Anniversary of The Fire

Grissom, White and Chaffee died in the Apollo 1 fire 58 years ago today.

Image by NASA. In this photo, the astronauts were playfully praying that the spacecraft would work. They knew it had problems. But nobody expected them to die.

I was a child when it happened and, at the time, the news was concealed from me. When I finally learned about it—years later—I was shocked, saddened and mystified.

How could such a thing happen? On the other hand, when you are trying to do something so difficult and dangerous, how could something like this NOT happen?

What happened was this. During a ground test, a simulated mission for the first Apollo mission—a crewed test of America’s “moonship,” there was a deadly fire that killed the entire crew. American astronauts Gus Grissom (the 2nd American in space), Ed White (the 1st American to walk in space), and Roger Chaffee (a promising space rookie) were gone.

Even as a child, I was a space buff. I read the Weekly Reader following the unmanned moon probes (Ranger, Orbiter and Surveyor) and progress on the manned space programs. I was also fascinated by our Soviet competitors.

I’m guessing that on that January day in 1967, teachers decided to NOT pass out the latest issue of the Weekly Reader.

As an adult, after forgetting about space for a bunch of years, my interest was re-ignited. I dug deeper into those events I learned about as a kid. I wanted to know more, to know everything. I also began…