1967 Apollo 1 fire kills astronauts Grissom, White & Chaffee

"During a simulated countdown for mission AS-204 on January 27, 1967, an accident occurred in CM 012. This was a manned test with the prime astronaut crew on board. A fire occurred inside the command module resulting in the death of the three astronauts and as yet undetermined damage to the command and service modules."

With these words, the nation's space program was split into two classifications: Pre-Fire and Post-Fire.

The spacecraft, towering over 210 feet into the sky, sat on the launch pad at Launch Complex 34 on the Cape Canaveral Air Station. At 1 PM EST, the crew entered the spacecraft. Command Pilot Grissom entered first followed by Pilot Roger Chaffee and Senior Pilot Edward White II. Within twenty minutes the test was halted due to the report of an odor in the Spacecraft Environmental Control System suit oxygen loop. A sample of the oxygen was taken but no final cause was determined. Subsequent analysis determined that this problem was not related to the fire.

At 4:25 PM, the crew first noticed a problem with communications, determined to be a live microphone that could not be turned off. At 4:40 PM the count was again held for troubleshooting of the condition. During the hold, further communication problems developed between various ground stations and the crew. All countdown functions up to transfer to fuel cell power had been completed by 6:20 PM and the count was held again to work on the communication difficulties.

There were multiple indications of intense movement beginning at 6:30:39 PM. A surge in the AC Bus 2 voltage was recorded at 6:30:54 PM. At 6:31:04 PM, Roger suddenly called out "Fire!" Considerable movement was noted indicating Gus' attempts to put out the fire, located just below and to the left of his couch. Through the monitors, arms were seen reaching for the hatch - certainly Ed whose job it was to open the hatch in an emergency. Then another call came: "Fire in the cockpit! "We've got a bad fire - we're burning up!" - certainly Roger who remained in his couch to communicate with the ground as it was his job to maintain contact in an emergency. All three of these men, facing a horrible death, did exactly what they were supposed to do. By 6:31:21, all voice transmissions had stopped. They had only had 17 seconds from the first call of fire. Gus, Ed, and Roger were gone. "When we returned to our homes that night, we were changed in ways none of us could describe."

The Command Module had ruptured at 6:31:19, endangering the personnel on Levels A-7 and A-8 who nevertheless remained, fighting to open the three hatches (BPC, ablative hatch, and inward-opening inner hatch) and to put out secondary fires. The hatches were finally opened approximately five minutes after the initial report of the fire. This report would not be complete without mention of the pad personnel on Level A-8 who risked their lives attempting to rescue the crew in circumstances indicative of imminent explosion of the spacecraft. In all, 27 men were treated for smoke inhalation. We applaud their heroism as well.

"So long as we remember, the crew lives; so long as the crew lives, our future is secure for only when our heroes are forgotten and the light of their sacrifices goes out, will the new Dark Age fall."

I remember this incident well. I was in third grade, crazy about science, technology, and the space program. The horror of the fire, which as I recall was over in something like eight seconds, played over and over in my mind.

Something else I remember: my father had several friends from work who were electrical engineers; a couple of them tutored me on electronics, teaching me the fundamentals like soldering and how basic transistor circuits worked.

I remember that, within a few months of the Apollo fire, they suddenly all had a new kind of hook-up wire to work with. It was insulated with Teflon, and was annoying to me because I couldn't strip the insulation with my teeth, as had become my habit. I had to learn to use a wire stripper. The insulation was heat resistant, though, which meant it wouldn't melt back when I soldered the stripped end to a terminal strip or whatever.

The reason for all the Teflon wire? The Apollo fire. The Apollo crew module was wired with thousands of feet of plastic-insulated wire, and that insulation was one of the main things that provided fuel for the fire, which burned furiously in the pure oxygen atmosphere they were using. After the fire, teflon insulation was adopted throughout the community of businesses that were involved with the Apollo program almost overnight.

(steely)

Achievements

Most people view the mission of Apollo 1 as a failure. It was not. The knowledge gained as a result of that tragic loss enabled us to successfully land a man on the moon, to gain the scientific knowledge that helps us to learn of our own world's history. Beyond even that, it led us to the shuttle program and the international space station and much that we have taken for granted in the years since the Fire.

What did we learn?

We learned to build a spacecraft hatch that could keep us safe in the harsh environment of space as well as allow us fast egress in case of emergency on the ground. We learned to develop a better communications system. We learned how to fire-proof the vehicle.

We learned to build a better spacecraft. We learned that there was much to gain from continuing the program.

"If we'd somehow avoided the fire, we would have flown an imperfect spacecraft and found flaws. We would have slowed down to fix them, flown again, and found more flaws. As delay piled on delay, I have the most serious doubts that we could have met Jack Kennedy's end-of-the-decade goal. Instead we dove deep into the spacecraft troubles and fixed them…. Good men died to force these results." (1)

Astronaut Dr. Sally K. Ride, in the August 1987 report to NASA on "Leadership and America's Future in Space": "there is considerable sentiment that Apollo was a dead-end venture, and we have little left to show for it." History, we believe, will reveal otherwise. Consider the following:

The program provided 400,000 government jobs and funded some 20,000 private contractors and subcontractors (employing more than 350,000 persons). Prior to and during the Apollo era, approximately 93 cents of every dollar of NASA's budget was spent with private industry. The computer hardware and software developed to land a man on the moon was put to use in developing solutions for major social and environmental problems that had allegedly been neglected due to the government's expenditures on the space program.

From the simulation trainers came the technology to measure emissions into our atmosphere. TRW, a leading simulation contractor, used its data to develop a pollution-monitoring system that was cited as the technical basis for state environmental protection laws. TRW also adapted the software from the Apollo program to protect the public from blackouts, fuel shortages, credit fraud, and traffic jams. Utilities used the company's spacecraft guidance program to regulate the flow of oil and gas pipelines and the output of electrical plants. Retail sales authorization systems were developed from the software. Banks used it to operate 24-hour automatic tellers.

In the field of medicine, lightweight composites invented for the spacecraft were used in making leg braces. Hospitals installed the Moon Rover astronauts' biomedical trackers on mobile carts to give more freedom of movement to partially disabled patients. Apollo telemetry systems were modified to transmit EKG data from ambulances to emergency rooms. Mass spectrometers designed to monitor crew respiration were adapted for surgical uses. A tungsten alloy, developed for the space program, was adapted and used by radiologists in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

Solar energy collection panels based on Apollo prototypes are widely used in the wheat belt for more cost-efficient grain drying. Lubrication techniques developed for aerospace engines were used in irrigation systems that helped farmers to increase harvests and conserve water supplies.

Freeze-dried foods that have been used on the war against hunger. Quartz crystal timing elements originally designed to guarantee the accuracy of the master clock at Mission Control were miniaturized and used in the wristwatches worn by so many of us today.

Other inventions made for the space program and adapted by private industry resulted in such things as studless snow tires, life rafts that would not tip over, scratch-proof eyeglass lenses, the 5-year flashlight, lightweight graphite composites in golf clubs, tennis rackets, and jet fighter fuselages. The drills used on the moon were adapted to develop cordless power hand tools. Optometry firms adapted the technology developed in inventing scratch-proof lenses for the Apollo space cameras to the manufacture of scratch-proof safety and athletic goggles. (2)

And what else did we learn?

We learned not to allow adversity to stop us. And we knew that canceling the space program would not honor the memories of Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee.

http://www.apollo1.org/Mission_Achievements.htm

Thanks for posting. We should all remember.

I believe NASA's official site has an Apollo section which details all the manned and unmanned flights. (There were apparently unmanned flights to test the rockets and equipment, which presumably why the first manned flight launched was designated Apollo 7. I also remember reading that the designation Apollo 1 was not given to this mission until after the astronauts' death.) Somehow I can't find the exact site I saw once before, but this should be a treasure trove: http://history.nasa.gov/

Strange how the Challenger disaster anniversary is tomorrow, and the Columbia disaster occurred on Feb 1. The Columbia crew memorialized the Challenger crew on their doomed mission. Ironic.

I seem to remember that you could listen to communications during the shuttle missions on the internet.

When is the shuttle supposed to fly again?

We should always remember and honor these brave, brave souls, as we move forward.

I always wondered about that- who on earth thought it was a good idea to use pure oxygen? It is not a good thing to live in pure oxygen and mighty dangerous. What made them think to use it?

I believe the reason for using a pure oxygen atmosphere within the crew spaces was related to the overarching need to keep the weight of the mission payload to an absolute minimum.

By using pure oxygen, they could reduce the pressure of the atmosphere in the crew spaces far below that which we are used to in everyday life; if I recall correctly, they used 8 psi or something on that order, instead of the >14 psi we live under at sea level.

By keeping the pressure low, they could make the metal shell of the crew compartments thinner. They could also make the structural frame that held the outer shell together out of thinner, lighter elements.

Remember that a spacecraft is a pressure vessel, and has a pretty odd shape (think of the outer shell of the Lunar Module, which was made from aluminum sheet that was only 12 mils thick!). By using pure oxygen, they could reduce the total pressure without reducing the partial pressure of oxygen, and sacrificing the health and alertness of the crew.

(steely)

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.