7 Phoenix patch.

Nice model!

What's the story behind the Phoenix patch, which I don't believe I've seen before?

It is a design that Walt Cunningham came up with with Tim Gagnon, based on the original plan the crew had for using the image of the phoenix rising from the ashes.  NASA did not approve the idea.    http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-101514a-apollo7-phoenix-mission-patch.html

Offline MarsMethanogen

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Re: Happy 49th Anniversary Apollo 7
« Reply #8 on: 10/18/2017 03:09 pm »
An attempt at speed correcting the stage inspection footage (original at 1 or 6 fps).

You should correct the caption at the beginning.  It's not the Saturn V.  It's the SIV (second) stage of the SIB launch vehicle.

Offline Proponent

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Re: Happy 49th Anniversary Apollo 7
« Reply #9 on: 10/18/2017 05:08 pm »
To be really picky, it's the S-IVB stage -- the S-IV was the six-RL-10-engine second stage of the Saturn I.

Offline MarsMethanogen

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Re: Happy 49th Anniversary Apollo 7
« Reply #10 on: 10/18/2017 08:27 pm »
To be really picky, it's the S-IVB stage -- the S-IV was the six-RL-10-engine second stage of the Saturn I.
My omission.  Not picky at all and absolutely correct.

Offline 4throck

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Re: Happy 49th Anniversary Apollo 7
« Reply #11 on: 10/19/2017 08:32 am »
Video thumbnails and description corrected.

The S-IVB is part of Saturn V, so it's not completely wrong to call it a Saturn V stage I think ;)
But many thanks for bringing that up! That's expected on a forum like this.

It's hard to get a good balance between precise terms on video titles and something that will appeal to the masses.
"Moon rocket" is too generic, "S-IVB" too specific.


More on topic,  Apollo 7 is very overlooked.
I've only found audio highlights, not the complete tapes.
There's some good CM interior footage and it would be great if it could be synced to the relevant audio.
« Last Edit: 10/19/2017 08:33 am by 4throck »

Offline Proponent

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Re: Happy 49th Anniversary Apollo 7
« Reply #12 on: 10/19/2017 12:19 pm »
The S-IVB is part of Saturn V, so it's not completely wrong to call it a Saturn V stage I think ;)

There were a few differences between the 200-series S-IVB's used on the Saturn IB and their 500-series counterparts which flew on the Saturn V.  For one, the 200's had three ullage motors, whereas the 500's had just two.  Since the S-IVB=200's were ignited at a lower altitude, there was more drag to contend with.  The 500's could restart (once), whereas the 200's couldn't.

Offline Apollo-phill

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Re: Happy 49th Anniversary Apollo 7
« Reply #13 on: 10/19/2017 12:49 pm »
Attached is a PDF of an article on Apollo which I wrote a few months before Apollo 7 way way back now in 1966/7.

It has a good cutaway of Apollo CSM with escape tower.

All info was kindly provided by NASA, NAA, Grumman, Boeing, McDonnel Douglas, TRW et al at the time as it existed and understood in late 1966 .


Phill Parker

Offline deaville

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Re: Happy 49th Anniversary Apollo 7
« Reply #14 on: 10/19/2017 02:15 pm »
What's the story behind the Phoenix patch, which I don't believe I've seen before?

One that was a lot more fun was the 'Rub-a-dub-dub' patch designed by Karen Stafford at the suggestion of Don Eisele. Regretably it never saw the light of day and is subject to copyright restrictions.
Light travels faster than sound, which is why some people appear bright until they speak.

Online catdlr

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Re: Happy 49th Anniversary Apollo 7
« Reply #15 on: 12/12/2017 03:27 am »
Apollo 7 Pre-Flight News Release 1967 NASA; Wally Schirra; First Manned Apollo Spaceflight


Jeff Quitney
Published on Dec 11, 2017

Press briefing prior to the first manned flight of the Apollo series. Apollo 7 was designated to make the essential test of the Apollo spacecraft following the Apollo 1 (aka Apollo 6, aka Apollo 204) fire.


Apollo 7 was the first manned mission in the United States Apollo space program, and the first manned US space flight after a cabin fire killed the crew of what was to have been the first manned mission, AS-204 (later renamed Apollo 1), during a launch pad test in 1967. It was a C type mission—an 11-day Earth-orbital mission, the first manned launch of the Saturn IB launch vehicle, and the first three-person US space mission. The crew was commanded by Walter M. Schirra, with Command Module Pilot Donn F. Eisele, and Lunar Module Pilot R. Walter Cunningham.

The mission was the first manned test of the redesigned Block II Apollo Command/Service Module. It flew in Earth orbit so the crew could check life-support, propulsion, and control systems. Despite tension between the crew and ground controllers, the mission was a technical success, which gave NASA the confidence to launch Apollo 8 around the Moon two months later. However, the flight would prove to be the last space flight for all of its three crew members. It was also the final manned launch from what was then known as Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, Florida.

Mission highlights

Apollo 7 was a test flight, and confidence-builder. After the January 1967 Apollo launch pad fire, the Apollo Command Module had been extensively redesigned. Schirra, who would be the only astronaut to fly Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions, commanded this Earth-orbital shakedown of the Command and Service Modules. Since it was not carrying a Lunar Module and only needed to reach a low earth orbit, Apollo 7 could be launched with the Saturn IB booster rather than the much larger and more powerful Saturn V. Schirra wanted to name the Apollo 7 Command module "Phoenix" (the mythical bird rising from its own ashes) in memory of the late Apollo 1 crew, but NASA management rejected the idea.

The Apollo hardware and all mission operations worked without any significant problems, and the Service Propulsion System (SPS), the all-important engine that would place Apollo into and out of lunar orbit, made eight nearly perfect firings.

Even though Apollo's larger cabin was more comfortable than Gemini's, 11 days in orbit took its toll on the astronauts. Tension with Schirra began with the launch decision, when flight managers decided to launch with a less than ideal abort option for the early part of the ascent. Once in orbit, the spacious cabin may have induced some crew motion sickness, which had not been an issue in the earlier, smaller spacecraft. The crew was also unhappy with their food selections. But the worst problem occurred when Schirra developed a severe head cold. As a result, he became irritable with requests from Mission Control and all three astronauts began "talking back" to the Capcom.

Exchanges such as this led to all three Apollo 7 crew members being rejected for future missions. Despite these difficulties, the mission successfully met its objective of verifying manned flight capability of the Apollo Command and Service Modules, allowing the flight of Apollo 8 to the Moon just two months later.

Beyond a shakedown of the spacecraft, goals for the mission included the first live television broadcast from an American spacecraft (Gordon Cooper had broadcast slow scan television pictures from Faith 7 in 1963) and testing the mock LM docking maneuver which involved rendezvous with the launch vehicle's discarded upper stage (referred to by Schirra in the above conversation.)

The splashdown point was 27 deg 32 min N, 64 deg 04 min W, 200 nautical miles (370 km) SSW of Bermuda and 7 nmi (13 km) north of the recovery ship USS Essex.

Apollo 7 was the only manned Apollo launch to take place from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station's Launch Complex 34. All subsequent Apollo and Skylab missions (including Apollo-Soyuz) were launched from Launch Complex 39 at the nearby Kennedy Space Center, and Launch Complex 34 was retired.

As of 2012, Cunningham is the only surviving member of the crew. Eisele died in 1987 and Schirra in 2007.

-----------------------------------------

Originally a public domain film from NASA, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).



Tony De La Rosa, ...I'm no Feline Dealer!! I move mountains.  but I'm better known for "I think it's highly sexual." Japanese to English Translation.

Offline Oersted

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Re: Happy 49th Anniversary Apollo 7
« Reply #16 on: 12/12/2017 08:58 am »
This anniversary is a depressing reminder that the Apollo 11 half-century anniversary is coming up soon, with no firm plans for a manned Moon return in sight.

Offline 4throck

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Re: Happy 49th Anniversary Apollo 7
« Reply #17 on: 01/11/2018 10:20 am »
Trying something new (as far a I know).  ;)
The Apollo 7 command module interior footage corrected for fisheye perspective, and presented as a 360º video.

Lens coverage is about 120º so don't expect to be able to pan much.
But it's quite immersive and you can drag the video a bit.



« Last Edit: 01/11/2018 10:21 am by 4throck »

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