Saturday, January 27, 2007

Forty years ago today:

Apollo One burned on the pad, killing Roger Chaffee, Ed White, and Virgil "Gus" Grissom.

Ad astra per aspera.
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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

We were gathered around the TV to watch the launch...It made for a really long day. Lots of suspense as so little hard information was known by anybody not directly at the launch site.

FWIW, a spinoff from that tragic event was the development of Nomex.

Art

11:44 AM, January 27, 2007
Brandon said...

Actually, the suit in use for Apollo I did contain Nomex, but it didn't matter in the pure oxygen environment of the capsule. The fire was so intense that the suits basically melted, along with the oxygen lines feeding the astronauts. After the tragedy, a new suit was developed that was covered in Teflon.

Yeah, I was a big space geek growing up. ;)

6:52 PM, January 27, 2007
Anonymous said...

Still a space geek. I've got Richmond Times Dispatch front pages with every Apollo launch. I still get weepy at launches. I do NOT have a television, but go visit people just for launches, recoveries, dockings, etc. Read Spider Robinson's latest book "Callahan's Key" and the chapter on space geeks viewing a shuttle launch, live.

I remember Chaffee, Grissom, and White every year, during prayers of the people, on the Sunday closest to their deaths.

Hunter
Alaska

4:02 AM, January 28, 2007
Anonymous said...

That was a test sequence, not a planned launch. And "it's a rough road to the stars" is a pretty inelegant translation; "Through trouble to the stars" is about literal.

12:40 AM, January 29, 2007
Anonymous said...

In pure oxygen at > 1 atmosphere pressure, flesh itself is flammable. Only the limited amount of O2 available for the fire kept them only severely burnt instead of being completely consumed.

3:10 PM, January 31, 2007

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