Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, and Walter Cunningham are in space right now.

Apollo 7 launched this morning at 11:02 AM from Cape Canaveral, on a Saturn IB (not the full Saturn V — this is an Earth-orbital test of the command and service module only). They’re going to spend eleven days in orbit, testing the redesigned Block II command module, the service propulsion engine, the guidance and navigation systems, everything that has to work before anyone can go to the Moon.

I am aware that I am sitting in my house in Ohio watching television coverage of something that has been twenty-one months coming since the fire. The redesigned capsule. The new hatch. The improved wiring. The flame-retardant materials. Everything that Grissom said needed to be better, rebuilt, redesigned, proven.

The crew is in it. The crew is fine. The launch was clean.

Schirra has been famously difficult about the Apollo program timeline — he has not been quiet about his concerns regarding spacecraft readiness, about the pressure to rush, about management decisions he disagreed with. He announced before Apollo 7 that this would be his last flight. He is done after this mission, he said. Three spaceflights — Mercury, Gemini, Apollo — and then he’s going to let the younger men take over.

For this mission: he is exactly the right commander. He is meticulous and experienced and demanding, and if he is satisfied with how this spacecraft performs, that means something.

Eleven days to go. They’ll check the systems, fire the service propulsion engine multiple times, conduct a rendezvous with the spent Saturn IB second stage, do navigation star sightings, test the guidance computer. Every piece has to work.

Betty came in from the garden this morning when I was watching the launch countdown. She sat next to me and held my hand when the rocket lifted off. Neither of us said anything. After a while she went back to her garden and I stayed in front of the television.

This is the first step back after the worst thing the program has experienced. I believe in it. I am relieved.

We’re back.