Apollo 1 fire - 42 years ago today

[RT Atlanta]

Godspeed Astronauts Grissom, White and Chaffee

[calico1]

1. I was very little when this happened so I really don't

remember it.

Grissom supposedly was who was considered the likely one to go to the moon (the role Neil Armstrong played).

White was the first American to do a space walk.

Chaffee was the youngest and this was his first ever mission.

Very sad and so much talent lost.

I think it is even sadder that they are hardly mentioned or remembered anymore.

[RT Atlanta]

2. Grissom was the "astronaut's astronaut"

It says quite a lot about Gus that he was tapped to fly the maiden flights of both Gemini and Apollo. White and Chaffee were strong as well - Ed with his 'walk' and Roger with his accomplished test flight capabilities.

The fire did help NASA get to the moon by 70 with some needed redesigns to the command module, including the entrance hatch (redesigned so that it opened outward rather than inward) and the 100% oxygen environment was replaced with a mixture.

[moggie]

3. The Krantz dictum

I think it's worth quoting Gene Krantz's response to the fire:

Spaceflight will never tolerate carelessness, incapacity, and neglect. Somewhere, somehow, we screwed up. It could have been in design, build, or test. Whatever it was, we should have caught it. We were too gung ho about the schedule and we locked out all of the problems we saw each day in our work. Every element of the program was in trouble and so were we. The simulators were not working, Mission Control was behind in virtually every area, and the flight and test procedures changed daily. Nothing we did had any shelf life. Not one of us stood up and said, 'Dammit, stop!' I don't know what Thompson's committee will find as the cause, but I know what I find. We are the cause! We were not ready! We did not do our job. We were rolling the dice, hoping that things would come together by launch day, when in our hearts we knew it would take a miracle. We were pushing the schedule and betting that the Cape would slip before we did. From this day forward, Flight Control will be known by two words: 'Tough' and 'Competent.' Tough means we are forever accountable for what we do or what we fail to do. We will never again compromise our responsibilities. Every time we walk into Mission Control we will know what we stand for. Competent means we will never take anything for granted. We will never be found short in our knowledge and in our skills. Mission Control will be perfect. When you leave this meeting today you will go to your office and the first thing you will do there is to write 'Tough and Competent' on your blackboards. It will never be erased. Each day when you enter the room these words will remind you of the price paid by Grissom, White, and Chaffee. These words are the price of admission to the ranks of Mission Control.

It's a sentiment which is very much out of fashion now!