Here we have quite the interesting little bit of space history – the pilot of a series which was intended to follow every Apollo mission, but was cut short due to the perception of a “conflict of interests” between sponsors of the program itself and the television studio behinc it, KCET out of Los Angeles.
The structure of this video is interesting – it was recorded live, as things would happen, covering the key elements of the flight as they happened – in this case, Apollo 7. The film begins just before the launch of Apollo 7 (literally minutes beforehand) and ends with the mission debriefing following splashdown.
Basically, if you ever wanted to follow Apollo 7 in some kind of condensed detail with a very “as it happened” feel, this is the documentary for you. It’s an absolute shame this series didn’t continue but as shared in the video description on the channel this is hosted on:
“The Log of Apollo 7: The 11-day spaceflight capsuled into a half-hour special. The launch…Earth from 115 miles up…the orbiting astronauts at work…the tense recovery at sea. Interviews with Dr. Homer Newell, NASA Associate Administrator. Narrated by Dr. Al Hibbs, noted space authority. This film was made possible by an educational grant from North American Rockwell. From George van Valkenburg and INFO: This was the pilot program intended to be a series following every Apollo flight on Public Television, by KCET, Los Angeles. With regret,station management concluded that the involvement of North American Rockwell in the space program, made them unsuitable underwriters for such a series. A valuable opportunity for an independent perspective was thus lost forever. “
Quite a shame, as I would have loved to have seen follow ups to this. Apollo 11, 13, Skylab? They would have all been awesome to see in such a real time way, but that’s how business goes sometimes. It’s a shame, really. Oh well.
As always, enjoy!