The Apollo 7 spacecraft crew consisted of Commander Wally Schirra, Command Module Pilot Donn Eisele, and Walt Cunningham as Lunar Module Pilot. NASA’s first successful three-person space mission flew in Earth orbit from October 11 to October 22, 1968. This was the first mission after the devastating Apollo 1 fire the prior year that had killed the crew. Apollo 7 put America back in space and on course for a successful lunar landing on the Apollo 11 mission less than a year later.
“The world looked so beautiful from that lofty perch—I wondered why we must have wars and poverty and pollution. I realized that the abundant earth will sustain us forever with air to breathe, water to drink, and all the other good things we need—if we take care of it. Mankind needs the earth but the earth does not need mankind. Our survival is all up to us.”
—Apollo Pilot - The Memoir of Astronaut Donn Eisele, 74