Apollo 7 was the first Apollo mission to carry a crew after the Apollo 1 fire.
The mission launched on October 11, 1968, with Walter Schirra, Donn Eisele, and Walter Cunningham aboard. It was an 11-day engineering test in Earth orbit, designed to prove that the redesigned Apollo command and service modules could safely support astronauts.
The Apollo 1 fire killed Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee during a ground test on January 27, 1967. Crewed Apollo flights were suspended while investigators identified problems and NASA changed the spacecraft, wiring, hatch, materials, and launch procedures. Uncrewed Apollo 4, 5, and 6 missions flew during the recovery period, but they did not carry astronauts.
Apollo 7 did not travel to the Moon or include a lunar module. Its successful performance restored confidence in the program and helped NASA approve Apollo 8’s crewed flight around the Moon only two months later.