Donn F. Eisele

Notable people · Aviation · Space

Donn F. Eisele

Columbus-born Air Force test pilot who was command module pilot of Apollo 7 in October 1968, the first crewed Apollo flight.

Born June 23, 1930, Columbus
Died December 2, 1987, Tokyo, Japan

Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born: June 23, 1930, Columbus (Franklin County) source
Died: December 2, 1987, Tokyo, Japan source
Buried: Arlington National Cemetery, Section 3, Grave 2503-G-1 (ashes) source
Also known as: Donn F. Eisele, Donn Eisele
Education: West High School, Columbus, OH, to 1948
: US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD, to 1952, B.S.
: Air Force Institute of Technology, Dayton, OH, to 1960, M.S. astronautics
Known as: Aviation, Space
Organizations: NASA, US Air Force

Life story

Donn Eisele was born in Columbus in 1930 to Herman Eugene and Lee Ila June Eisele. He became an Eagle Scout and graduated from West High School in 1948. He earned a Naval Academy B.S. in 1952 and a master's in astronautics from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1960.

He earned his pilot wings in 1954 and graduated from the Air Force Test Pilot School in 1962. On October 11, 1968, he flew as command module pilot on Apollo 7, the first crewed Apollo flight, which splashed down October 22.

Later he served as Peace Corps country director in Thailand from 1972 and joined a city commission in Wilton Manors, Florida, in 1981. He died of a heart attack in Tokyo on December 1, 1987.

Ohio ties

Columbus (1930-1948)
birthplace and boyhood; West High School class of 1948, where he ran track and cross country and was an Eagle Scout Franklin County · source
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (to 1960)
Master of Science in Astronautics, Air Force Institute of Technology, 1960 Greene County · source
Columbus
member of Luther B. Turner Lodge No. 732, Free and Accepted Masons Franklin County · source

Timeline

1930 Born in Columbus on 23 June. source
1948 Graduated from West High School in Columbus. source
1952 Graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree and chose a career in the Air Force. source
1954 Earned his pilot wings after flight training in Texas, Arizona and Florida, then flew interceptors in South Dakota and Libya until 1958. source
1960 Received a Master of Science in Astronautics from the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. source
1962 Graduated from the Air Force Experimental Flight Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in Class 62A, with Charles Bassett and Theodore Freeman as classmates. source
1963 Selected by NASA in October in the third group of astronauts. source
1966 Named pilot of the first Apollo crew, then dislocated his shoulder twice in January and was replaced by Roger Chaffee; after surgery he was moved to the crew of the second crewed Apollo flight. source
1967 After the Apollo 1 fire of 27 January killed Grissom, White and Chaffee, the Schirra-Eisele-Cunningham crew was named to fly the first crewed Apollo mission. source
1968 Flew as command module pilot of Apollo 7 from 11 to 22 October: 260 hours, about 4.5 million miles, eight service propulsion engine firings and the first effective television transmissions of onboard crew activities. source
1969 Served as backup command module pilot for Apollo 10. source
1972 Retired from the Air Force and left the space program, after a spell as technical assistant for crewed spaceflight at NASA Langley Research Center, to become director of the U.S. Peace Corps in Thailand. source
1974 Became sales manager for the Marion Power Shovel Company, a Dresser Industries division, and later handled accounts for Oppenheimer & Company. source
1981 Appointed to a vacant seat on the Wilton Manors, Florida, city commission, where he served about a year. source
1987 Died of a heart attack on a business trip to Tokyo; his ashes were buried at Arlington National Cemetery. source
1997 Inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame with 23 other Apollo astronauts. source
2008 NASA Administrator Michael Griffin presented the NASA Distinguished Service Medal to the Apollo 7 crew in Dallas, 40 years late; Eisele's widow accepted his. source
2017 His memoir, Apollo Pilot, was published posthumously by the University of Nebraska Press. source

What Donn is known for

Command module pilot, Apollo 7, launched 11 Oct 1968 (11-day mission)
Apollo 7 command module pilot, 1968

Stories

The shoulder that kept him off Apollo 1

Early in 1966 NASA named Eisele pilot of the first Apollo crew, under Gus Grissom. In January he dislocated his shoulder twice and needed surgery, so Roger Chaffee took his seat. Eisele was moved to the crew for the second crewed Apollo flight with Wally Schirra and Walter Cunningham, and when that flight was cancelled in December 1966 the three became Grissom's backups. On 27 January 1967 a fire in the Apollo 1 command module during a launch-pad test killed Grissom, Ed White and Chaffee. Eisele's crew was then named to fly the first crewed Apollo mission, which became Apollo 7.

Source

Colds in orbit and a medal 40 years late

Apollo 7 was a technical success, but it was a hard flight for the crew. Schirra caught a cold on the second day and passed it to Eisele, and Mission Control believed the whole crew was ill. Schirra argued with flight controllers about a television camera and about wearing helmets for re-entry. NASA gave the crew its Exceptional Service Medal instead of the Distinguished Service Medal that later Apollo crews received, and Chris Kraft later said he told Deke Slayton that the crew should not fly again. None of the three ever did. In October 2008 NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, who said he noticed Apollo 7 was the only crew without the medal, presented it in Dallas; Eisele's widow, Susan Eisele-Black, accepted it for him.

Source

Navigator of the shakedown flight

As command module pilot, Eisele was the navigator of Apollo 7. In 11 days in Earth orbit, between 122.6 and 153.5 nautical miles up, the crew practised transposition and docking and rendezvous with the spent S-IVB stage of their Saturn IB, fired the service module engine eight times, and checked every spacecraft system. They also sent back the first effective live television of a crew at work in orbit. The command module splashed down in the Atlantic on 22 October 1968, about eight miles from the carrier USS Essex and three-tenths of a mile from the planned point.

Source

Honors and things named for them

International Space Hall of Fame, 1983
US Astronaut Hall of Fame, 1997
NASA Distinguished Service Medal, 2008 (posthumous)

Named for Donn F. Eisele

Donn Eisele Park, 701 NW 29th Street, a waterfront park on the Middle River (Wilton Manors, Florida) source

Family

father: Herman Eugene Eisele
mother: Lee Ila June Eisele
wife: Harriet Hamilton (m. 1952, div. 1969)
wife: Susan Harter (m. 1969)

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

1 West High School (Columbus), Eisele's high school (class of 1948)
179 South Powell Avenue, Columbus Franklin County · source
Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (master's degree 1960)
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Greene County · source
Grave of Donn F. Eisele, Arlington National Cemetery, Section 3, Grave 2503-G-1
Arlington, Virginia source

Ohio places

Where Donn F. Eisele was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Born: Columbus, Franklin County ZIP 43215 · Columbus · Franklin County
School: Columbus (West High School), Franklin County ZIP 43204 · Columbus · Franklin County

Documents

Primary records: patents, letters, court and government files, nominations and old county histories, each at the archive that holds it.

NASA Biographical Data: Donn F. Eisele (Colonel, USAF, Ret.), NASA astronaut (deceased) 1987, NASA Johnson Space Center
Apollo 7 press kit, with crew biographies including Maj. Donn F. Eisele 1968, NASA

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

The original finding aid described this as: Capture Date: 5/27/1976 Photographer: COPY NEGATIVE Keywords: Lars...
Public domain
Donn Eisele
Public domain
Astronaut Group Three announced on October 18, 1963. They are (seated, left to right) Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., Wil...
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Don E. Wilhelms (second from left) briefing astronauts in 1964. Some of the astronauts include Donn F. Eisele ...
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Description (1964) Dr. E. Dale Jackson, U.S. Survey Geologist (left), with Astronauts (left to right) Bill And...
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Fourteen NASA astronauts pose for group pictures at Stead Air Force Base in Nevada after a three-day stay in t...
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The Apollo 7 crew prepares for mission simulator tests at the North American Aviation plant. Left to right: Do...
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The newly-named Apollo 1 backup astronauts R. Walter Cunningham, left, Donn F. Eisele, and Walter M. Schirra, ...
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S68-33119 (May 1968) --- The prime crew of the first manned Apollo space mission, Apollo 7 (Spacecraft 101/Sat...
Public domain
The prime crew of the first manned Apollo space mission Apollo 7 from left to right are: Command Module pilot,...
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The prime crew of the first manned Apollo space mission from left to right are: Command Module pilot, Don F. E...
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The prime crew of the first manned Apollo mission (Spacecraft 101/Saturn 205) participates in water egress tra...
Public domain