On this day in 1968 Apollo 7 safely spashed down in the Atlantic Ocean after orbiting the Earth 163 times. Apollo 7 launched on October 11th with astronauts Walter Schirra who was the commander of the mission, Donn Eisele the Command Module Pilot and Walter Cunningham the lunar command pilot. It was the third flight for the veteran Schirra, it would be the only time up for both Eisele and Cunningham. Cunningham is the only surviving member of Apollo 7.

This was an important mission because it was the first flight since the Apollo launching pad fire in January 1967 which took the lives of three astronauts, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee.