Donn Fulton Eisele (June 23, 1930 – December 1, 1987) (Colonel USAF) was a United States Air Force officer, test pilot, and later a NASA astronaut. He occupied the command module pilot seat during the flight of Apollo 7 in 1968. After retiring from both NASA and the Air Force in 1972, he became the Peace Corps country director for Thailand, before moving into private business.
Biography
Early life and education
Eisele was born June 23, 1930, in Columbus, Ohio, to Herman Eugene Eisele (1899–1964) and Lee Ila June Eisele ( Davisson; 1900–1964). He graduated from West High School in 1948. He was an active Boy Scout and earned the rank of Еagle Scout. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1952, and chose a commission in the United States Air Force. He received a Master of Science degree in Astronautics from the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, in 1960.
Flight experience
Following his commission, Eisele was sent to flight training. He was trained at Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, Williams Air Force Base, Arizona, and Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. After receiving his pilot wings in 1954, Eisele served four years as an interceptor pilot in South Dakota and in Libya until 1958. He attended and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Experimental Test Pilot School (Class 62A) at Edwards Air Force Base, California, in 1962; his classmates included Charles Bassett and Theodore Freeman. Eisele was a project engineer and experimental test pilot at the Air Force Special Weapons Center at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. He flew experimental test flights in support of special weapons development programs. He logged more than 4,200 hours flying time, 3,600 of which were in jet aircraft.
NASA career
Eisele was part of NASA's third group of astronauts, selected in October 1963. In early 1966, Eisele was quietly selected as pilot for the Apollo 1 crew, along with Command Pilot Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom and Senior Pilot Ed White. But after dislocating his shoulder twice during training in January 1966, Eisele was replaced by Roger B. Chaffee. After corrective surgery on January 27, Eisele was named to the crew for the second crewed Apollo flight, with Command Pilot Walter "Wally" Schirra and Pilot Walter Cunningham. At this time, Eisele was promoted to the Senior Pilot position.
In December 1966, Apollo 2 was canceled on the grounds that it would be an unnecessary repeat of Apollo 1, and Schirra, Eisele, and Cunningham became the backups to Grissom's crew. But after Grissom, White, and Chaffee were killed in the Apollo 1 spacecraft fire of January 27, 1967, Schirra, Eisele, and Cunningham were named to fly the first crewed Apollo mission instead. It would ultimately be called Apollo 7.
As the launch date approached, Eisele's participation was at risk; he was having an extramarital affair with a woman who would later become his second wife. Astronaut Office Chief Deke Slayton had warned the crew that they were all "expendable", and that any extramarital affairs must not become public.
Eisele remained on the crew, and on October 11, 1968, Apollo 7 was launched on an 11-day mission—the first crewed flight test of the third generation United States spacecraft. By this time, the Senior Pilot title was changed to Command Module Pilot. Together with spacecraft commander Schirra and Lunar Module Pilot Cunningham, Eisele performed simulated transposition and docking maneuvers with the upper stage of their Saturn IB launch vehicle, and acted as navigator, taking star sightings and aligning the spacecraft's guidance and navigation platform. The crew completed eight successful test firing maneuvers of the service module's propulsion engine. They also tested the performance of all spacecraft systems and broadcast the first live televised coverage of crew activities.
Apollo 7 was placed in an Earth-orbit with an apogee of and perigee of . The 260-hour, 4.5 million mile (7.25 Gm; 7.25 million km) shakedown flight was successfully concluded on October 22, 1968, with splashdown occurring in the Atlantic, 8 miles (15 km) from the carrier USS Essex and only from the predicted target. Eisele logged 260 hours in space.
Eisele served as backup Command Module Pilot for the 1969 Apollo 10 flight. Eisele resigned from the Astronaut Office in 1970 and became technical assistant for crewed spaceflight at the NASA Langley Research Center, a position he occupied until retiring from both NASA and the Air Force in 1972.