What happened on October 11 in History

NASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful crewed Apollo mission: October 11, 1968, was a hot day at Cape Canaveral, but a pleasant breeze tempered the Florida heat when Apollo 7 lifted off from Launch Complex 34 in a blaze of orange-colored flames. The Saturn IB, in its first trial launch with humans aboard—Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele and Walt Cunningham—provided a perfect launch.

Once the vehicle cleared the launch pad, a three-shift mission control team—led by flight directors Glynn Lunney, Gene Kranz and Gerry Griffin—in Houston took over. The Saturn’s first stage separated more than 2 minutes later allowing the second stage S-IVB to immediately take over. Commander Wally Schirra reported, “She is riding like a dream.” Just over 10 minutes after launch, Apollo 7 achieved an elliptical orbit of 140 -by -183 miles above Earth.

The S-IVB remained attached to the CSM for about one-and-a-half orbits until separation. Schirra fired the CSM’s small rockets to pull 50 feet ahead of the S-IVB, then turned the spacecraft around to simulate rendezvous and docking, as would be necessary to extract a Lunar Module (LM) for future Moon landings.