Posted on 01/27/2022 7:03:18 AM PST by Kaslin
“We got a fire in the cockpit,” Senior pilot Ed White called out at a little past 6:31 pm on Jan. 27, 1967. “We got a bad fire,” yelled pilot Roger Chaffee soon after. “We’re burning up!” The three-man crew of Apollo 1, including Commander Gus Grissom, were killed in a terrifying inferno that took their lives within seconds.
Fifty-five years ago, the tragedy of Apollo 1 was a gut punch to the nation. Three helpless astronauts, tightly locked inside an Apollo capsule sitting atop a Saturn 1B rocket on Pad 34 down at the Cape in Florida, conducting a routine test of the spacecraft’s systems, perished just weeks before the first manned mission of the moon landing program was set to launch, crippling Project Apollo before it ever got off the ground.
In the late 1960s, America was on a mission to get to the moon by the end of the decade, to fulfill a promise made by the late president, John F. Kennedy. The Mercury and Gemini programs were successfully completed in November 1966 and Apollo was set to fly in February 1967.
All that remained to get the first flight into space was to do a final test of the Apollo capsule, the “plugs-out” test, a simulated launch sequence that would show the spacecraft to be flight worthy.
The three astronauts, set to fly the first mission, were inside the capsule, wearing their space suits and helmets, the complex hatch tightly sealed, 100 percent oxygen filling the cabin, and the spacecraft itself operating under its own power. But what they didn’t know was that this machine, the most complex ever built, had a dark secret.
After being in the spacecraft for five long, miserable hours, with the test dragging on and glitch after painful glitch slowing what little progress was being made, the astronauts were beginning to feel the strain. And then something sparked in the more than 30 miles of wiring within the command module, igniting the pure oxygen atmosphere. It quickly grew into a firestorm, burning at more than 1200 degrees Fahrenheit, hot enough to melt aluminum.
The fire quickly burned through the oxygen hoses, leaving the astronauts nothing to breathe but toxic smoke and fumes. They asphyxiated in less than 20 seconds. The public mourned their loss a few days later, as Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee were laid to rest.
But would the program also be laid to rest? Many thought the goal of landing on the moon might be lost forever.
Even before the fire, public opinion polls were beginning to show that more and more Americans were not onboard with a trip to the moon. An increasing number in Congress were questioning the high level of spending, with roughly five percent of the federal budget going to NASA, coming in at more than $5 billion per year. This at a time when the country was engaged in a full-scale war in Vietnam while also funding Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs.
Public dissent would only grow. In July 1967, six months after the fire, a Harris poll showed, for the first time, a majority of Americans did not believe Apollo was worth the cost, both in terms of lives lost and money spent. NASA, though, would push forward.
The Apollo spacecraft contract had been awarded to North American Aviation in the fall of 1961 and the development of the world’s most sophisticated machine had been inundated with problems. In the words of one Apollo astronaut, “This bucket of bolts won’t make it to Earth orbit.”
NASA knew there were serious issues and were working to get them fixed before launch day. Unfortunately, the hard, around-the-clock work didn’t catch every hidden flaw and tragedy struck.
But the space agency did not duck responsibility. NASA created an official Review Board to investigate the tragedy, assigned blame, and worked to redesign the spacecraft over a period of 18 months, with more than 1300 changes to the original design, including a new hatch that would allow for easy escape, something the Apollo 1 crew did not have. What emerged was a magnificent flying machine that would ultimately make nine trips to the moon between 1968 and 1972.
Throughout NASA, widespread opinion prevailed, then and now, that had the fire not occurred, another accident was almost certain, which could have been worse, especially had it been in space, and that could have been enough to derail the program permanently.
The fire, though, did have a silver lining. It alone exposed the flaws in the spacecraft, defects that would have prevented it from fulfilling its mission. The modifications to the spacecraft and changes to the program ultimately made space travel safer.
Space flight is still a dangerous occupation and accidents still occur but because of Apollo 1, no longer would an American spacecraft use 100 percent oxygen under high pressure. No longer would flight crews be without adequate safety features should disaster strike.
Americans can be proud of their space program and the ultimate success of Apollo 11 in 1969. But it was because of the sacrifice of Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee that made the moon landing possible. Their loss was not in vain.
It is easy to be so focused on getting things right as regarding working and efficiency that what could go wrong is not given much attention, and with overconfidence in the ability to handle it fostering such. I think some warned of the dangers of a outside opening hatch, and any fire control person could see the dangers of 100% OX atmosphere. A simple evacuation valve while flooding it with CO2 (since the astronauts where in space suits) during test could have been a solution.
I remember that day very well. We grieved as a Nation. I still tear-up when I think of that incident.
I do not see an explanation.
The issue with pure oxygen at diving depth was physiological, but I do not recall the exact details and will have to look it up.
The culture began its long downward spiral into feminization when westward expansion was finished and the urban lifestyle came to the fore. Since politics is downstream of culture - here we are in a complete state of chaos - like a hysterical woman
The article states that cabin pressure was more than 1 atm for some reason.
North American was firmly of the opinion that the weight savings wasn't worth the risk, but NASA formally changed the spec in the contract in 1962. NASA wouldn't budge, even when there was a fire in the command module's environmental control until while it was bring built in 1966. Which prompted North American to re-evaluate the all possible sources of ignition and the location of all potentially flammable materials within the module. But these changes were only made to the Block II spacecraft, the ones that would go to the moon, not to Block I, which would remain in earth orbit (such as Apollo 1).
Then they chose to pressure-test the craft with 16 psi pure oxygen at sea level to replicate the pressure differential of the low-pressure pure O2 atmosphere in space.
After Apollo 1 they still didn't change the remaining Apollos. To do so would have taken considerable time and might have let the USSR get to the moon first.
The Russians did in fact have an unmanned lunar lander already in orbit when Apollo 11 entered moon orbit (Lunar 15). It was supposed to land softly, take soil samples and return them to earth but apparently the roughness of the lunar surface overwhelmed its altitude sensors and it crash-landed while Neil and Buzz were on the moon. If Lunar 15 had been successful, in typical Russian disinformation, the Soviets would have claimed that they did it better because they retrieved the same lunar soil samples as the American had, but with a much simpler and less costly spacecraft that didn't put human life at risk.
After the fire, instead of modifying the onboard systems on the remaining Apollos, NASA just pumped the spacecraft full of a high-pressure oxygen-nitrogen mix while it was on the launch pad. The excess pressure would be bled out on ascent, leaving nothing but pure low-pressure oxygen for the remainder of the trip. Which in essence was a gamble that if there was going to be a fire, it would happen early in the flight. So even after the warnings from Apollo 1, all of the Apollos that went to the moon got there with a pure oxygen atmosphere.
“If we die, we want people to accept it. We’re in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life.”
-- Virgil "Gus" Grissom
“Sacrifices must be made!”
-- dying words of Otto Lillienthal, the first aviator
The Soviets used regular air in their spacecraft. But their boosters (Saturn V excepted) were more powerful, their spacecraft heavier and cruder construction, and maybe they didn't wish to have to engineer around the considerable hazards of an O2 environment. One spark and almost anything will catch fire and burn.
Excellent post—and the first one on this thread that correctly questioned the official narrative.
There is a lot more wrong with the official narrative....including the possibility of sabotage that was kept secret.
See post #14
Ironically it was because of Gus Grissom that the hatch was bolted on
When his Mercury capsule splashed down in the ocean the explosive bolts on the cockpit door prematurely detonated. He almost drowned before rescue. To prevent that NASA designed the capsule door to be bolted on.
Law of Unintended Consequences.
They told the same lie for the Challenger disaster.
Emergency oxygen packs were manually activated after the explosion, and there are voice recordings all the way down to the water.
Side note, the shuttle was originally designed to have the crew compartment separate from the cargo section and parachute to safety. The provisions for explosive bolts were removed, and the heavy parachutes were eliminated.
Still, the original intended joint was were the crew compartment and the exploding main body with all that fuel and oxidizer parted ways...
Extra pressure is the danger issue for scuba diving with pure oxygen.
From memory, pure oxygen was forbidden below 10 meters.
That causes oxygen toxicity and potential death, but I cannot recall the specific reactions and the chain of events.
Too sleepy to research this issue at the moment. I will refresh my memory this evening.
Virgil “Gus” Grissom was part of the original Mercury program and then the Gemini program. More than anyone at the time, Grissom *was* the NASA space program. John Glenn had gone into politics. Alan Shepard couldn’t fly due to health concerns.
He made many public appearances while in and around Houston. He had a working-class nickname and seemed both very approachable yet mythical at the same time. He always seemed to speak the company line in public but, behind the scenes could be very blunt and opinionated - just as you’d want him to be because he knew simple mistakes in that business could be deadly.
Although I mourned most for Grissom and White, I felt sorriest for Chaffee because he died before he had a chance to go up and experience what this was all about.
It’s painful to remember tragedies like Apollo 1 but it is a painful event that needs remembering.
Someone I know who was in the Air Force said they did not die quickly.
The videos clips cut off after the cry of “We got a fire” because of the screams of the astronauts.
Those who were listening to that were never the same. Most ended up with severe drinking issues.
A lot of people blamed Gus for blowing open the hatch and sinking the crew capsule.
I recall being really depressed after that incident because all the flight data and engineering evidence went straight to the bottom of the ocean.
It was since salvaged and exonerated him.
"While being interviewed for a NASA oral history project, astronaut Tom Stafford wisely noted that Gemini astronauts using an ejection seat would be immersed in the same 16 psi, pure oxygen environment that led to the Apollo 1 fire and took the lives of Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffe, and Ed White.
“We would have been two Roman candles shooting off into the sand and palmetto trees, because we were 15 or 16 psi, pure oxygen, soaking in that for an hour-and-a-half. It would have burned the suits” Stafford said. “Everything was soaked in oxygen. So thank God. That was another thing - NASA never tested it under the conditions that they would have had if they would have had to eject. They did have some tests at China Lake where they had a simulated mock-up of Gemini capsule, but what they did is fill it full of nitrogen. They didn't have it filled full of oxygen in the sled test they had.”
Most who listened were part of the team that designed, built, oversaw the construction, set up the test protocols, or supervised the test.
Every single one of them knew they failed to recognize the risk, may have improperly soldered a wire, missed a flaw in the design, might have lost a tool or loose nut in the capsule, failed to specify a pure oxygen use component, noticed a possible problem and didn't raise the issue, or didn't push hard enough when their supervisor blew them off.
Or worse, was that supervisor.
Yeah. Never the same.
I'm just glad the valve my dad built that was designed to kill an astronaut, that flew on every lander mission, never needed to be used.
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