48 years ago tonight on Jan. 27, 1967, the Apollo 1 disaster occurred, killing astronauts Virgil Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. They died while practicing in the Apollo command module. A bad wire sparked the flash fire in the 100 percent oxygen atmosphere. Readings showed that Whites pulse rate jumped off the charts. Grissom screamed, Weve got a fire in the cockpit! Then a final plea from Chaffee --get us out! It would be nearly 2 years before we sent men back into space, when Apollo 7 orbited the Earth 163 times during its Oct. 11-22, 1968 mission. https://youtube/watch?v=cS8FIvk6dLg
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 23:22:56 +0000