Apollo 7 was equipped with an RCA black and white slow scan TV camera. (Like the Westinghouse Lunar TV camera, it had a resolution of 320 lines and a frame rate of 10 fps.)
Because Apollo 7 was in Earth orbit, television transmissions were limited to the few minutes they were in range of the MSFN tracking stations at Corpus Chisti in Texas and Merritt Island in Florida. These stations were the only ones equipped with early versions of the RCA scan converter, which converted the slow scan TV to US commercial standard (525 line at 30 fps) television.
The Apollo 7 TV broadcasts were a big hit, and
the crew were awarded an Emmy for their pioneering shows.
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Bruce Withey, who was at Honeysuckle Creek during Apollo 7, has provided images of six slow scan TV frames from Apollo 7 TV. They were probably photographs taken of the Fairchild slow scan monitor at either the Merritt Island Launch Area (MILA) or Corpus Christi (TEX) tracking stations. The comparisons below illustrate the dramatic differences between the original slow scan images (at right) and the the best scan converted recordings of the TV available today. This is even more remarkable, given that Bruce’s versions are only photocopies (1968 vintage) of the photos. A similar difference is also evident in the Apollo 9 and Apollo 11 scan converted TV. In each comparison, the lower quality scan converted image is at left. Click on each for larger versions. |
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Donn
Eisele (centre) and Wally
Schirra (right) during the first TV broadcast, on 14th
October 1968. |
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Donn
Eisele (centre) and Wally
Schirra (right) during the first TV broadcast.
Shortly afterwards, the camera was moved to show a view of Lake Pontchartrain and New Orleans. |
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During the second broadcast, on 15th
October 1968, Walter Cunningham takes viewers on a tour of
the cockpit.
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Donn
Eisele (?) floats sideways in
this view from the second broadcast.
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During the third broadcast, on 16th
October 1968, Walter Cunningham explains how liquids are vented
from the spacecraft as Wally Schirra prepares to vacuum up some water
which has condensed on cold pipes.
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Also during the third broadcast, Donn
Eisele (hand visible at left) points out the manual attitude control
system switches while Walter Cunningham watches at right.
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SSTV scans by Colin Mackellar.
The left hand scan-converted images are screen-shots from
the Spacecraft Films excellent Apollo 7 DVD set.
(This video was sourced from the Johnson Space Center.)
New Scans from Goldstone
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During the first Apollo 7 TV broadcast, Goldstone Apollo USB-lead engineer Bill Wood photographed the picture on Goldstone’s Fairchild Slow Scan TV monitor (at right). Donn Eisele sends greetings “from the lovely Apollo Room high atop everything”. |
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Another of Bill’s photos, taken a moment or two after, was featured in the November 1 1968 MSFN Technical Information Bulletin – sent out to all the tracking stations. |
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Another of Bill’s photos taken during the first Apollo 7 TV broadcast. Donn Eisele is seen here. With thanks to Bill Wood – May 2007. |