The primary objectives for Apollo 7 were simple: "Demonstrate CSM/crew performance; demonstrate crew/space vehicle mission support facilities performance during a manned CSM mission; demonstrate CSM rendezvous capability."

The first manned Apollo flight speed skyward from Launch Complex 34 a few minutes after 11:00 on the morning of 11 October. (Saturn IB 205 and CSM-101, the first Block II CSM) Ten and a half minutes after launch Apollo 7 reached the first stage of its journey, an orbital path 227 by 285 kilometers above the earth.

Some of the crew's grumpiness during the mission could be attributed to physical discomfort. About 15 hours into the flight, Schirra developed a bad cold, and Cunningham and Eisele soon followed suit. Several days before the mission ended, they began to worry about wearing their suit helmets during reentry, which would prevent them from blowing their noses. The buildup of pressure might burst their eardrums. Slayton, in mission control, tried to persuade them to wear the helmets, anyway, but Schirra was adamant. They each took a decongestant pill about an hour before reentry and made it through the acceleration zone without any problems with their ears.

That "magnificent flying machine," as Cunningham called it, circled the earth for more than 260 hours. On 22 October, the crew brought the ship down in the Atlantic southeast of Bermuda, less than two kilometers from the planned impact point. On landing, the craft turned nose down, but the crew quickly inflated the air bags and the ship righted itself. The tired, but happy, voyagers were picked up by helicopter and deposited on the deck of the U.S.S. Essex.

(June, 1968) -- NASA photo ID: S68-26668. APOLLO 7 INSIGNIA: The official emblem of Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo spacemission.