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Rest in Peace
Posted on 01/26/2017 7:45:17 PM PST by TBP
Moonwalkers and dozens of others who took part in NASA's storied Apollo program paid tribute Thursday to the three astronauts killed in a fire 50 years ago.
On the eve of the Apollo 1 anniversary, hundreds gathered at Kennedy Space Center to honor Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. They died during a countdown rehearsal at the launch pad, inside their burning spacecraft, on Jan. 27, 1967
On Friday, NASA is opening an Apollo 1 exhibit featuring the hatch that prevented the three astronauts from escaping. It has been concealed for the past half-century along with the capsule. The families of Grissom, White and Chaffee got an early look Wednesday evening at the display at the visitor complex, and liked what they saw.
"Really awesome," said daughter Sheryl Chaffee, who just retired from NASA. "It's very fitting. We all feel like it's about time."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
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Rest in Peace
It is such a shame that NASA learns so many design lessons the hard way. A little common sense in design and those three men would have seen old age.
Sure doesn’t seem like 50 years...(I had just entered the military)...
Stupid to have an artificial atmosphere in the capsule that had a high oxygen content.
True American heroes, they are remembered!
I flew in the navy and Marines, the flight (NATOPS) munuals were written in blood from the accidents that occurred.
I worked with a guy on a summer job who grew up with Gus Grissom, he spoke very highly of him.
I lived in Florida in my teens and my neighbor was a retired man who worked for NASA, he ate breakfast with the astronauts that horrible day.
Remember this well. It was a sad time and quite a blow to the nation.
Does anyone know if the artificial oil islands off Long Beach CA are still named White, Grissom and Chaffee?
Yeah, it is even more stupid to blame the hatch. They were in 100% pure oxygen and one little spark sealed their fate.
I was 13. It was a nightmare. That was one tough decade. More happened in 1967 than has happened before or since.
I still remember that day. My father worked on the Apollo capsule program.
The story says that the hatch and capsule will now be on display after 50 years. Maybe I blocked it out but I don’t recall ever seeing either. Were there pictures at the time? I seem to recall having to use a lot of imagination at the time.
“Written in blood” might be an apt subtitle for a history of human progress, and what humans do (and do not) learn from our mistakes...
38 years a firefighter, I can testify every page of the Fire Code is backed up by a pile of bodies somewhere...
When I was a kid, I remember watching TV when a “Special Report” abruptly interrupted the scheduled programming.
The “Special Report” announced the tragic deaths of these fine men.
What it was like inside the capsule.
This very nearly stopped the program completely. A horrible tragedy
Here in Grand Rapids, Michigan Roger Chaffee is 2nd only to Gerald Ford in terms of his renown.
Every kid, at least when I was, learned who he was. We have a street named for him, our museum’s planetarium bears his name, a scholarship, and we have two sculpture/monuments devoted to him!
Cant believe that was 50 years ago. To at least people older than 30, it kind of exists as almost a tragedy that might as well happened just a few years ago because the name is so fresh to us here.
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