Search the archive:
YaBB - Yet another Bulletin Board
 
   
 
Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send Topic Print
40 years ago today... (Read 1527 times)
Jan 27th, 2007 at 4:12am

beaky   Offline
Global Moderator
Uhhhh.... yup!
Newark, NJ USA

Gender: male
Posts: 14187
*****
 
Virgil Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chafee lost their lives in a fire during a pad test of the Apollo I command module...  Cry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1
 

...
IP Logged
 
Reply #1 - Jan 27th, 2007 at 8:03am
Heretic   Ex Member

 
Bad luck for Grissom. First he nearly drowned because the hatch opened when it wasn't supposed to open, then he burned up because the hatch couldn't be opened when it actually was to.

Ugly event.
 
IP Logged
 
Reply #2 - Jan 27th, 2007 at 5:44pm

C   Offline
Colonel
Earth

Posts: 13144
*****
 
A very nasty event indeed. Sad
 
IP Logged
 
Reply #3 - Jan 28th, 2007 at 12:16pm

beaky   Offline
Global Moderator
Uhhhh.... yup!
Newark, NJ USA

Gender: male
Posts: 14187
*****
 
They were in too much of a hurry, I think... overlooked things that in retrospect seem elementary... but they found  a way to be more careful and yet still deliver the goods by the end of the decade.
But the whole enterprise was pretty hazardous- sometimes I think those three were watching over the whole Apollo program. Wink
 

...
IP Logged
 
Reply #4 - Jan 28th, 2007 at 1:53pm

murjax   Offline
Colonel
MrJake2002 gave me the
idea
Jacksonville,FL

Gender: male
Posts: 1471
*****
 
Prayers go out to them.
 

...&&I am just a train fan who happens to like flying and attempting to get the better of the mods especially those with 20/20 vision Grin Grin&&&&I hate Wal-Mart.&&Wal-Mart expansion history videoYou forgot to make the whole sig move eno.
IP Logged
 
Reply #5 - Jan 28th, 2007 at 4:00pm

Webb   Ex Member
I Like Flight Simulation!

*
 
January 28, 1986.

U.S. Space Shuttle, Challenger, explodes only 74 seconds into its flight. All seven members of the crew perish, including school teacher, Christa McAuliffe. The U.S. space program's worst disaster, Challenger's ill-fated flight occurs exactly 19 years and a day after the Apollo 1 tragedy that killed three astronauts.
 
IP Logged
 
Reply #6 - Jan 28th, 2007 at 5:48pm

RichieB16   Offline
Colonel
January 27, 1967
Oregon

Gender: male
Posts: 4408
*****
 
Webb wrote on Jan 28th, 2007 at 4:00pm:
January 28, 1986.

U.S. Space Shuttle, Challenger, explodes only 74 seconds into its flight. All seven members of the crew perish, including school teacher, Christa McAuliffe. The U.S. space program's worst disaster, Challenger's ill-fated flight occurs exactly 19 years and a day after the Apollo 1 tragedy that killed three astronauts.


Another sad event...and probably the most preventable of all three.  This was a direct cause of NASA caving to PR pressure to get the launch done with and it ended up costing 7 American lives.  Verd sad.

The week that contains Jan 27th-Feb 1st is a rough one for NASA, it contains the anniversaries of 3 of the 4 lost crews (and by the far the 3 most remembered).  The only one missing is the Gemini-IX crew who were killed on February 28, 1966.
 
IP Logged
 
Reply #7 - Jan 29th, 2007 at 5:05am

H   Offline
Colonel
2003: the year NH couldn't
save face...
NH, USA

Gender: male
Posts: 6837
*****
 
Webb wrote on Jan 28th, 2007 at 4:00pm:
January 28, 1986.

U.S. Space Shuttle, Challenger, explodes only 74 seconds into its flight. All seven members of the crew perish, including school teacher, Christa McAuliffe. The U.S. space program's worst disaster, Challenger's ill-fated flight occurs exactly 19 years and a day after the Apollo 1 tragedy that killed three astronauts.
(Sharon) Christa McAuliffe's loss was particularly felt here since she was New Hampshire's own; her name has been quite well applied in memorial, the following among many:

Christa McAuliffe Planetarium

Cool
 
IP Logged
 
Reply #8 - Jan 29th, 2007 at 9:33am
Heretic   Ex Member

 
RichieB16 wrote on Jan 28th, 2007 at 5:48pm:
The only one missing is the Gemini-IX crew who were killed on February 28, 1966.


Never heard about that one.
 
IP Logged
 
Reply #9 - Jan 29th, 2007 at 10:18am

beaky   Offline
Global Moderator
Uhhhh.... yup!
Newark, NJ USA

Gender: male
Posts: 14187
*****
 
Quote:
RichieB16 wrote on Jan 28th, 2007 at 5:48pm:
The only one missing is the Gemini-IX crew who were killed on February 28, 1966.


Never heard about that one.


That's probably because they didn't die on a space flight:

http://www.astronautix.com/flights/gemini9a.htm
 

...
IP Logged
 
Reply #10 - Jan 29th, 2007 at 12:09pm
Heretic   Ex Member

 
Ah,those two.
 
IP Logged
 
Reply #11 - Jan 29th, 2007 at 10:16pm

RichieB16   Offline
Colonel
January 27, 1967
Oregon

Gender: male
Posts: 4408
*****
 
beaky wrote on Jan 29th, 2007 at 10:18am:
That's probably because they didn't die on a space flight

Thats true, but it was a big deal at the time as it was the first crew lost as a direct result of the mission.  They died in a T-38 crash while they were going to inspect the capsule for their mission at the assembly plant.  To make matters worse, with the whole world watching, NASA nearly lost a crew in space in March of 1966 and it was only due to a lot of thinking on their feet that the astronauts survived. 

There was a lot of attention being paid to safety following the loss of Basset and See (the original Gemini-IX crew).  So, NASA was hoping to get a couple more successes under their belt to make the program look good.  The next mission to fly was Gemini-VIII which was launched the following month.  Early in the mission, only hours before the crew made history by becoming the first crew to dock with another craft in space...they began to spin out of control.  To make matters worse, they were in a communication blind spot (as NASA didn't have constant communication since the satelite network wasn't yet in space...they relied on tracking stations around the globe).  Unable to stop the spinning, the young mission commander (on his very first mission) made the decision to activate the large reentry control thrusters to regain control of the craft...it caused an automatic abort of the mission (per NASA rules) but saved their lives and perhaps the space program as a whole.  The young mission commander was a little known astronaut by the name Neil Armstrong...probably a familular name.   Wink

Just for trivia's sake, his crewmate for that flight was another to-be moon walker...it was astronaut David Scott who would walk on the moon as commander of Apollo 15 in 1971.
 
IP Logged
 
Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send Topic Print