SCHIRRA: Deke, I can’t get my hand in there, besides a handkerchief, and we’re not at all safely braced for landing. But the mode we wanted was to have them on without being latched down to the neckring. SCHIRRA: No, we can get them on we can’t get them off.

SLAYTON: Did you conclude you could not get helmets on? Is that the problem? So they simply refused to wear the helmets. They were particularly concerned that the changing pressures during re-entry would wreak havoc with their sinuses, possibly even bursting their ear drums. But Schirra and his crew had been relieving sinus pressure by pinching their noses and blowing their helmets, new models for the Apollo mission with no visor openings, would make this impossible. Every previous crewed re-entry and landing, during the Mercury and Gemini missions, required the astronauts to wear their helmets. I refuse to foul up our time lines this way.” (The crew did at least seem to enjoy their TV broadcast when the time came.)Īn even bigger breach of protocol came toward the end of the mission, and centered on the crew’s helmets. “We do not have the equipment out we have not had an opportunity to follow setting we have not eaten at this point,” Schirra said (page 115 of the official voice transcriptions). Deke Slayton back on the ground tried to persuade him to squeeze in some camera time. When Schirra wanted to delay that first-time live TV broadcast so they could complete crucial mission tests, he met with resistance. Reporters soon noted the increasing “snappishness” of the crew in their conversations with mission control. Losing ControlĪ demanding work environment does not typically mix well with feeling awful. As a result, the Apollo 7 crew had typical symptoms - stuffy noses, dry nostrils, congestion - and little relief. And as annoying as colds usually are, space-colds are even worse, since there’s no gravity to pull at and drain mucus from the head. Schirra came down with a severe head cold about 15 hours into the flight, with the rest of the crew soon joining him. “The bags certainly were not convenient and there were usually unpleasant odors.” Apparently the three men only used them 12 times during the nearly 11-day trip.īut worst of all, the astronauts got sick. “The waste management system for collecting solid body wastes was adequate, though annoying,” according to NASA’s own description. Space food was hardly home cooking, observed Commander Walter Schirra Jr., and its disposal was no treat either. The Apollo spacecraft had about four times more room than its Gemini predecessors, but conditions were still cramped and uncomfortable. Overall, the crew never encountered any issues they couldn’t handle. As a NASA video put it, the mission had to “prove that the spacecraft command and service modules would function properly in space, long enough to carry man to the moon and back.Īfter a smooth entry into orbit, the crew conducted their equipment testing with only slight problems and minor equipment malfunctions. Apollo hardware had proven safe enough in space by itself, but this mission would be a crucial test of new equipment. When Apollo 7 launched on October 11, 1968, it was the first time NASA sent astronauts into space since a cabin fire had killed the Apollo 1 crew some 21 months earlier.

Mutiny on skylab