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by J. L. Pickering and John Bisney with Ed Hengeveld.
Hardback (8.9×11.3 inches). 336 pages. 2025.
Nice, big coffee-table sized book like the Apollo 1 in Photographs (see the Nov 2025 AAR), only this presents an archive of Apollo 7 photos with obvious attention to the three NASA astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, and Walt Cunningham.
Like the previous book, the photos cover astronaut training, public introductions, more training, launch, and recovery. Coming after the Apollo 1 disaster, it highlights the somewhat kludgy escape system, which includes a redesigned one-piece hatch to escape the capsule, an elevator ride down to a platform, and a sling-ride (we now call such things a zip-line) to the ground (p128, p134-135, and p154). Other systems and procedures were redesigned to mitigate fires.
The jacket blurb says more than 700 photos — I didn’t count them, but that seems an accurate estimate. And they are all sharp.
Give NASA PR some props. At a Nov. 6 Apollo 7 welcome back ceremony at the North American Rockwell factory, up on the stage was cartoonist Charles Schultz (p318). I wonder how many Snoopy in Space comic strips came from that jaunt?
If you are a space buff, this fascinating photo-centric history of the Apollo 7 mission will likely be much appreciated and pairs well with the Apollo 1 book.
Enjoyed it.
— Reviewed by Russ Lockwood
