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
Return of Apollo 15 to Earth which was launched using a spring-loaded mechanism, a pin in a curved groove to impart a spin in the satellite. The spinning helped to stabilise the craft. After having the information needed to burn the SPS to send them home radioed from Mission Control, "Apollo 15" disappeared behind the Moon for the last time. Igniting on time, the SPS burned for 2 minutes, 21 seconds, adding 3,050 ft/s (930 m/s) to their speed. Little was left for the crew to do on their tenth day in space. They continued to photograph the lunar surface as it receded from them, using