Apollo 1

Apollo 1

Mission Insignia
Planned Mission
Mission Name:	Apollo 1 (AS-204)
Call Sign:	Command module: Apollo 1
Number of Crew:	3
Launch:	February 21, 1967 Kennedy Space Center LC 34
Apogee:	~300 km
Perigee:	~230 km
Period:	~89.7 m
Inclination:	~31°
Landing:	March 7, 1967 Atlantic Ocean N of Puerto Rico
Duration:	14 days
Number of Orbits:	~200
Mass:	CSM 20,412 kg
Crew Picture
Apollo 1 crew portrait (L-R: Grissom, White and Chaffee)
Apollo 1 Crew

Apollo One is the name given to the Apollo/Saturn 204 (AS-204) spacecraft after it was destroyed by fire during a training exercise on January 27, 1967, at Pad 34 atop a

Its crew were the astronauts selected for the initial Apollo program mission: Command Pilot Virgil Grissom, Senior Pilot Edward White, and Pilot Roger Chaffee.

Crew

• Virgil Grissom (3), Command Pilot
• Edward White (2), Senior Pilot
• Roger Chaffee (1), Pilot

Backup Crew

• April - December, 1966
  • James McDivitt, Command Pilot
  • David Scott, Senior Pilot
  • Rusty Schweickart, PIlot
• December, 1966 - January, 1967
  • Walter Schirra, Command Pilot
  • Donn Eisele, Senior Pilot
  • Walter Cunningham, Pilot

The accident

Immediately prior to the accident, the crew were reclining in their horizontal couches, running through a checklist of things they would do in space while a communication system problem was being fixed. Suddenly, a voice (now believed to be Chaffee's, as his was the only clear channel) crackled over the COM link, "Fire, I smell fire." The transmission ended with a cry of pain. The crew could not escape because the hatch opened inward, requiring that the cabin be depressurized. At best, the hatch would have taken 90 seconds to open, while the crew were killed in only about 15 seconds.

The fire is believed to have been caused by a spark somewhere in 30 miles (50 km) of wiring, leading to rapid combustion in the pressurized oxygen atmosphere. The Apollo 204 Review Board determined that a copper wire running through an environmental control unit near the command module pilot's couch had become stripped of its insulation and abraded by repeated opening and closing of an associated access door. This weak point in the wiring also happened to pass near a junction in a glycol cooling line, which had developed a leak and was expelling glycol vapor fumes, which were highly flammable.

The fire spread quickly, melting through the astronauts' space suits. Grissom's and White's suits were later found to have fused together. It was confirmed that the crew had died of smoke inhalation rather than burns. The company that produced the command module, North American Aviation, had originally suggested that the hatch open outward and be able to open with explosive bolts in case of emergency. They had also suggested that the atmosphere be an oxygen/nitrogen mixture, like the air around us. NASA didn't agree, arguing that the hatch could be accidentally opened, and that if too much nitrogen were released into the atmosphere, the astronauts would pass out and then die. They also argued that since a pure oxygen atmosphere was used safely in Mercury and Gemini, it should be safe to use for Apollo. After the fire, Apollo was grounded pending a redesign, with the following results:

• The atmosphere would not be pressurized to two lb/in² (14 kPa) above atmospheric pressure
• The hatch would open outward, and more quickly
• Flammable materials were replaced with self extinguishing materials
• Plumbing and wiring were covered with protective insulation
• 1,407 wiring problems were corrected

When North American Aviation shipped Spacecraft CM-012 to Kennedy Space Center, it bore a banner proclaiming it "Apollo One" and Grissom's crew had received approval for an "Apollo 1" patch in June 1966, but NASA was planning to call that mission "AS-204." After the fire, the astronauts' widows asked that "Apollo 1" be reserved for the flight their husbands would never make. For a time, mission planners called the next scheduled launch "Apollo 2." Suggestions were made that the flights should be called "Apollo 1" (AS-204), "Apollo 1A" (AS-201), "Apollo 2" (AS-202), and "Apollo 3" (AS-203). Finally, the NASA Project Designation Committee approved "Apollo 4" for the first (unmanned) Apollo-Saturn V mission (AS-501), but declared that there would be no retroactive renaming of AS-201, -202, or -203. The Apollo 1 (AS-204) Saturn IB rocket was later used to launch the Apollo 5 earth orbit Lunar Module test mission.

Then-Senator Walter Mondale headed a commission to investigate the fire. The investigation was seen by some as a witch hunt by Mondale to further his aim of diverting funds from NASA into social programs.

Memorial

The site of the fire now bears two plaques for the 3 men who perished. One says:

LAUNCH COMPLEX 34
Friday, 27 January 1967
1831 Hours

Dedicated to the living memory of the crew of the Apollo 1:

U.S.A.F. Lt. Colonel Virgil I. Grissom
U.S.A.F. Lt. Colonel Edward H. White, II
U.S.N. Lt. Commander Roger B. Chaffee

They gave their lives in service to their country in the ongoing exploration of humankind's final frontier. Remember them not for how they died but for those ideals for which they lived.

The other says:

IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO MADE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE SO OTHERS COULD REACH FOR THE STARS

AD ASTRA PER ASPERA
(A ROUGH ROAD LEADS TO THE STARS)

GOD SPEED TO THE CREW OF APOLLO 1

Preceded by : Gemini 12 AS-202

Apollo program

Followed by : Apollo 4 Apollo 7