196 a
On the third day of the mission, TV viewers on Earth “witnessed the first live television signals broadcast to the ground from a manned American spacecraft. The telecast opened with a sign that read ‘From the lovely Apollo room high atop everything’. It was one of seven historic broadcasts during the mission that included views through the window, spacecraft tours, and demonstrations of weightlessness and food preparation” (https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_7/photography/).
Crewmembers Donn Eisele and Walter Schirra are depicted in the first image, and Donn Eisele in the second image.
Allowing the 4.5-pound RCA video camera on board the spacecraft was a source of serious debate in NASA councils but these historic TV images were precious and served as educational moments for the public. The seven telecasts lasted only a few minutes each, but gave millions on Earth their first view of living in space.
196 b
Etched with remarkable clarity, the Himalayas pass beneath the high-flying Apollo 7 at an altitude of 130 nautical miles.
“The world’s dozen peaks which reach a height greater than five miles above sea level are visible with the 29,028 ft. high Mount Everest at lower center. On the central horizon can be seen the 28,250 ft. high Mount K-2 some 800 miles northwest of Mount Everest. In the lower right, Mount Kanchenjunga rises 28,208 ft. to separate Nepal from Sikkim. The snow line on the peaks was at 17,500 ft. In the upper right the lake-studded highlands of Tibet are visible” (original NASA caption for AS7-7-1748).
“With at least one window in the spacecraft always facing such dazzling sights, Cunningham grew a bit blasé. Already on the eleventh or twelfth pass he found himself thinking, ‘Oh, it’s the Himalayas again’” (Mason, p. 144).
196 c
The views were transmitted from the Apollo 7 spacecraft orbiting 90 nautical miles over the Earth. The first image shows Cunningham reaching for pen floating in cabin’s weightless environment near the control panel. A weightless Donn Eisele is visible behind the TV camera’s cable in the second image.
“In zero gravity with no up and down, the pilots stood weightlessly at their station, held to the cockpit floor by cables clipped to their waists” (Reynolds, p. 123).
196 d
A weightless Cunningham is conducting zero gravity experiments in space.
He is “reconstituting citrus drink contained in vacuum-packaged plastic bag, foreground. He is kneading the contents after adding water through a one way valve. Next he would cut the neck of the bag and squeeze the rehydrated citrus drink into his mouth. Spacecraft’s optical systems are at Cunningham’s right. They are the navigation sextant, foreground, and the scanning telescope, background” (NASA caption).
196 e
The photograph was taken from an altitude of 89 nautical miles showing Malaysia, east coast from Chukai to Paleng River.
“We were never allowed to reorient the spacecraft simply to take a picture; it was especially wasteful of fuel when fuel could be very critical. We were very conservative. You had to rely on the random drift of the spacecraft to pass through a good attitude,” said Walter Cunningham (Schick and Van Haaften, p. 85).
196 f
“Commander Walter Schirra reaches for on board motion picture camera floating in cabin’s weightless interior” (NASA caption).
“On Earth, in recognition of these exciting first live television broadcasts from a space capsule, astronaut commander Walter Schirra took home an Emmy” (Reynolds, p. 80).
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