On an ordinary Friday evening, Jan. 27, forty years ago, the Apollo launch team was hard at work at Launch Pad 34 on Cape Canaveral. A full dress rehearsal was in progress for the Apollo 1 mission, the first manned mission in the Apollo Program.



Image above: The Apollo 1 crew: NASA astronauts
Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee.
Photo credit: NASA/KSC.

NASA astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee were strapped in their seats in their command module atop a Saturn IB rocket. Their mission would test this new spacecraft in Earth orbit. All future Apollo crews would rely on this capsule to see them safely on their journeys to and from the moon.

Gus Grissom was a local hero and one of the original seven Mercury astronauts selected in 1959. He made the second suborbital Mercury flight in 1961 and was one of the two-man crew on the Gemini 3 flight in 1965.

Ed White was selected as an astronaut in 1962. He made national headlines as NASA's first spacewalker during the Gemini 4 mission in 1965.


Image above: Official NASA portrait
of astronaut Gus Grissom, a member
of the Apollo 1 crew.
Photo credit: NASA/JSC.

The rookie on the crew, Roger Chaffee was selected as an astronaut in 1963. Apollo 1 was his first flight assignment.

At 6:31 p.m., the unthinkable happened. The vehicle rocked twice as the alarm "Fire!" rang out from inside the capsule.

Pad personnel scrambled to reach the White Room, but just six minutes later when the inner hatch was opened, it was already too late. All three astronauts had died from inhaling carbon monoxide and other toxic gases generated by the flash fire.

In the accident's aftermath, the NASA family was distraught but determined to honor their fallen colleagues.


Image above: Official NASA portrait
of astronaut Edward White, a member
of the Apollo 1 crew.
Photo credit: NASA/JSC.

Flight Director Gene Kranz told his team at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston: "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," he said. " 'Competent' means we will never take anything for granted."

An accident review board later determined that the fire was caused by an electrical arc in an equipment bay following a momentary power outage. The investigation led to major design and engineering changes, making the Apollo spacecraft safer for the coming journeys to the moon.

Today, a small group of family and friends gathers at Pad 34 at sunset on the anniversary of the accident to remember these three dedicated astronauts.


Image right: Official NASA portrait
of astronaut Roger Chaffee, a member
of the Apollo 1 crew.
Photo credit: NASA/JSC.

Chaffee's daughter, Sheryl, works as the administrative officer for Center Operations at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "It has sometimes been hard for me to work here at KSC," she said, "but I am proud to follow in my father's footsteps as a NASA employee. He was proud of what he did for his country, and I know he would support NASA's mission to return men to the moon and on to Mars."

The NASA family pauses each January for a Day of Remembrance, honoring the fallen heroes of Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia and all of those who have given their lives in the cause of exploration and discovery.


Kay Grinter, Reference Librarian
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center

Source: NASA - Humans in Space

On January 27, 1967, Apollo 1's crew--Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White II and Roger B. Chaffee--was killed when a fire erupted in their capsule during testing. Apollo 1 was originally designated AS-204 but following the fire, the astronauts' widows requested that the mission be remembered as Apollo 1 and following missions would be numbered subsequent to the flight that never made it into space.

Image credit: NASA

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Source: NASA - Multimedia - Image of the Day Gallery

Forty years ago I was in High School, back in those days space exploration was a big deal. I still remember looking at a news broadcast telling of this horrible event. I recall my Dad saying something to the effect that there is always great danger in anything involving exploration...but that the rewards of such exploration are also great.

So, it is with great respect and gratitude that I remember the crew of Apollo 1.

Waspie,

Thanks for posting this!

The country (US) lost three great men on that pad, but the event also showed the incredible courage those astronauts had. It must have been a real test of fortitude to get into the next capsule.

The Apollo 1 fire was exactly a week after my first birthday so I have no memory of it. Lilly, your father was so right, indeed Gus Grissom himself summed it up after his Gemini 3 flight in 1965:

As a non-American I would disagree with only one thing you said, the US didn't lose three great men, the world lost three great men.

I thought the same thing about fortitude after the Challenger accident. The commander of the first post Challenger mission. STS-26 was Rick Hauck. He was serving as Capcom when Challenger exploded, he was the man actually talking to the crew when they were killed. Despite that he flew the next mission. The men and women of NASA (and the Russian and Chinese space corps for that matter) truely have the right stuff.

Today is the 21st anniverary of the Challenger tragedy.

So, let's take a minute, and remember her brave crew.

It's a high risk undertaking and accidents are bound to happen. I find it difficult to feel remorse and sadness for people who engage in such things. Many people have died accomplishing much more important things, and are unfortunately forgotten because the media doesn't deem it newsworthy.

KGS

You find it hard to feel remorse because they engaged in a risky activity that you don't feel to be that important?

The space program is a wonderful thing, it is a result of mankind's achievements. If it were not for risk takers such as these people we would not have the comforts that our achievements have allowed us to enjoy today.

Remember one thing:

"Far better is it to dare mighty things, then to take rank with those poor timid spirits, who know neither victory nor defeat"

I was delivering newspapers to a hotel at the time and I'll never forget it....everyone including myself was glued to the tv and saw it live. Sometimes I wish I hadn't taken that job while in college.
Kudos to Chauncy....my thoughts exactly.

I remember exactly where I was, what I was doing, the little TV I was watching...everything.
To the Challenger Crew:
You gave your lives so we could have a better world, and a better understanding of space, and in reality it's giving us a better understanding of where humans fit into the universe.
Thank You.

How much suffering and misery has been caused on this world by people who "dare mighty things"?

KGS

KG.....I'm going to step out on a limb and say that were it not for people doing mighty things you would not be typing on a computer.

Not sure if your asking a question or making a statement.........why don't you tell me KGS.

No more then haas been caused by those who are determined to stick to a structure and refuse to allow progress to take its head.

No more then those who choose to have their heads in the sand while insisting that it is the best way to live...

Certainly no more then those who ressisted change by killing, and burning and raping in an attempt to keep their power. To retain their control.

I find KGS3333's attitude difficult to understand, because without people that "dare mighty things" we would all still be living in caves and killing our food with sticks and rocks. He is right that when people do brave things they sometimes pay the ultimate price but does that mean we should feel no "remorse and sadness for people who engage in such things"?

What about the soldier who lays down his life for his country or the fireman he selflessly risks his life to protect others. These are also people who "dare mighty things", should we feel no remorse for them as well?

One of the few things that separates us from most animals is that there are individuals who are prepared to face death for the good of others. These people not only deserve our remorse when they do pay the ultimate price but our respect and gratitude even when they don't.

While we are on the subject of whether the Challenger crew deserve our remorse, let's remember that they died because of incompetent decisions made by others that they were not even aware of.

The spirit of exploration and adventure is what has given us our modern world, both good and bad. Whether that be exploration in the physical sense or the discoverers that explore the universe intellectually, it is these people that have elevated us to where we are today, a species on the brink of making the greatest evolutionary step since fish left the water. Within a few generations we could be a true space faring species no longer restricted to one planet. We are about to take this step because of people like the crew of Challenger and the other crews that have given their lives.

In memory of:

• Virgil (Gus) Grissom
  Ed White
  Roger B. Chaffee
  Apollo 1 - 27^th January 1967
  
  
• Vladimir M. Komarov
  Soyuz 1 - 24^th April 1967
  
  
• Georgi Dobrovolski
  Viktor Patsayev
  Vladislav Volkov
  Soyuz 11 - 30^th June 1971
  
  
• Francis R. "Dick" Scobee
  Michael J. Smith (USN)
  Ellison S. Onizuka (USAF)
  Dr. Judith A. Resnik
  Dr. Ronald E. McNair
  Gregory B. Jarvis
  S. Christa McAuliffe
  STS-51L, Challenger - 28^th January 1986
  
  
• Rick D. Husband
  William C. McCool
  Michael P. Anderson
  David M. Brown
  Kalpana Chawla
  Laurel B. Clark
  Ilan Ramon
  STS-107, Columbia - 1^st February 2003
  
  
• And to all he other astronauts and cosmonauts who have lost their lives in accidents as a result of training for man's greatest adventure.

- Ronald Reagan 28^th January 1986

Michael Griffin
NASA Administrator





Image above: Former Astronaut and Senator John Glenn (right), NASA Administrator Michael Griffin and other
NASA senior management participate in a wreath laying ceremony as part of NASA’s Day of Remembrance,
Monday, Jan. 29, 2007, at Arlington National Cemetery. The wreathes were laid in the memory of those men
and women who lost their lives in the quest of space exploration. Click image to enlarge.
Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls.

Today, we honor the Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia astronauts, as well as others at NASA who have given their lives in pursuit of the dream of flight. In recognition of NASA's Day of Remembrance, I and some of our astronauts will visit Arlington National Cemetery to lay a wreath in memory of those members of the NASA family who have fallen in the line of duty.

From the dawn of the space age, we have known that spaceflight would bring with it unique new challenges, opportunities, rewards, and risks.

The Apollo fire, which occurred forty years ago on January 27, 1967, was a particular blow, because so few had anticipated that our first tragedy would occur during a ground test. The fire, and the loss of Challenger and Columbia, are stark reminders that we must use our utmost ingenuity to anticipate all of the risks before us, not just those that are obvious. To imagine the ways in which a complex new machine might fail is the most difficult of all engineering challenges, yet it is the one we at NASA have accepted as the price of learning the arts and sciences of flight in all its forms.

This Day of Remembrance also reminds us that despite our losses, the American people have never wavered in their support for space exploration. They know that it brings out the best in us, our creativity, our curiosity, our courage in the face of the unknown. Space exploration reminds us of what it is to be a human being, in ways that have been, and will be again, both supremely gratifying and deeply humbling. But through it all, through both failure and success, we continue our work to know, to experience, to understand, to become a spacefaring civilization.

As Alfred, Lord Tennyson, put it in Ulysses:

"... my purpose holds to sail beyond the sunset, and the baths of all the western stars, until I die. It may be that the gulfs will wash us down. It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, and see the great Achilles, whom we knew. Though much is taken, much abides; and though we are not now that strength which in the old days moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; one equal-temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

Today, we honor the sacrifice of those who did not yield.

Source: NASA - Humans In Space

I had originally posted the above article as the start of a new thread, however with a thread I started, "Remembering Apollo 1" and a thread started by TooFarGone, "Challenger, 21 years On" covering such similar subjects I have decided to combine the three threads into one.

Today marks the 4^th anniversary of the loss of Columbia and her crew. Although the most recent accident in space exploration, I fear it will not be the last. As long as brave men and women are prepared to push against the boundaries there will be the occasional fall. As mankind prepares to return to the Moon and then push onto Mars it is inevitable that space exploration will claim more lives. However through the bravery and sacrifice of people such as the astronauts and cosmonauts mankind continues to improve itself. If ever we, as a species, lose our spirit of adventure and our desire to explore then we are surely doomed.

- George W. Bush 1^st February 2003

Today marks the 40^th anniversary of the first life lost during a spaceflight, that of Colonel Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov.

Komarov was the sole occupant of the Soyuz 1 vehicle, launched 24 hours earlier. The Soyuz had been rushed into service before it was ready on the orders of the Soviet Politburo (possibly to try and overtake the USA who had suffered their own fatal accident, the Apollo 1 fire, just three months earlier).

Originally Soyuz 1 was to have been joined in orbit by the three manned Soyuz 2. Two of the Soyuz 2 crew would transfer to Soyuz 1 by space walk and return to Earth along with Komorov.

The problems began as soon as Soyuz 1 reached orbit. Only one of the two solar panels deployed, leaving the craft low on power. Then the automatic stabilisation system totally failed and the manual system was only partially working. The launch of Soyuz 2 was cancelled as a result of the problems.

The order to abort the mission was issued and Komarov attempted re-entry after 18 orbits. Sadly more problems were to occur. The main parachute did not deploy. When Komarov deployed the emergency 'chute it became twisted. Soyuz 1 hit the ground at high speed, killing Komarov instantly.

He was given a state funeral and laid to rest in the Kremlin wall.

I find it amazing that we have a holiday to honor an Itallian guy working for the Spanish crown, who was so lost he thought he was in India...yet we DON'T have any kind of holiday in honor of these men, or in honor of the successful missions...