Cunningham was the second American civilian to fly in space.
in a fire on the launch pad the year earlier, served as a critical shakedown cruise for the redesigned command module before it could fly astronauts to the moon.Astronaut Walt Cunningham with his Apollo 7 crewmates Donn Eisele and Walter"Wally" Schirra.as command module pilot, Cunningham's designation on Apollo 7 was lunar module pilot, even though there was no moon lander.
"We fixed a lot of things [that were wrong with the Apollo 1 command module] and were able to fly a much better spacecraft," said Cunningham in afor NASA."The one that we flew was almost perfect! I mean, it was just — you couldn't have asked for a better piece of hardware for the first time."launch on a Saturn IB rocket
from Complex 34 at what it is today the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, Apollo 7 was also the first American flight to include live television from space. Direct"from the lovelyroom high atop everything," as a hand-written card displayed at the start of the first broadcast, Schirra, Cunningham and Eisele gave the world below a look at their spacecraft and what it was like to live in space.
The"Wally, Walt, and Donn Show" was a resounding hit and earned Cunningham and his Apollo 7 crewmates a special Emmy award.The mission was not without its difficulties, though. The astronauts found it was hard to sleep given that one crew member had to remain awake and active at all times, frequently disturbing the others. Schirra also developed a head cold, which exasperated his frustrations with Mission Control as more objectives were added to an already busy start of the flight.
"When Wally had a cold, everybody had to be miserable — and there is no question that that can make a little bit of misery. But we all worked through that," said Cunningham."I think the real problem was it was the first mission. We had planned it for 11 days, but you don't know how long it's going to last because something may happen and you have to come back.
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