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Command Service Module-101 started through the manufacturing cycle early in 1966. By July, it had been formed, wired, fitted with subsystems, and made ready for testing. After the Apollo 1 fire in January 1967, changes had to be made, mainly in the wiring, hatch areas, and the forward egress tunnel. It was December before the spacecraft came back into testing. CSM-101 passed through a three-phase customer acceptance review; during the third session, held in Downey on May 7th 1968, no items showed up that might be a “constraint to launch.” North American cleared up what few deficiencies there were (13) and shipped the craft to Kennedy on May 30th 1967…
AS-205’s First Stage on the pedestal
Apollo 7 Crew practice climbing out of the spacecraft
Apollo 7 Launch
Mike – really loved this podcast. Although a Brit, I grew up in the US in the late 60s and remember watching this launch (on CBS). Haven’t heard the audio since then (with Walter Cronkite) and just found the video of the launch on YouTube. Apart from the early Apollo tests, this was the first flight I remember watching live. I’m sure my elementary school had a TV set up for this mission, as they did right up to Apollo 11. Fantastic memories. The first of the US space missions I watched end-to-end. Glad they decided to take the TV camera, even (if I remember this right) they didn’t really waont to use it much. Even after all these years, I can name the crews of all the Apollo fights, to the embarrassment or my teenage daughters….
Thanks Brian. It is the first flight I remember as well. I was 8 years old at the time.