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Apollo 1 (initially designated Apollo Saturn-204 and AS-204) was scheduled to
be the first manned mission of the U.S. Apollo manned lunar landing program, ...

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The Apollo 1 tragedy

27 January 1967

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Edward White, Command Pilot
Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Commander
Roger Chaffee, Pilot

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One of the worst tragedies in the history of spaceflight occurred on January 27, 1967 when the crew of Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee were killed in a fire in the Apollo Command Module during a preflight test at Cape Canaveral. They were training for the first crewed Apollo flight, an Earth orbiting mission scheduled to be launched on 21 February. They were taking part in a "plugs-out" test, in which the Command Module was mounted on the Saturn 1B on the launch pad just as it would be for the actual launch, but the Saturn 1B was not fueled. The plan was to go through an entire countdown sequence.

At 1 p.m. on Friday, 27 January 1967 the astronauts entered the capsule on Pad 34 to begin the test. A number of minor problems cropped up which delayed the test considerably and finally a failure in communications forced a hold in the count at 5:40 p.m. At 6:31 one of the astronauts (probably Chaffee) reported, "Fire, I smell fire." Two seconds later White was heard to say, "Fire in the cockpit." The fire spread throughout the cabin in a matter of seconds. The last crew communication ended 17 seconds after the start of the fire, followed by loss of all telemetry. The Apollo hatch could only open inward and was held closed by a number of latches which had to be operated by ratchets. It was also held closed by the interior pressure, which was higher than outside atmospheric pressure and required venting of the command module before the hatch could be opened. It took at least 90 seconds to get the hatch open under ideal conditions. Because the cabin had been filled with a pure oxygen atmosphere at normal pressure for the test and there had been many hours for the oxygen to permeate all the material in the cabin, the fire spread rapidly and the astronauts had no chance to get the hatch open. Nearby technicians tried to get to the hatch but were repeatedly driven back by the heat and smoke. By the time they succeeded in getting the hatch open roughly 5 minutes after the fire started the astronauts had already perished, probably within the first 30 seconds, due to smoke inhalation and burns.

The Apollo program was put on hold while an exhaustive investigation was made of the accident. It was concluded that the most likely cause was a spark from a short circuit in a bundle of wires that ran to the left and just in front of Grissom's seat. The large amount of flammable material in the cabin in the oxygen environment allowed the fire to start and spread quickly. A number of changes were instigated in the program over the next year and a half, including designing a new hatch which opened outward and could be operated quickly, removing much of the flammable material and replacing it with self-extinguishing components, using a nitrogen-oxygen mixture at launch, and recording all changes and overseeing all modifications to the spacecraft design more rigorously.

The mission, originally designated Apollo 204 but commonly referred to as Apollo 1, was officially assigned the name "Apollo 1" in honor of Grissom, White, and Chaffee. The first Saturn V launch (uncrewed) in November 1967 was designated Apollo 4 (no missions were ever designated Apollo 2 or 3). The Apollo 1 Command Module capsule 012 was impounded and studied after the accident and was then locked away in a storage facility at NASA Langley Research Center. The changes made to the Apollo Command Module as a result of the tragedy resulted in a highly reliable craft which, with the exception of Apollo 13, helped make the complex and dangerous trip to the Moon almost commonplace. The eventual success of the Apollo program is a tribute to Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, three fine astronauts whose tragic loss was not in vain.

For more detail on Apollo 1 see the references below.

More on Apollo 1

NASA moves Apollo 1 capsule to new storage facility - NASA Press Release, February 2007

Plan to store Apollo 1 capsule with Challenger debris cancelled - NASA Press Releases, May 1990

Disaster on Pad 34 - National Air and Space Museum
Apollo-1 - Kennedy Space Center
Apollo-1 - NASA History Office
Apollo 1 - The Fire - Apollo By The Numbers
The Fire that Seared the Spaceport - Moonport: A History of Apollo Launch Facilities and Operations
Tragedy and Recovery - Chariots for Apollo
A Tragic Fire Takes Three Lives - Apollo Expeditions to the Moon
Setback and Recovery: 1967 - Where No Man Has Gone Before: A History of Apollo Lunar Exploration Missions

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Author/Curator:
Dr. David R. Williams, dave.williams@nasa.gov
NSSDC, Mail Code 690.1
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD 20771
+1-301-286-1258

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Remembering the Apollo 1 Crew

On Jan. 27, 1967, veteran astronaut Gus Grissom, first American spacewalker Ed White and rookie Roger Chaffee (left-to-right) were preparing for what was to be the first manned Apollo flight. The astronauts were sitting atop the launch pad for a pre-launch test when a fire broke out in their Apollo capsule. The investigation into the fatal accident led to major design and engineering changes, making the Apollo spacecraft safer for the coming journeys to the moon.

Image Credit: NASA

 

 

Read the full text of The Times article or other headlines from the day.

Tragedy at Cape Rescuers Are Blocked by Dense Smoke -- Cause is Studied By The Associated Press RELATED HEADLINES Apollo Program Dealt Hard Blow: The Slim Margin for Failure Believed Jeopardizing a Moon Landing by '70 Fire on Spacecraft Captured on Film OTHER HEADLINES 500,000 in the City go Without Heat in Housing Strike: Elderly Are the Hardest Hit in Public Developments Affected by Dispute: 6,000 Employes Are Out: 'Real Progress' Is Reported by Union as Negotiations With Officials Resume Nation's Banks Set 5 3/4% Rate; Rebuking Chase: Prime Borrowing Cost Falls From 6% but Not to Level of 5 1/2%, Kept by Leader Chicago is Crippled by a 23-Inch Snow; Police Kill Looter Lindsay Orders O'Dwyer Ousted: But Procaccino Says Board Counsel Will Stay On in Transit Subsidy Suit Einstein Relativity Theory Challenged Towaway Policy is Eased for U.N.: City to Extend Parking Area for Dipolomats and Chase Other Materials Out 62 Nations Sign Treaty to Curb Arms in Space Army Opposition to Mao Reported: Troops in 2 Regions Said to Resist Orders to Help in Ousting Party Officials Cape Kennedy, Fla., Jan. 27 -- The three-man crew of astronauts for the Apollo 1 mission were killed tonight in a flash fire aboard the huge spacecraft designed to take man to the moon. Those killed in the blaze on a launching pad were: VIRGIL I. GRISSOM, 40 years old, Air Force lieutenant colonel, one of the seven original Mercury astronauts. EDWARD H. WHITE 2d, 36, a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, the first American to "walk" in space. ROGER B. CHAFFEE, 31, a Navy lieutenant commander, who had been awaiting his first space flight. The astronauts were the first American spacemen to be killed on the job and ironically, died while on the ground. The bodies were removed hours later and a space agency spokesman said death was "instantaneous." Three other astronauts died in airplane crashes, in the line of duty, but today's tragedy involved the first "on premises" deaths in the American space program- the first time anyone was killed while in space hardware. Simulation Under Way The fire broke out at 6:31 P. M. while the three men were taking part in a full-scale simulation of the scheduled Feb. 21 launching that was to take them into the heavens for 14 days of orbiting the earth. They were trapped behind closed hatches, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. [Officials said an electrical spark must have ignited the pure oxygen inside the cabin, United Press International reported.] Paul Haney, spokesman for America's astronauts, said he understood there had been a fire in the cockpit. He said monitors had received no word from the astronauts during the fire. Mr. Haney said 26 members of the launching pad crew were treated for smoke inhalation. He said 24 were released and two were hospitalized in good condition. Space agency officials were alerted by someone on the ground that the fire had broken out, Mr. Haney reported. He said emergency crews tried to reach the astronauts but were blocked by the dense smoke that rolled out of the cockpit. Officials at Cape Kennedy said that the three astronauts were seated abreast in the rocket in the exercise, just as they would be in actual flight, with Colonel Grissom occupying the command pilot's seat on the left, Colonel White in the middle, and Commander Chaffee on the right. In Washington President Johnson mourned the death of the astronauts. He said the three men had given their lives in the nation's service. Representative Joseph E. Karth, Democrat of Minnesota, said a dinner meeting of space program executives was underway in Washington when the announcement was made that there had been "a flash fire resulting from the use of pure oxygen..." He said no further explanation had been given at the dinner. The fire was reported during a "plugs out" test of the booster and Apollo 1 craft. Mr. Haney said the test meant that the booster and spacecraft had been operating on their own poser systems and not power from the ground. NASA officials later said the Apollo's escape system could not have been used. The system required an astronaut to trigger a rocket attached to the top of the Apollo. The rocket would jerk the spacecraft away from its booster. A spokesman said a gantry and been wrapped around the entire rocket during today's test, enclosing the escape rocket. He said the only way the astronauts could have escaped would have been to open the hatches and scramble out. Mr. Haney said the rehearsal had reached the minus 10-minute mark, meaning it was 10 minutes away from a simulated liftoff. The hatches were sealed. A NASA official said minor difficulties had cropped up during the countdown with two systems, a communications system and the environmental control system. Cause of Fire Unknown Officials said they did not know whether the fire stemmed from the two troublesome systems. All data were held pending an investigation. Space officials said the three victims possibly had no knowledge there was a serious problem aboard. The spacecraft and rocket were not fueled and explosive devices aboard the spacecraft had been inactivated and could not have caused the disaster, they said. The Air Force and NASA jointly impounded all data. The space agency said reporters would not be permitted to the scene until tomorrow morning at the earliest and any pictures of the incident that might reveal details were also being withheld. The backup astronauts for the scheduled 14-day flight-postponed indefinitely- now become the prime pilots for Apollo 1. Back to the top of this page. Back to today's page. Go to another day. Front Page Image Provided by UMI Copyright 2011 The New York Times Company Children's Privacy Notice

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