S68-48662

October 11, 1968 was a warm day at Cape Kennedy Air Force Station in Florida, but a cool breeze rustled through palm fronds, comforting trousered onlookers, captured in black and white in S68-48662 as the Apollo 7 lifted off. As the astronauts experienced their first liquid hydrogen-fueled ride, commander Walter M. Schirra Jr. reported, "She is riding like a dream." The crew orbited the Earth for 11 days, sending back the first live television broadcast from an American spacecraft.