Apollo 7 blasts off at 11:03 a.m. on October 11, 1968. A tracking antenna is seen on the left.
RETURN TO FLIGHT
The year 1968 saw a resumption of manned space flight by both the Soviet Union and the United States, the first time that either country had launched a human into space since the misfortunes of the previous year. Maneuvers essential for a manned lunar landing—such as docking in space—preoccupied both nations, despite Soviet denials that their immediate goal was a mission to the Moon. However, once the bold plan by the Americans to attempt a manned lunar orbit were known, an opportunity arose for the Soviet Union to steal ahead in the race.
More by luck than planning, the Soviet “return to flight” Soyuz mission would take place in time for the 51st anniversary of the Great October Revolution. The plan was to carry out a manned repeat of the successful automated docking of a year before—in other words, for a cosmonaut in a manned Soyuz to link up with an automated unmanned Soyuz. The two ships would remain docked for a few hours before separating and carrying out independent missions. Such a conservative rendezvous and docking mission would hopefully lead the way for the long-delayed intership cosmonaut transfer attempt. The Soviet political leadership was anxious to resume space missions after the long gap, particularly because of NASA’s forthcoming Apollo 7 mission in October—the first manned US spaceflight since the disastrous Apollo 1 fire of January 1967.
The redesigned Apollo capsule was launched as Apollo 7 on October 11, 1968, from launch pad 34 at Cape Kennedy. On board were Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele and Walter Cunningham—the Apollo 1 backup crew. It was not only the United States’ return to flight after the tragedy, but an important shakedown flight to test the cone-shaped Apollo Command Module for the first time in space, along with its associated Service Module. It was also the first manned flight of a Saturn booster, in this case the Saturn 1B variant. It was 68 meters (224 feet) in height, and humans had never ridden into space on a more powerful rocket. Schirra was now 45 years old and making his third spaceflight. Alongside him were two rookies. Knowing that it was almost certainly his last trip into space, Schirra was determined that it should be a perfect mission—and especially his mission. Unfortunately, shortly after liftoff he developed a cold.
Schirra: We launched on a Friday. I remember this very specifically. In orbit, our so-called Friday night, Donn Eisele was on watch and Cunningham and I were supposed to be sleeping. And I hear Donn saying: “Wally won’t like that.” I put on my mike and listened in. “Oh, we’re supposed to put on the television tomorrow morning.” I said: “Well, we didn’t have it in the schedule, gentlemen. That doesn’t go on till Sunday morning.” I should have said: “I don’t want to interrupt Howdy Doody [a popular television program],” but I wouldn’t have gotten away with it. What I really was saying was: “We have not checked this system out. It’s in the flight plan to be checked at this point in time. We’ll check it at that point in time.”
Cunningham: Well, Apollo 7 became very important. If we had not had a success on Apollo 7, we really don’t know what would’ve happened to the space program. Another accident and the fainthearted in the country, as we have a tendency to be, would’ve been clamoring to stop it. There was some real bickering back and forth between Wally and the ground. I, frankly, have never felt like I had any kind of a problem with the ground, but Wally was still demonstrating that it was Wally’s flight and Wally was in charge. He has maintained since, that he felt the responsibility. He’s never said that what he did was anything except the responsible thing to do. I really think it’s a case of, in some instances, Wally wanting to insist he was in charge when nobody cared who was in charge anyway.
The successful mission lasted almost 11 days. They simulated many of the events that would be required for a mission to the Moon. At one stage their rocket propelled them into a 269-mile-high (433-km) orbit. “That was a real kick in the pants,” exclaimed Schirra. Reentry went according to plan, although Schirra refused to don his helmet for the procedure. The Apollo equipment received a thumbs-up, even if the commander of the flight did not.
Just a few days after Apollo 7 returned, target vehicle Soyuz 2 passed over the Russian launch site. And at that moment the USSR’s return to flight, Soyuz 3, lifted off with Colonel Georgi Beregovoy aboard. It was the first-ever piloted launch from site 31, the second launch complex at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. At 47 years old, Beregovoi was at that time the oldest person to go into space. Once in orbit, the Igla automated docking system brought Soyuz 3 to within 200 meters (656 feet) of Soyuz 2, at which point Beregovoi took over manual control. But the two ships were not aligned perfectly and instead of stabilizing his ship along a direct axis to Soyuz 2, Beregovoi put his spacecraft into an incorrect orientation. This caused Soyuz 2’s radar system, sensing an error, to automatically turn the craft’s nose away to prevent an incorrect docking. Beregovoi did not see the problem and performed a fly-around, and then tried to approach Soyuz 2 for a second time, but the same thing happened. By this time he had almost exhausted all the propellant available for such maneuvers, meaning that further docking attempts had to be called off. For three days, 22 hours and 50 minutes Beregovoi had circled the Earth 64 times; while his flight may not have been successful, at least it was not a disaster.
Because of delays to the next flight-ready L1 vehicle, the Soviets had to forego the October lunar launch window, thus shifting any possible launch into November. Soviet space planners were aware of the rumors of an Apollo lunar-orbital mission by the end of the year so they resorted to their usual public tactic—obfuscation—giving contradictory positions. On October 14 academician Sedov, who was representing the Soviet Union at the 19th Congress of the International Astronautical Federation in New York, stated:
The question of sending astronauts to the Moon at this time is not an item on our agenda. The exploration of the Moon is possible, but is not a priority.
It was a lie.
The success of the Apollo 7 mission crystallized an audacious idea that had already been discussed at NASA. It was in early August that George Low, the deputy director of NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, ordered his staff to work on a plan to eliminate the so-called “E” Apollo mission in favor of the much more ambitious “C-prime” flight—in which an Apollo Command and Service Module launched on a Saturn V would go directly into lunar orbit. It was a risky decision, since it would be only the third launch of the Saturn V booster and the first time humans had flown on it, not to mention the obvious fact that the risks of going into lunar orbit were far greater than going into orbit around the Earth. But the advantages were many in terms of technical and scientific knowledge, as well as providing a demonstration of what the United States could achieve. A few weeks later NASA HQ gave its approval for the “C-prime” mission, provided that Apollo 7 was successful. Furthermore, Zond 5 had already gone around the Moon, and as far as NASA knew a Soviet manned circumlunar flight could take place any time soon. The Soviets had a manned lunar launch window in December 1968. Would they be able to upstage Apollo 8?
By early November the Soviets were still planning two more automated L1 lunar missions, one in mid-November and one in early December, to be followed by a manned circumlunar flight in January. But once they heard about the planned Apollo 8 lunar orbit, they realized they had an advantage if they could only use it. The Apollo 8 launch window opened on December 21, but because of different lunar trajectories undertaken from the two launch sites the circumlunar launch window for a Soviet launch from central Asia would occur earlier, around December 8–10. However, despite much press speculation in the West, and an increase in tension approaching December 8, the USSR was just not in a position to take advantage of the opportunity.
An automated L1 launch did take place on November 11, sending the spacecraft designated Zond 6 toward the Moon. As soon as it was on its way controllers discovered that an antenna boom had not deployed. Despite this the mission went very well, with Zond 6 flying around the far side of the Moon two days later at a closest distance of 1500 miles (2420 km). After it had circled the Moon, controllers had to refine the spacecraft’s trajectory for it to perform a guided reentry into Earth’s atmosphere and land on Soviet territory. The first correction was successfully accomplished, and it looked as if everything was on track until controllers detected a disastrous problem: the air pressure within the descent apparatus had dropped, indicating a compromise of the spacecraft’s structural integrity. Despite the partial depressurization, later found to be the result of a faulty rubber gasket, the critical systems on the ship remained operational, and the controllers were able to carry out the third and final mid-course correction, just eight and a half hours prior to reentry at a distance of 75,000 miles (120,000 km) from Earth.
On the morning of November 17 Zond 6 separated into its two component modules prior to reentry. Passing through its 5700-mile-long (9000-km) reentry corridor, it skipped out of the atmosphere, having reduced velocity down to 4.7 miles (7.6 km) per second, and began a second reentry that further lowered velocity to only 200 meters (656 feet) per second. The complex reentry was a remarkable demonstration of the precision of the L1 resentry profile designed to reduce G forces. However, during part of the descent, pressure in the descent apparatus reduced further, killing any biological specimens on board. No doubt, a crew within the ship would have perished as well. Then the parachute system failed and it plummeted to the ground and smashed into pieces. Remarkably, the impact occurred only 10 miles (16 km) from the Proton launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, where Zond 6 had lifted off just six days and 19 hours previously. The crushed descent apparatus clearly carried a lot of valuable materials. Among the items recovered intact from the wreckage was the exposed film from the camera, which provided beautiful pictures of both Earth and the Moon.
Because of the crash, Mishin postponed any plans for a piloted L1 mission in the near future; the dreams of Soviet engineers and scientists of circling the Moon prior to the United States were over. As the historic Apollo 8 launch grew closer, Soviet spokespersons began to neutralize what was undoubtedly a public relations disaster. Veteran cosmonaut Titov, on a trip to Bulgaria, told journalists the day before the Apollo 8 launch:
It is not important to mankind who will reach the Moon first and when he will reach it—in 1969 or 1970.
But it did matter. It meant everything.
The lunar surface, with the Earth in the background, photographed by the Soviet Zond 8 spacecraft on October 24, 1970; this was the last of the Zond unmanned circumlunar missions.
TIMELINE
| 1968 | October 11 Redesigned Apollo 7, with three astronauts on board, orbits Earth, marking an American return to space fights |
| October 14 Soviet academician Leonid Sedov denies Russia plans to send cosmonauts to the Moon | |
| October 26 Russians launch Soyuz 3, which attempts unsuccessfully to dock in space with an orbiting Soyuz 2 craft | |
| November 10 Soviets launch Zond 6, which successfully circles the Moon but crashes on landing back on Earth |
