The Price of Our Success ā€” Apollo 1

CoyoteOldStyle

Location: Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States
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JANUARY 27, 2009 8:08AM

Rate: 10 Flag

Apollo 1 crew patch image courtesy of Wikipedia

Forty-two years ago today a fire on Pad 34-A at Cape Kennedy took the lives of the first three Apollo astronauts during a plugs-out test of their spacecraft.

Virgil “Gus” Ivan Grissom

“If we die, we want people to accept it. We’re in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program.
The conquest of space is worth the risk of life.”

(John Barbour et al., Footprints on the Moon,
The Associated Press, 1969, p. 125.)

Edward Higgins White

“I think you have to understand the feeling that a pilot has, that a test pilot has, that I look forward a great deal to making the first flight. There’s a great deal of pride involved in making a first flight.”

(The New York Times, January 29, 1967, p. 48.)

Roger Bruce Chaffee

“You’ll be flying along some nights with a full moon. You’re up at 45,000 feet. Up there you can see it like you can’t see it down here. It’s just the big, bright, clear moon. You look up there and just say to yourself: I’ve got to get up there. I’ve just got to get one of those flights.”

(The New York Times, January 29, 1967, p. 48.)

NASA Apollo 1 History Page

Apollo 1 story

Today, please take a few moments to read their story, remember and thank them for their contribution to space exploration.

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space exploration, explorers, nasa, apollo 1, grissom, white, chaffee, anniversary, moon shot, sixties, history, technology, pioneers, flight, aerospace, memory

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Kudos. Those three men were three who gave their lives in pursuit of Space and The Moon. I love the film "The Right Stuff" and always will. A good friend of mine's father Colonel Everest Riccioni flew as a test pilot with Chuck Yeager and said that there were no tougher men walking the face of the earth at the time mixed with just the right amount of genius than the original NASA Astronauts.

(rated)

Kind of Blue

January 27, 2009 08:27 AM

Thanks Greg. Our first astronaut, Alan B. Shepard, was from my home state of New Hampshire so you can imagine I was a space program junkie from the beginning. The courage space travellers have is phenomenal.

CoyoteOldStyle

January 27, 2009 08:42 AM

fingered.

Behind Blue Eyes

January 27, 2009 09:03 AM

These were fine astronauts. It's nice to take time out to remember them. Thanks, Coyote!

Kent Pitman

January 27, 2009 09:42 AM

Any test pilot is a brave man. And these paid the ultimate price.
Thanks so much for reminding us all of the true cost of the space program, COS. This is something I will remember today.

suzyishere

January 27, 2009 09:47 AM

BBE, thank you. I appreciate it.

Kent, you're right. We sometimes take too many people for granted.

Suzanne, yes, without test pilots and astronauts risking their lives the breadth of our scientific and engineering knowledge wouldn't be as complete. Thanks for remembering Apollo 1 and for stopping by.

CoyoteOldStyle

January 27, 2009 10:00 AM

COS: thanks for the wonderful tribute this post makes. It is kind of hard for me to believe than it has been that long ago. It doesn't seem like "yesterday" but it surely doesn't feel like over 4 decades. I do remember when the entire nation was hooked on space and admired all of those brave men (at that time they were only men).

I have always been both amazed and thankful for the people who push limits that I would never have had the courage to push.

Thanks for the remembrance.

Monte

Rev. Dr. Monte Canfield

January 27, 2009 10:37 AM

Coyote - How soon we forget the sacrifice of our pioneers. Each of these men knew the dangers of their proposed mission, but they knew also that it was necessary to further space exploration.

Thank you for calling our attention to these great American Heroes.

gmgaston

January 27, 2009 10:54 AM

JK, thanks, and yes, please do take the time to click through and read about them.

Monte, I've been ready to take the call to go into space ever since I can remember. My husband says that if there was one seat to go to Mars and we were both in line, he'd push for me to go. One more reason to love him.

GM, exactly right. We think of pioneers as the folks who loaded up the Conestoga wagons and went west, but our astronauts as well as the Soviet Union's pushed a lot futher than the Pacific coast.

CoyoteOldStyle

January 27, 2009 11:32 AM

Reading the bloodless "summary" I recall understanding that a North American union employee had neglected to report a wrench missing. I also recall seeing a photo of the utterly incinerated crew compartment as a kid and thinking that is not how I would want to go. I especially liked Ed White from his Gemini mission. It wasn't as horrible as the Soviet astronauts who died during re-entry but it wasn't much of an improvement.

Gordon Wagner

January 27, 2009 11:54 AM

I was really invested in those guys...I had family at the Cape that day and when the bulletin came on that night, It broke my heart. I live near the Grissom Memorial near Mitchell, Ind., and it brings back Gus's career every time I think of it. He was, without doubt, my favorite, and was destined to be the first man on the moon, too.

Thanks for this.

Randy Smith

January 27, 2009 12:05 PM

Gordon, Ed White was one of my heroes and his spacewalk inhabits my imagination to this day. This disaster was caused by a confluence of so many seemingly small errors that added up to a catastrophic result.

Randy it was indeed heartbreaking. I recall my world coming to a pretty complete stop that evening.

CoyoteOldStyle

January 27, 2009 12:51 PM