Portraits of the astronauts in spacesuit

Space Mission
Apollo 7, September 1968

Photographer
Bill Taub

Photo Description
Three vintage gelatin silver prints on fiber-based paper, each 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with NASA KSC captions and Technicolor Quality Control stamps on the versos

Essay
Bill Taub, NASA’s first senior photographer, photographed Walter Cunningham, Donn Eisele and Walter Schirra during a space vehicle emergency egress test at Cape Kennedy.

“The Apollo was so much more complex and difficult than any previous spacecraft that even the hard-working astronauts were nearly taxed to their limits. Twelve hundred hours were added over and above the normal training schedule. The crew prepared with intense dedication, knowing that complete mastery of their vessel was vital in case anything went wrong” (Reynolds, p. 72).