Twenty-one months after the Apollo 1 fire, the Apollo program returned to flight with a three-man crew aboard a redesigned Block II Command and Service Module. Commanded by Walter M. Schirra — the only astronaut to fly in Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo — the mission also carried Command Module Pilot Donn F. Eisele and Lunar Module Pilot R. Walter Cunningham. Launched atop a Saturn IB from Launch Complex 34, Apollo 7 achieved an elliptical Earth orbit of 140 by 183 miles. Over ten days and 163 revolutions, the crew thoroughly tested the CSM’s life support, propulsion, and guidance systems, conducted the first live television broadcasts from an American spacecraft, and demonstrated the transposition and docking maneuvers that would be essential for lunar missions. Schirra reported that the Saturn IB "is riding like a dream." The mission’s technical success gave NASA the confidence, just two months later, to send Apollo 8 all the way to the Moon. Apollo 7 was the last human spaceflight to depart from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station’s Launch Complex 34, which was decommissioned in 1969.