The events on this day in history for our heritage companies are noted below.
The earliest event was in 1959, the latest events was in 1999
Two milestone events (5 to 65+ years ago)
Human Spaceflight:
1967 – Apollo 1 (Apollo 204) pad fire during plugs-out electrical system test kills astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee
1985 – LANDING: STS-51-C (Discovery), KSC
Military and Classified Programs:
NONE
Exploration and Interplanetary Programs:
NONE
Earth-Monitoring and Civil Weather Satellite programs:
NONE
Commercial Programs:
1999 – LAUNCH: ROCSAT-2, LM Athena-1, LC46, CCAFS – MILESTONE: 25 years ago
Test, ICBM, FBM programs:
1959 – LAUNCH: GD Atlas C, LC12, CCAFS – MILESTONE: 65 years ago
1960 – LAUNCH: Lockheed Polaris A1, LC29A, CCAFS
1960 – LAUNCH: GD Atlas D, LC13, CCAFS
Other:
NONE
The photos today are of the Apollo 1 crew (Gus Grissom, Ed White, Roger Chaffee), the fire damage to the Apollo Command Module, a memorial plaque that can be seen at the demolished LC-34 site and a memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. The investigation revealed the following (from Wikipedia):
The review board identified several major factors which combined to cause the fire and the astronauts’ deaths:
- An ignition source most probably related to “vulnerable wiring carrying spacecraft power” and “vulnerable plumbing carrying a combustible and corrosive coolant”
- A pure oxygen atmosphere at higher than atmospheric pressure
- A cabin sealed with a hatch cover which could not be quickly removed at high pressure
- An extensive distribution of combustible materials in the cabin
- Inadequate emergency preparedness (rescue or medical assistance, and crew escape)
A major redesign of the Command Module was undertaken, with future manned missions using the Block II design.
