 |
| Ed White, Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee |
January 27, 1967 is a day many space buffs will always remember.
It was on that tragic evening three U.S. astronauts, Ed White, Gus Grissom, and
Roger Chaffee died on a Florida launch pad.
 |
| Apollo 1 Patch |
The three astronauts were chosen for the Apollo Program, which
was to be the first manned space flight. Grissom was to be the command pilot,
(This would be his third space flight.) Ed White was designated as senior pilot
because he had experienced two previous space flights, and Roger Chaffee was
the pilot since this would be his first space flight.
 |
| The Arrival of the Apollo 1 |
But the Apollo spacecraft was plagued with problems from the
beginning. In fact, when the craft was delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in
August 1966, more than 630 engineering changes were done to the command module
as it set on the launch pad. The crew didn't like the huge assortment of flammable
materials located in the cabin. The men approached Apollo Space
Program Office Manager Joe Shea and requested that all of the netting and
Velcro be removed for safety’s sake. Shea issued the order to his staff but did
not have the request supervised. Finally, on
December 30, 1966, the craft was ready for testing. But Commander Gus Grissom was so annoyed by the continuous
problems and headaches; he hung a lemon off the Apollo simulator - one week
before tragedy struck.
 |
| Command Pilot Gus Grissom |
In December, when asked by a reporter about the risks, Gus
Grissom replied, “You sort of have to put
that out of your mind. There's always a possibility that you can have a
catastrophic failure, of course; this can happen on any flight; it can happen
on the last one as well as the first one. So, you just plan as best you can to
take care of all these eventualities, and you get a well-trained crew and you
go fly.”
 |
| Chaffee, White and Grissom Training in Simulator |
It was Friday,
January 27 1967, when the three men arrived at Cape Canaveral’s Launch Pad 34
ready to take part in pre-launch testing aboard the Apollo 1 command module.
The test was not considered to be risky since there was no fuel on board, and
any explosives had been disabled. But the testing was riddled with problems and
concerns. The men were dealing with a situation that was growing worse. Grissom, White and Chaffee agreed that despite all of the problems
plaguing the launch, all they could do was their best with what they had to
fly - and fly they would on February 21.
 |
| Fire Blackened Command Module |
Around 6:30 that evening, as nerves wore thin and the astronauts
were ready to stop for the day, a flash fire broke out aboard the Apollo 1. In
the pure oxygen environment, the fire burned quickly. So quickly that attempts
to rescue the men were futile. A microphone that had remained on broadcast the
dying words of one of the men into the control room: “We've got a bad fire—Let's get out ....We're burning up." All
three astronauts aboard Apollo 1 died of asphyxiation. Once the craft was opened,
it took 90 minutes to remove the astronauts due to the melted nylon inside
the cabin that had fused to them.
 |
| Apollo Staff Testifying Before the Senate |
 |
| Launch Platform 34 Today |
Tomorrow will be the 51 anniversary of the Apollo 1 tragedy. All
that remains of Launch Complex 34 is the launch platform, which serves as a
memorial to the crew of Apollo 1.
Attached to the structure are two plaques, which read, in
part, “They gave their lives in service
to their country in the ongoing exploration of humankind's final frontier.
Remember them not for how they died but for those ideals for which they lived.
Godspeed to the crew of Apollo 1.”
~ Joy
