Apollo 7 crew. From left to right, the astronauts (all from the USA) are: Donn Eisele (1930-1987, command module pilot), Wally Schirra (1923-2007, commander), and Walter Cunningham (born 1932, lunar module pilot). Here, the astronauts are in the White Room, the room from which they enter the Apollo spacecraft before launch. Apollo 7 launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, and was the first successful manned launch in the Apollo program. It took place from 11-22 October 1968, spending 11 days in Earth orbit, successfully testing the Apollo hardware. The aim of the Apollo program was to land astronauts on the Moon, an aim that was achieved in July 1969 with Apollo 11.