[Infowarrior] - NASA marks anniversary of Apollo deaths

[Richard Forno]

Saturday, January 27, 2007 · Last updated 7:55 p.m. PT
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1501AP_Apollo_1_Fire.html

NASA marks anniversary of Apollo deaths

By MIKE SCHNEIDER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- It was supposed to be a routine launch pad test.

But from the Apollo 1 command module at Pad 34 came a panicked voice saying,
"Fire in the cockpit."

Exactly 40 years later, the three Apollo astronauts who were killed in that
flash fire were remembered Saturday for paving the way for later astronauts
to be able to travel to the moon. The deaths of Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Ed
White and Roger Chaffee forced NASA to take pause in its space race with the
Soviet Union and make design and safety changes that were critical to the
agency's later successes.

"I can assure you if we had not had that fire and rebuilt the command module
... we could not have done the Apollo program successfully," said retired
astronaut John Young, who flew in Gemini 3 with Grissom in 1965. "So we owe
a lot to Gus, and Rog and Ed. They made it possible for the rest of us to do
the almost impossible."

The memorial service at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex marked the
start of a solemn week for NASA - Sunday is the 21st anniversary of the
space shuttle Challenger accident, and Thursday makes four years since the
space shuttle Columbia disaster.

Chaffee's widow, Martha, and White's son, Edward III, along with NASA
associate administrator Bill Gerstenmaier, laid a wreath at the base of the
Space Mirror Memorial, a tall granite-finished wall engraved with the names
of the Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia astronauts and seven other
astronauts killed in accidents.

Chaffee, 69, remembered feeding her two children hot dogs for dinner that
night in 1967 and knowing something was wrong when astronaut Michael Collins
showed up at her home to tell her about the accident.

"My first reaction was, 'What could have happened? He's not flying,'" Martha
Chaffee recalled before the ceremony.

NASA also hadn't considered the countdown drill hazardous, anticipating
accidents only in space. Fire rescue and medical teams were not at the
launch pad. No procedures had been developed for the type of emergency the
Apollo 1 crew faced. The work levels around the spacecraft contained steps,
sliding doors and sharp turns that hindered emergency responses.

An investigation said the fire most likely started in an area near the floor
around some wires between the oxygen panel and the environmental control
system. The 100 percent oxygen environment made it highly combustible and
internal pressure made it impossible for the astronauts to open the command
module's inner hatch.

The astronauts died from inhaling toxic gases.

Before his death, Grissom, the second astronaut in space, had been so
disappointed with problems in the new spacecraft that at one point he hung a
lemon over it, said Lowell Grissom, the astronaut's younger brother.

After the tragedy, the command module's hatch was changed so it opened
outward, flammable materials in the cabin were replaced, wiring problems
were fixed and a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen replaced the all oxygen
atmosphere.

Apollo 1's legacy contributed to the safety culture at NASA and the
successful lunar landings, said Edward White III, whose father conducted the
first U.S. spacewalk in 1965.

"The safety that came out of Apollo 1 is still here today," he said.

Describing it as "one of the most significant relics in the history of the
space program," Lowell Grissom urged that the Apollo 1 spacecraft be moved
from a warehouse in Virginia to the launch pad where the astronauts
perished.

"As we remember their deaths ... let us renew our dedication to the quest
for which they died, reaching for the stars for all mankind," Grissom said.