NASA on Friday marked the 50th anniversary of its moon program’s fatal Apollo launchpad fire with the first public display of the scorched hatch that trapped three astronauts inside their spaceship during a routine pre-launch test.
NASA astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee died when thick smoke filled the crew module of the Apollo 1 capsule on January 27, 1967, in what was the first deadly accident in the space agency’s early days.
The men were unable to open the capsule’s three-part hatch before being overcome by smoke. Emergency rescue teams rushed to battle the fire at the launchpad, located at what is now Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, but were too late.
The hatch has now been taken out of storage and incorporated into a new display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex to honour the astronauts and serve as a reminder of the risks of spaceflight.
“Had that accident occurred in space, we’d have never known exactly what had happened,” former Gemini and Apollo astronaut Tom Stafford said at a ceremony to mark the exhibit’s opening.
The deaths of these “three great heroes … helped save at least one other in flight, maybe two,” he added.
Investigators discovered several problems with the Apollo capsule design that led to the fire, including an electrical wiring issue, a pure-oxygen environment and flammable materials throughout the crew cabin.
NASA made dozens of changes and resumed flying in October 1968, setting the stage for the historic Apollo 11 lunar landing in July 1969.
Grissom, aged 40 and one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts, became the second American in space in a suborbital flight that preceded John Glenn’s landmark first US orbital space flight. White, who was 36, became the first American to walk in space as pilot of the Gemini 4 mission in June 1965. Chaffee, 31, was a rookie astronaut with no previous spaceflight experience, reports internet.
