The first Apollo mission to ever reach space was the Apollo 7th. It was an 11-day flight and the crew conducted many tests on the systems and "conducted the first live TV program from an American spacecraft" (https://nasa.gov). Concerns that the Soviet Union might be able to launch astronauts around the Moon led NASA to change the flight plan for the next Saturn V mission. "NASA ultimately changed the mission from an unpiloted, Earth-orbiting mission to a crewed flight around the Moon." (https://nasa.gov) Apollo 9 was the first mission to bring a lunar module into orbit. The mission never left Earth's orbit and Commander James McDivitt and Lunar Module Piolet Rusty Schweickart separated from the lunar module and proceded to fly independently for six hours. Schweickart also conducted a spacewalk to test the spacesuit that astronauts would wear on the Moon.

Apollo Launches

	Apollo 7 Launch.
	Famous photo taken by William Anders on December 24, 1968, during the Apollo 8 mission.