Hundreds honor the three Apollo 1 astronauts who were killed

The Daily Mail ^ | 26 January 2017 | ap

[mware]

Three astronauts were killed in the blaze in Cape Canaveral on January 27, 1967 

Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee were trapped in their burning craft 

A small spark created a blaze that burned hotter than 1,000°F (537°C)

[Calvin Locke]

I think it was in a documentary on Soviet Space Disasters, with the spin “If the Soviets hadn’t kept secret its problems...maybe the Apollo 1 disaster could have been avoided.”

[easternsky]

Read this and thought Why I'm I not remembering this incident. Looked at date and all flooded back to me. I was on a Train winding my way from California to Ft. Lewis Washington. My Husband of 3 years had been drafted and was graduating from basic training there . It was soooo cold and to rent a blanket was 50 cents, and I did not have the money. Was not a lot of News media in those years.

[Moonman62]

That could be, but later on I believe Pete Conrad was in the right slot to be the first, then there was an equipment delay that led to it being Armstrong.

OK, I looked it up:

Conrad was assigned in December 1966 to command the backup crew for the first Earth orbital test flight of the complete Apollo spacecraft, including the Lunar Module (LM) into low Earth orbit. Delays in the LM’s development pushed this mission to December 1968 as Apollo 8. But when one more delay occurred in readying the first LM for manned flight, NASA approved and scheduled a lunar orbit mission without the LM as Apollo 8, pushing Conrad’s backup mission to Apollo 9 in March 1969. Director of Flight Crew Operations Deke Slayton’s practice was to assign a backup crew as the prime crew on the third following mission. If the swap of 8 and 9 had not occurred, Conrad might have commanded Apollo 11, the first mission to land on the Moon.

[reed13k]

3 months to the day before I was born.....always haunted me when I would see the astronaut poster that was put out in the late 70s and those guys were off to the side in the background.

[reed13k]

For that one I was giving a chow call for noon formation my plebe year at USNA....one of the few times I was told to ‘shove off’ without getting my ass handed to me...couldn’t understand why until....

quietest noon meal I ever had while I was there....

[ConsCA]

NASA had been warned by representatives of Morton Thiokol about possible failure of the O Rings at cold temperatures but NASA didn’t listen....

[ConsCA]

And here’s the book about the O Rings.

https://www.amazon.com/Truth-Lies-Rings-Challenger-Disaster/dp/0813041937

[mware]

Yeah it sound like a few engineers knew almost immediately what happen with the O rings.

[mware]

Thanks CA , I’ll look it up.

[Clay Moore]

My dad, who was never one to bring work home with him, announced one night at the dinner table that they were going to loose a Shuttle sooner or later due to the o-ring failures.

They had already had full and partial burn through failures that vented SRB gasses but never directed towards the LOX tank.

He was one of the people NASA had studying the problem to ascertain if it was the o-rings or metal alloy or machining problem at the joints.

[beaversmom]

I don’t remember it. I was a fetus.

[M1903A1]

That was the reason for the Soviets’ setting up shorter-range nuclear missiles in Cuba, precipitating the Missile Crisis...that launch pad explosion wiped out many of their best rocket scientists and set their space and ICBM programs back by years.

[null and void]

Apollo 1 used a pure (100%) oxygen environment in the capsule, which was obviously a recipe for disaster. Apparently NASA thought it would give the astronauts more energy?

No nitrogen, no The Bends.

In space it would have been only a few PSI of oxygen, the same partial pressure as at sea level in air.

For this test, they simulated the stresses on the capsule by over-pressurizing in pure oxygen. *sigh*

[henkster]

I read somewhere that the O2 environment allowed them to have a lower air pressure in the cabin, something like 5 to 8 psi, which is a weight saving for the duration of the flight.

[null and void]

Hindsight but you would think they could have figured out the O ring problem ahead of time.

THEY DID!

Not one NOT A SINGLE ONE of Morton Thiokol's engineers would approve the launch that day. NONE OF THEM could be browbeaten into approving.

It was signed off by management.

Think about that. NONE of the people who work for you wanted their names associated with approving the launch, EVEN UNDER THREATS AND CAJOLING, and you are arrogant enough to ignore every single one of them?

Really?

There is a special place in Hell...

[null and void]

I know the anniversary is tomorrow but weird that again I read the article in a UK paper.

Exactly which "American" news outlet would celebrate any American Heroes?

[higgmeister]

Gus Grissom should have been the commander on the first Apollo moon landing.

Feb 28th is the 51st anniversary of Elliot See and Charles Bassett dying in their T-38 trainer.

[cherry]

I was 14 too....back when the military and NASA and the cops and teachers were respected.....

I miss those days...

[null and void]

Does anyone know if the artificial oil platform islands off Long Beach, CA are still named White, Grissom and Chaffee?

[higgmeister]

After the fire – which until 1986, was the only loss of life in the entire American space program...

And yoiu are forgetting Elliot See and Charlie Bassett that died in a T-38 trainer crash only 500 yards from their scheduled to be Gemini capsule. Charlie Bassett had been scheduled to be second Apollo backup crew with Borman and Anders. Jim Lovell took his place.