Lest we forget: today is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire that cost the lives of astronauts Gus Grissom, the second American in space, Ed White, the first American to walk in space, and Roger Chaffee.
It is said that the accident set back the Apollo program by more than a year. A thorough review of the accident put the flight schedule on hold, and revealed carelessness, sloppiness and design defects throughout the spacecraft and throughout the entire Apollo program. NASA had developed “go fever.”
It never flew, but Apollo 1 may have been the most important Apollo mission of all. Without the review and the corrective measures that followed the accident, I’m convinced that Project Apollo would never have reached the moon. After the accident, NASA faced the facts, worked to fix defects, and learned from its mistakes.
Let’s never forget that lesson, or the men who died for us to learn it.
Adam Frix | 28-Jan-07 at 4:44 am | Permalink
On the 40th anniversary date the web site collectSPACE published an interview with Stephen B. Clemmons, then a young pad technician who was there on the scene.
There’s remembering, and then there’s remembering:
http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-012707a.html
brainrow :: Challenger | 28-Jan-07 at 10:34 am | Permalink
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