Posted on 01/27/2015 2:45:48 AM PST by Ready4Freddy
January 27, 1967
The Apollo I fire
R.I.P.
Me too. If Gus acted improperly during that mission (where the hatch blew at splashdown), NASA would not have had him assigned to subsequent flights.
I liked the "Right Stuff" (book and movie) but also understand that much artistic license was taken.
I am sure his skills had everything to do with his ending up in the capsule at that time.
I agree. Inside NASA, Gus was so respected that he probably would have been the first man to walk on the moon instead of Armstrong.
That 'Right Stuff' movie was a steaming pile of Hollywood BS and had little relationship with the facts.
I think you are confusing that stupid movie "The Right Stuff" with what the investigation actually discovered.
If NASA had least suspicion that he had somehow panicked, he would have been grounded and out of the program.
See, that's my beef with "The Right Stuff" - if that had truly been the conclusion, then there's no way Grissom would have been involved in Gemini or Apollo. He would have been eased out of the program.
One of the later Mercury astronauts (Carpenter or Schirra), in support of Grissom, made a big point of displaying the bruise he got on his hand from hitting the the button to blow the hatch. Grissom did not have that bruise, but the button apparently required a level of force that just about guaranteed a bruise.
Roger B. Chaffee was a Grand Rapidian. Extra to APoD.
Chaffee Planetarium | Grand Rapids Public Museum
http://www.grpm.org/explore/planetarium/
That slur on Grissom pissed off Deke Slayton, who makes short work of it in one of his books.
Effin A, Bubba.
I was 7. Have some vague recollection of this happening.
More on this after the capsule was recovered;
http://www.airwarriors.com/community/index.php?threads/gus-grissom-liberty-bell-7-the-truth.89/
I remember as a little boy watching TV when my brother told me what happened as they were covering the story on the evening news.
I remember replying to him, “How can they be dead, they’re on TV right now.”
And that’s when I learned that TV wasn’t real-time.
Wow.
Remember this well. I couldn’t believe the USA had lost astronauts. It was beyond my understanding that the USA might’ve made any mistakes that caused their deaths.....we were the best.....true, blue patriot from the start.
My old boss at Xerox was working on the Apollo project when that fire killed the astronauts.
It was a terrible tragedy. He was devastated at the time, and he actually wept when he told me
and Bryan about it (we were all working for Xerox when he told us what happened).
When we left Xerox, we went as a team and worked together for several more years in the
printed wiring board industry, first at one company, and then finally at another. After that, we
lost touch with our boss and never saw him again.
:’(
RIP.
Indeed. Very, very sad.
Iirc NASA stood by Grissom’s (accurate, as validated later) account.
So much so that they decided not to include explosive bolts on the Apollo CM hatch.
Episode 2 of Tom Hank’s excellent HBO series “From the Earth to the Moon” covers the Apollo I fire very well. The entire series is worth owning and viewing, it’s a shame that it’s overshadowed by the also excellent Band of Brothers and The Pacific.
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