50 years ago today: Tragedy on the Apollo 1 launch pad

[Cooley Hurd]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1



Apollo 1, initially designated AS-204, was the first manned mission of the United States Apollo program, which had as its ultimate goal a manned lunar landing.[1] The low Earth orbital test of the Apollo Command/Service Module never made its target launch date of February 21, 1967. A cabin fire during a launch rehearsal test on January 27 at Cape Kennedy Air Force Station Launch Complex 34 killed all three crew members—Command Pilot Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Senior Pilot Edward H. White II, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee—and destroyed the Command Module (CM). The name Apollo 1, chosen by the crew, was officially retired by NASA in commemoration of them on April 24, 1967.

Immediately after the fire, NASA convened the Apollo 204 Accident Review Board to determine the cause of the fire, and both houses of the United States Congress conducted their own committee inquiries to oversee NASA's investigation. The ignition source of the fire was determined to be electrical, and the fire spread rapidly due to combustible nylon material, and the high pressure, pure oxygen cabin atmosphere. The astronauts' rescue was prevented by the plug door hatch, which could not be opened against the higher internal pressure of the cabin. A failure to identify the test as hazardous (because the rocket was unfueled) led to the rescue being hampered by poor emergency preparedness.

During the Congressional investigation, then-Senator Walter Mondale publicly revealed a NASA internal document citing problems with prime Apollo contractor North American Aviation, which became known as the "Phillips Report". This disclosure embarrassed NASA Administrator James E. Webb, who was unaware of the document's existence, and attracted controversy to the Apollo program. Despite congressional displeasure at NASA's lack of openness, both congressional committees ruled that the issues raised in the report had no bearing on the accident.

Manned Apollo flights were suspended for 20 months while the Command Module's hazards were addressed. However, the development and unmanned testing of the Lunar Module (LM) and Saturn V Moon rocket continued. The Saturn IB launch vehicle for Apollo 1, AS-204, was used for the first LM test flight, Apollo 5. The first successful manned Apollo mission was flown by Apollo 1's backup crew on Apollo 7 in October 1968.

[Warren DeMontague]

1. Kick & Rec

for Gus, Ed, and Roger

[PJMcK]

2. That was a tragically dark day for NASA

Growing up in the 1960's, I followed the space program like many of my schoolmates. Each time there was a launch, my school would have an assembly in the cafeteria where there was a TV so everyone could watch. All of the kids would participate in the countdown and then cheer as the rockets blasted off.

The day of the Apollo 1 fire, my family watched the news that evening and the feeling in the days that followed was that the moon program was finished. In the Congressional investigation, then-Senator Walter Mondale, a Democrat, wanted to kill the manned space program. It was astronaut Frank Borman's testimony to Congress that re-inspired and reinvigorated the Apollo program and thankfully, it went forward.

The three astronauts of Apollo 1 were accomplished heroes. Their deaths and the fire were devastating losses that were completely unexpected. NASA always knew that the dangers of spaceflight were high but it was assumed that the real dangers would be above the atmosphere. This fire caused major refits and redesigns to the command module that probably prevented greater tragedies in space.

Ed White was a personal hero of mine because he performed America's first spacewalk. It's wonderfully depicted in the Tom Hanks-produced mini-series, "From The Earth To The Moon."

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For anyone interested in the early history of NASA, this series is wonderfully produced and acted.

[irisblue]

3. why was Mondale anti manned space flight?

My dad was a big fan of NASA , watching modt of the launches & splashdowns with Walter Conkrite is a happy childhood memory.

[Bengus81]

4. And you get that from this article?

He brings up an memo that a certain contractor had problems--probably many in their quality and their quality control which led to this capsule catching fire. I guess when you have wires under a seat shorting out in pure oxygen that IS a problem with whoever the main contractor is.

[RobinA]

5. I Remember

this horror quite well, and I was 9 at the time. I regarded the space program as a disaster waiting to happen after that. I never liked to watch launches. To a 9 year old, nothing was worth fathers and husbands dying. My attitude towards the program became a bit more nuanced in the years that followed, but it took me awhile to get this out of my mind. It didn't help that I always kind of liked Grissom after he became seasick after splashdown one time.

[LeftInTX]

6. I can't believe it is 50 years ago.

My dad went to Air Cadet/OTS school with Gus Grissom

[Javaman]

7. hell of a way to go.

just horrible.

I'll never forget it.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

8. Crazy that the anniversaries of the three major NASA tragedies are all within a week of each other

January 27th is Apollo 1, January 28th is Challenger and Columbia is February 1st.

[hunter]

9. This had a very direct impact on my family.

My grandfather was one of the many very enthusiastic Apollo engineers. As a World War II Army Air Force Officer my grandfather tried to hide his emotional reaction to the tragedy behind a stoic face but that was always a certain sign he was upset.

The decision to switch to a nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere at launch and gradually transition to a lower pressure pure oxygen atmosphere as the rocket ascended required some intense re-engineering. Previous this accident, mixed gas atmospheres in closed systems were regarded with deep suspicion because they had to be regulated so tightly; any equipment failures or mistakes would either suffocate the astronauts or give them the bends. There had been multiple bad experiences with these sorts of mixed atmospheres in both aviation and diving. That's why the pure oxygen atmosphere had been used in previous spacecraft.

Adding the more complex mixed gas atmospheric systems added mass to spacecraft. The overall mass "budget" of the spacecraft was already fixed, so mass had to be reduced in other systems.

As a wizard with titanium my grandfather was charged with replacing various parts made of heavier metals with titanium. That wasn't a trivial problem. Parts easily made in other metals are not easily reproduced in titanium. Some structural components had to be redesigned entirely. (My grandfather never explained where his skills with titanium came from; it was without a doubt Cold War secret stuff.)

And all of this work had to be done within JFK's deadline.

[Rhiannon12866]

10. K&R. I remember...