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Today is the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire
Posted on 1/27/17 at 12:12 pm
Posted on 1/27/17 at 12:12 pm
Claiming the life of three American pioneers and heroes.
LINK
ETA:
LINK
LINK
ETA:
quote:
A new tribute opened Friday, Jan. 27, 2017, at the Apollo/Saturn V Center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, dedicated to the lives, accomplishments and memories of the three astronauts who perished 50 years ago in a launch pad fire while training for the flight of Apollo 1. The tribute exhibit stands only a few miles from the long-abandoned Launch Complex 34, the launch pad where the fire took place. The pad was dismantled in 1968 after the launch of Apollo 7.
Called "Ad Astra Per Aspera - A Rough Road Leads to the Stars," the permanent exhibition carries the blessings of the families of Apollo 1 astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White II and Roger Chaffee. It showcases clothing, tools and models that define the men as their parents, wives and children saw them as much as how the nation viewed them.
The tribute also displays for the first time the three-section hatch from the Apollo 1 capsule that caught fire at Launch Complex 34 on Jan. 27, 1967. The astronauts were not able to escape the smoke and blaze inside the spacecraft before they asphyxiated despite their own efforts and those of numerous pad crew members who braved thick fumes and scorching temperatures to try to get the men out.
LINK
This post was edited on 1/27/17 at 11:15 pm
Posted on 1/27/17 at 12:15 pm to meeple
Deke Slayton on Gus Grissom and the moon landings:
quote:
"Had Gus been alive, as a Mercury astronaut he would have taken the [first] step ... My first choice would have been Gus, which both Chris Kraft and Bob Gilruth seconded."
Posted on 1/27/17 at 12:21 pm to Wally Sparks
That was one of the bigger "what ifs" in the history of the American space program. Grissom was 100% going to be the commander of the first landing. Ed White would've no doubt commanded a landing mission, too. However, that first command module was a lemon and had a colossal number of issues. I believe it was Frank Borman who said that if the fire hadn't happened and led to a rework of the CM, they probably would've lost a crew in space at a later date.
I highly suggest anyone go read Andrew Chaikin's book A Man On The Moon. It's probably the definitive work on the inner workings of the Apollo program, and gives a mission-by-mission account via the astronauts' own words.
I highly suggest anyone go read Andrew Chaikin's book A Man On The Moon. It's probably the definitive work on the inner workings of the Apollo program, and gives a mission-by-mission account via the astronauts' own words.
This post was edited on 1/27/17 at 12:24 pm
Posted on 1/27/17 at 12:32 pm to meeple
I've always been fascinated by the early space flight astronauts since seeing The Right Stuff as a kid.
Posted on 1/27/17 at 12:32 pm to Feral
Interesting how those three saved lives later on, especially considering they had access to the wreckage after the fact, unlike if the accident had happened in space.
Posted on 1/27/17 at 12:45 pm to Choupique19
quote:
The Right Stuff
I dusted off my old DVD copy of this and watched it a few weekends ago.
Regarding the Apollo 1 fire, I made the mistake of listening to a recording of the raw cockpit audio from that day. Very haunting, to say the least.
Posted on 1/27/17 at 12:47 pm to Oswald
Supposedly there is an audio recording of a Russian cosmonaught as he was falling back down to earth and he was cussing everyone out.
Posted on 1/27/17 at 1:04 pm to meeple
I was reading a piece yesterday or the day before about NASA finally deciding to bring the hatch out of storage and showing it in a memorial display at KSC. I did not realize that they had put remnants of Challenger and Columbia on display a few years ago as well.
Glad to see the Apollo 1 crew getting the full recognition they deserve. It is sad to think that there was a time the families had to pay for and place the memorial wreath each year themselves.
Glad to see the Apollo 1 crew getting the full recognition they deserve. It is sad to think that there was a time the families had to pay for and place the memorial wreath each year themselves.
Posted on 1/27/17 at 1:14 pm to Oswald
That recording is chilling and can be found inside the linked article.
I read a report on the Apollo 1 fire many years ago. That capsule was basically a bomb with all the pure oxygen laying around. Their deaths saved many lives.
I read a report on the Apollo 1 fire many years ago. That capsule was basically a bomb with all the pure oxygen laying around. Their deaths saved many lives.
Posted on 1/27/17 at 1:22 pm to meeple
I've been trying to figure out why 1/27 was significant all morning.
Thanks guy.
RIP to three American heroes. Gus was America's second man in space. Ed was the first American to perform a space walk. We take those actions relatively for granted, but back then it was literally strapping yourself to a weapon of war and praying that any one of a million moving parts wouldn't fail and kill you. Or if it did, it would do so quickly.
Even though suffocation through fire sounds like a relatively agonizing death - because of the unique nature of the pressurized environment and the overall violence of the event, they were likely unconscious after just a few seconds and expired a few seconds after that. At least I pray that's how it went. However small a comfort that is - I'll take it.
Thanks guy.
RIP to three American heroes. Gus was America's second man in space. Ed was the first American to perform a space walk. We take those actions relatively for granted, but back then it was literally strapping yourself to a weapon of war and praying that any one of a million moving parts wouldn't fail and kill you. Or if it did, it would do so quickly.
Even though suffocation through fire sounds like a relatively agonizing death - because of the unique nature of the pressurized environment and the overall violence of the event, they were likely unconscious after just a few seconds and expired a few seconds after that. At least I pray that's how it went. However small a comfort that is - I'll take it.
Posted on 1/27/17 at 1:23 pm to meeple
must have been a horrific way to go! It still amazes me that we sent people to the moon with the technology that was available at the time.
Posted on 1/27/17 at 1:34 pm to athenslife101
quote:
Supposedly there is an audio recording of a Russian cosmonaught as he was falling back down to earth and he was cussing everyone out.
Komarov on Soyuz 1. Even though a commie, another hero. We'll be coming up on the 50th anniversary of that in April.
Komarov overcame a couple of equipment failures to manually reenter the atmosphere, only to have an equipment failure doom his chances of survival. Reportedly he had a few choice words. However, I'm not sure due to the nature of the loss of the spacecraft and crew.
Posted on 1/27/17 at 1:43 pm to athenslife101
quote:
Supposedly there is an audio recording of a Russian cosmonaught as he was falling back down to earth and he was cussing everyone out.
Fascinating read. The person he was speaking to was Yuri Gagarin. The cosmonaut took Gagarin's spot because he knew Gagarin would die if he went up.
NPR
quote:
Last month, I read a book that recounted the horrendous death in 1967 of Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. The story amazed me. I described it this way:
"So there's a cosmonaut up in space, circling the globe, convinced he will never make it back to Earth; he's on the phone with Alexei Kosygin — then a high official of the Soviet Union — who is crying because he, too, thinks the cosmonaut will die. The space vehicle is shoddily constructed, running dangerously low on fuel; its parachutes — though no one knows this — won't work and the cosmonaut, Vladimir Komarov, is about to, literally, crash full speed into Earth, his body turning molten on impact. As he heads to his doom, U.S. listening posts in Turkey hear him crying in rage, 'cursing the people who had put him inside a botched spaceship.'"
That's roughly the story I read in Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin, by Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony, a new edition of which was released last month in the United States. In my post, I said, "This version (of Komarov's death) — if it's true — is beyond shocking."
Posted on 1/27/17 at 1:50 pm to KingBarkus
Why they insisted on pure oxygen I will never figure out. The soviets used mostly mostly air, I believe.
Posted on 1/27/17 at 3:32 pm to NYNolaguy1
I understand but you are going to confuse the shite out of some of the less intelligent.
Posted on 1/27/17 at 3:41 pm to NYNolaguy1
quote:
Why they insisted on pure oxygen I will never figure out. The soviets used mostly mostly air, I believe.
I think some Soviet cosmonaut got cooked in a pure oxygen chamber during testing/experimentation with a spacesuit. I don't recall if this was prior to the Soyuz program or not, but it was before Apollo 1. Either way, if the data could have been shared...
Damn Commies.
This post was edited on 1/27/17 at 3:45 pm
Posted on 1/27/17 at 3:52 pm to NYNolaguy1
quote:
Why they insisted on pure oxygen I will never figure out.
It wasn't the pure oxygen alone that was the problem.
1. Pure oxygen
2. Almost 17 PSI
3. Velcro in the cabin
4. Test not classified as hazardous, so routine (and only routine) safety protocols were in place
Any 1 of those factors removed and the incident either doesn't happen or isn't fatal.
Posted on 1/27/17 at 5:30 pm to Ace Midnight
50 years ago to the minute - give or take.
I just watched the Apollo 1 episode from HBO's excellent "From the Earth to the Moon."
Really dusty in here, now.
I just watched the Apollo 1 episode from HBO's excellent "From the Earth to the Moon."
Really dusty in here, now.
Posted on 1/27/17 at 5:45 pm to Ace Midnight
How did velcro contribute to the fire?
Posted on 1/27/17 at 5:52 pm to Choupique19
Well just the idea that in the 60's we had the ability to figure out what it took to send a aircraft/ spacecraft to the mood is astonishing....
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