January 27, 1967

[Boomerang]

41 years ago on Launch Pad 34 a lone Saturn 1B rocket specificly Saturn 204 sat on top was Apollo CM-012. The mission was still aproximately 1 month from launch and today was to be another of many test leading up to the launch of the first Apollo flight.

The mission was officially designated Apollo Saturn 204. It was supose to be the first C mission of the apollo program C mission being a simple Earth orbit test of the Apollo CSM systems. The command module a Block 1 cm meaning it was only designed to fly in earth orbit for testing of the space craft basic systems.

The crew Virgil I "Gus" Grissom one of only 2 remaining mercury vetrans still on active flight status. He had been th second american in space on Mercury Redstone 4. He made his second flight on Gemini 3 commanding the space craft Molly Brown with pilot John Young. Gus would serve as toe Command Pilot of Apollo 204. Gus was also believed to be the leading contender among the astronaut corps to be the first man to walk on the moon.

Edward H. White would serve as the mission;s Senior Pilot. He had been the first American to walk in space on Gemini 4 and was known to b the best athlete in the astronaut corps. He had been part of the second class of astronauts often referred to as the Gemini 9.

Roger B. Chaffee from the third class of astronauts would serve as Pilot on the mission. He would be making his first space flight.

January 27th 1967 the crew was dressed in full space suit and strapped down inside the spacecraft. The cabin was pressurised with 100 percent pure oxygen and operating under its own power. The plugs out test was the test to prove that the space craft and crew were ready to launch. it would be a full dress rehearsal of the countdown and launch. Communications problems had plagued the test from the start. Shortly after 6:30 pm a burst of static was heard over the radio in the blick house and in mission control. Then a call from the space craft reporting a "Fire in the cockpit" Two more calls would be heard then only silence. the pad crew rushed to try and remove the hatch an impossible task as it was an inward opening hatch and the pressure inside was too great. The hull ruptured shortly thereafter filling the white room and servicing area with smoke and fumes making the rescue even more difficult. Within minutes the fire was out and the hatch opened. All three crew had perished from asphixiation. Evidence showed they had made an attempt to open the hatch but were unable to do so. The investigation said freyed wiring caused a spark to jump igniting the pure oxygen and flamable material inside the capsule.

Today the Apollo 204 mission is known as Apollo 1 a designation the crew had fought for before the accident. The designation was applied retroactively and today Apollo 1 is the name the mission will always be known as.

The Apollo 1 command module now sits dissassenbled at the NASA Langley Research center in indefinate storage. Attempts have been made to have it displayed and at one time to bury it in the same silo as the Challenger wreckage however the outcry from the crew's families have prevented either from happening to date.

Saturn 204 was later used on one of the unmanned test flights leading up to the successful moon landing of Apollo 11 in 1969.

In October 1968 Apollo 7 successfully returned America to space and carried out the Apollo C mission with the new block 2 capsule.

Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee are burried at Arlington National cemetary. Ed White is burried at the US Military Academy at West Point.

[Pete Conrad Fan]

A sad day indeed

[Boomerang]

http://www.space.com/php/video/player.p ... 25-apollo1

I just found this on space.com it is a new real concerning the Apollo 1 fire its short and worth watching.

[Boomerang]

It is truly a sad day and begins a sad week of rememberance for the 3 accidents of America's space programs. And i plan to make a post on the day of each anniversary here commemorating each. We should never forget space flight this thing that we love so much is the most dangerous business there is but that exploration and expanding human knowledge is worth the risk. As Gus Grissom said only a month before his death.

"If we die, we want people to accept it. We are 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 I. Grissom--

[SpaceCanada]

Well written. Lest we forget.

[JennieM]

Thanks for posting that, Boomerang. I pray we never have another space-related accident.