Good morning.
Friday will bring patchy fog in the early morning, but thereafter a mostly sunny day, with a high near seventy-three.
On this day in 1968, the first manned Apollo mission completes 163 orbits around Earth as a precursor to a lunar mission:
Cape Kennedy, Fla., Oct. 11–Three American astronauts rocketed into orbit today for the first manned test flight of the Apollo spacecraft, which may some day fly men to the moon.
After an almost flawless countdown, a Saturn 1-B rocket roared from the launching pad here at 11:03 A.M., Eastern daylight time, to boost Apollo 7 on its way to a planned 11-day flight circling the earth.
On the ground, officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration hailed the launching as a “perfect mission” so far. In orbit, Capt. Walter M. Schirra Jr. of the Navy, the 45- year-old commander, exclaimed, “We’re having a ball.”
Scientific American‘s daily trivia question asks about longevity. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)