Missed opportunity
A. O. Fortuna | TN, USA | 04/06/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"My reasons for giving it 4 stars are:
* I was disappointed with the material on the Saturn IB presented in this DVD. Spacecraft Films could have introduced some pictures of the rocket being assembled in the launch pad. That material is very difficult to find, as opposed to assembling a Saturn V (say).
* There is a long sequence focusing on Glynn Lunney in Mission Control during the flight. The audio is of an interview, thus unrelated to the sequence. You have no clue what the flight controllers are doing, or why you are watching them doing whatever they are doing. This makes the sequence rather uninteresting.
* The multi-angle Saturn IB launch. The angles become available almost at rocket ignition, so you have to be very quick to switch angles. It is a pitty that Spacecraft films did not start the multiangle at T-1 min (say), to give the viewer time to enjoy the final seconds of the countdown. The tracking and staging of the rocket are good, though.
I have many of Spacecraft films' DVDs, including the excellent Apollo 13 and Apollo 11, and the two Saturn DVDs. Therefore I was disappointed when I saw the Apollo 7 DVD, specially because of the lack of potentially interesting material (e.g. stacking of the rocket stages, launch).
Armando
"
First manned launch of Apollo spacecraft.
Patrick S. Tharp | Hilliard,Ohio USA | 03/07/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This was a very important mission, that tested the Apollo CSM block II spacecraft. The block II design was a redesign-after the Apollo 1 fire that killed Grissom, White, and Chaffee just 21 months prior to the launch of Apollo 7. The mission was a complete success, and encouraged NASA to make a bold leap forward-to lunar orbit with Apollo 8.
The footage of preparation, launch, and the mission is just spectacular. This is the best look at a Saturn 1B launch you will ever get(multi-angle). If you've ever taken Kennedy Space Center's "Then and Now Tour", and been to Pad 34, you will really want this DVD set. It is among my favorites, and I just got it yesterday!"
OK
Claas Olthoff | Munich, Germany | 03/17/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I was really excited when I first saw these DVDs on the web. As an admitting space geek I wanted to have all of the Apollo DVDs, of course. So I thought starting off with the first DVD was smart. Well, I was wrong. I thought you would actally hear the matching air-to-ground communications on every part, but except for the launch sequence and the TV-transmissions all you hear is audio from pre- or postflight press conferences and interviews. I'm not saying, that the audio is bad or not interesting, and the video you see is awesome, but I'd rather watch the video and hear the real audio from the flight, air-to-ground com. or onboard voice recorder and not press conference material.
I just hope that the following DVD's have matching audio and video and in total more material."
Apollo 7: Shakedown Cruise-Restored footage of our first man
Keith Mirenberg | www.spaceanimations.org | 05/08/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Apollo 7: Shakedown Cruise - rates four out of five stars for this DVD box set by Spacecraft Films. Although the editing of this feature left a little to be desired they still deliver much rare restored footage of our first successful manned Apollo mission. I personally enjoyed all the film source material and only felt that the B&W TV material was far too grainy to be of much use except for those interested in having their own video record.
Although stationed at the Boeing Atlantic Test Center (BATC) at KSC during 1968 and 1969, I had nothing to do personally with the Apollo 7 launch (I was assigned to the Saturn V / Apollo 8 at LC 39 vs LC 34) as a newly recruited young engineer at Boeing. I remember reporting for work on the morning of Apollo 7 and grumbling that Wally was being launched today and we were going to have to miss it. My boss turned to me and said with a wink "Go to the VAB by whatever path you choose and pull the temperature strip charts for the most recent Saturn V CDDT and reduce this thermal data for me". I looked at the clock, grabbed my shiny new hard hat and quickly drove to LC 34.
That is how my first boss (Glen Thompson) enabled me to get a front row seat to see Wally's historic ride into space aboard Apollo 7. I managed to get my work done and brought the reduced Saturn V CDDT data to Glen. Upon my arrival he said, "Gee what kept you?" I replied "KSC traffic" and then thanked him for the "assignment".
"