[virgil]

Its interesting that after all this time Mrs. Grissom still has unanswered questions about the fire. Have you ever read the account of events that occurred leading up to the fire? Last I know, the account is on the NASA website. There is also a kind of failure analysis summary. Its very interesting. There were a lot of QC problems with the capsule...defects etc. Too many I think. Wasn't the command module/service module made by McDonnell-Douglas?

[poindexter]

"Wasn't the command module/service module made by McDonnell-Douglas?"

Rockwell built the command module, the service module, and the Saturn V second stage. Harrison Storms lost his job over Appolo I.

Grumman built the lunar module. I don't remember who built the S4-B.

Greg

[stationkeeper]

The Mercury and Gemini were both built by M-D but the Apollo CSM was built by North American. Since this was their first foray as the prime contractor they had some serious QC problems that resulted in the pad fire that killed Grissom/White/Chafee.
One of the results of the fire, aside from a top to bottom design review of the CSM, was that NASA (at the behest of the astronauts) forced North Ameican to hire Gunther Wendt from Mcdonnel Douglas. Gunther Wendt was the white room manager for the mercury and gemini launches and a real stickler for detail when it came to pad and crew safety.
many of the astronauts believe that if Wendt had been in the white room that day in january, those three astronauts would not have died because the test would have been scubbed.
grissom kept complaining of a "funny,sour" smell in the o2 that was coming into their suits. That, plus all the COM glitches (which they think were electrical related and thus the source of the ignition source) should have set off alarm bells to the North American pad crew who were present that evening.