Apollo 7 had received the medal twice before, for his Mercury and Gemini missions). Therefore, NASA administrator Michael D. Griffin decided to belatedly award the medals to the crew in October 2008, "[f]or exemplary performance in meeting all the Apollo 7 mission objectives and more on the first manned Apollo mission, paving the way for the first flight to the Moon on Apollo 8 and the first manned lunar landing on Apollo 11." Only Cunningham was still alive at the time; Eisele's widow accepted his medal, and Apollo 8 crew member Bill Anders accepted Schirra's. Other Apollo astronauts, including Neil Armstrong, Buzz
HMS Apollo (1794) January, and "Apollo" was turned to give chase. The pursuit was hampered by thick fog, and at 7am on the following morning "Apollo" ran aground on the Haak Sandbank adjacent to Texel. Halkett ordered that the ship's stores and guns be thrown overboard in order to lighten her and float her free, but despite these efforts she remained stuck fast in the sands. In the late afternoon, a Prussian galliot was sighted and hailed by "Apollo"s crew. After some negotiation, the Prussian captain agreed to jettison the bulk of his cargo of wines and take 250 of "Apollo"s crew back