Day: October 11, 1968

Apollo 7

Apollo 7After a year of redesign and reorganization, NASA resumes manned flights with Apollo 7, the first of the successful Apollo flights. An 11-day Earth-orbit shakedown cruise for the Apollo command/service module, the mission becomes contentious when the three-man crew – Wally Schirra, Walt Cunningham and Donn Eisele – is loaded down with a jam-packed mission plan. Worse, Schirra comes down with a cold which quickly spreads to his crewmates in the enclosed biosphere of the Apollo command module. The flight’s technical goals are met with flying colors, though the crew’s snippy responses to ground controllers keep them off the crew rotation for future Apollo flights.

This mission is dramatized in the We Have Cleared The Tower episode of HBO’s 1998 series From The Earth To The Moon.

Star Trek: And The Children Shall Lead

Star TrekThe 59th episode of Gene Roddenberry’s science fiction series Star Trek airs on NBC. Melvin Belli guest stars; future Space Academy cast members Pamelyn Ferdin and Brian Tochi both appear as children in this episode.

More about Star Trek in the LogBook