posted 11-04-2018 06:41 AM               

Space Cover #490: Apollo 7 at 50

We recently passed the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo flight so successful that NASA leapfrogged the next flight to lunar orbit. Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, and Walt Cunningham piloted a near-flawless shakedown of the Apollo command and service modules after their redesign resulting from the Apollo fire. And despite some friction between the crew and Mission Control, Wally's famous (or maybe infamous) sense of humor came through as the crew provided the first live TV transmissions from space as "The Wally, Walt, and Donn Show... From the Apollo Room, High Atop Everything."

Above is my favorite Apollo 7 cover, a Spacecraft Cachet, Vukotich #214b, postmarked at KSC on the Apollo 7 launch date, October 11, 1968, and autographed by the crew. Only 70 Apollo 7 Spacecraft Cachets were postmarked at KSC so this one is a bit harder to find than the 1500 CC or 1500 PAFB postmarked Spacecraft Cachets.

And above is the Bendix Cachet for the launch as well, another fave. Given Wally's sense of humor, I'd think that he may have had some choice remarks about his flight being commemorated along with "High Pressure Gas Facilities."

Do you have some favorite Apollo 7 covers? If so, let's post them here! And as always, if you need someone to host your cover image, just email it to me, glad to do that...