Skip to main content
00:00
00:00/00:00
Select a start and end time to create a video segment
start
end
Play
Share
LBJ Honors Apollo 7 Astronauts (1968)
KPRC-TV
Sound | 1968 | Color | English

Categories:
1960s
Stonewall
Gillespie County
Television News
KPRC-TV
Lyndon Baines Johnson
LBJ Ranch
NASA
Texas Locations:
Gillespie County
Stonewall
This segment for Houston's KPRC-TV captures a ceremony at the LBJ Ranch celebrating the accomplishments of the US space program. On November 2, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson invited NASA astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, and Walt Cunningham to his Stonewall estate to present them with the Exceptional Service Medal. The trio had recently completed the Apollo 7 mission, the first manned flight of the Apollo program. At the news conference that followed, Johnson reportedly called Apollo 7 'one of the most successful space missions ever undertaken—by this country or any other.' The mission accomplished 56 objectives, including broadcasting the first live television transmission from space.

Purchased from a family member in 1951 while Lyndon B. Johnson served in the U.S. Senate, "the ranch," located in Gillespie County in the Texas Hill Country was the Johnsons' family home. The LBJ Ranch made its debut to the American public during Johnson's vice presidency (1961 - 1963) when it was used to host state visits of foreign dignitaries, high-ranking Washington politicians, and campaign functions.  As President (1963 – 1969), Johnson conducted official business at the ranch, including state visits and lawn chair staff meetings, earning it the name, the Texas White House.  On December 2, 1969, the ranch, along with Johnson City and Johnson's birthplace, was authorized as Lyndon B. Johnson National Historic Site, and became a United States National Historic Park on December 28, 1980.  Both President and Lady Bird Johnson are buried in the family cemetery within the National Historic Park.