cacti = i" WASHINGTON, D.C. 20546 * WO 3-6925 FOR RELEASE: SUNDAY October 6, 1968 RELEASE NO: 68-168K PROJECT: aroito 7 contents SPACECRAFT STRUCTURE SYSTEMS. THE SATURN 1B LAUNCH VEHICLE ~31-34 FLIGHT SEQUENCE---. 35-36 LAUNCH PREPARATIONS-- 37-40 LAUNCH COMPLEX 34- Hid MISSION CONTROL CENTER-HOUSTON- AB NG MANNED SPACE FLIGHT NETWORK-. 47-52 PHOTOGRAPHIC EQUIPMENT- 53-54 APOLLO CONTRACTORS~~- -0- 9/27/68EWS NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION WO 2-4185 Tes. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20546 WO 3-692 FOR RELEASE: sunpay October 6, 1968 RELEASE NO: 68-168 FIRST MANNED APOLLO Apollo 7, the first manned flight in the lunar landing program, will be launched into an Earth orbit Oct. 12 at Cape Kennedy, Fla. Apollo 7 is an engineering test flight with crewmen Walter M. Schirra, Jr., commander; Donn F. Eisele, command module pilot; and Walter Cunningham, lunar module pilot. (The LM will not be flown on Apollo 7.) Launch will be made on a Saturn IB rocket from Launch Complex 34 at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Kennedy Space Center. ~more- 9/27/68-2- A T.V, camera will be carried on Apollo 7 and live TV pictures will be transmitted to two U.S. ground stations at various times during the mission. An open-ended mission up to 11 days is planned, but success can be achieved with less than a full-duration flight. Mission sequences are planned to gather the most important data early in the flight. In addition, spacecraft instru- mentation is designed to identify systems problems so that they can be analyzed and, if necessary, fixed before subse- quent flights. Combined operation of the Saturn IB launch vehicle, the Apollo command and service modules, ami the Manned Space Flight Network during a manned orbital mission will be examined. Unmanned operation in space has been demonstrated. The Apollo program's forerunners, Mercury and Gemini, provided invaluable operational experience, especially develop- ment of rendezvous techniques and knowledge of human and spacecraft performance in space up to two weeks. Apollo is much more complex than its predecessor Gemini, and is capable of operating at lunar distance. ~more-