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Posted: 1/27/2021 4:02:29 PM EDT
I was almost 7, followed the Space Program with my Father.
I remember the event as if it happened yesterday.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1 |
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Posted: 1/27/2021 4:06:41 PM EDT
[#1]
There's a thread going on page one where a guy didn't know who Gus Grissom was.
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Posted: 1/27/2021 4:11:51 PM EDT
[#2]
Quote HistoryQuoted: There's a thread going on page one where a guy didn't know who Gus Grissom was. Shut up! Really? |
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Posted: 1/27/2021 4:20:39 PM EDT
[#3]
Ed White was my hero. Damn. I wrote NASA and got 8x10 color prints of his space walk.
I was 9 when Apollo 1 went up in invisible flames. |
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Posted: 1/27/2021 4:22:18 PM EDT
[#4]
One of my elementary schools was named after Gus.
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Posted: 1/27/2021 4:32:31 PM EDT
[#5]
The audio recording is creepy AF.
ETA: I read-up on this several months ago. The intensity and the damage is startling. And the capsule is still in existence, somewhere in Virginia I think. |
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Posted: 1/27/2021 4:45:43 PM EDT
[#6]
I never understood how they thought flooding the capsule with oxygen wouldn't be a fire hazard waiting to happen.
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Posted: 1/27/2021 4:48:19 PM EDT
[#7]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I never understood how they thought flooding the capsule with oxygen wouldn't be a fire hazard waiting to happen. It's hard to think of everything in advance when engineering a new system, and sadly some issues were learned the hard way. |
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Posted: 1/27/2021 4:55:07 PM EDT
[#8]
Quote HistoryQuoted: It's hard to think of everything in advance when engineering a new system, and sadly some issues were learned the hard way. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: I never understood how they thought flooding the capsule with oxygen wouldn't be a fire hazard waiting to happen. It's hard to think of everything in advance when engineering a new system, and sadly some issues were learned the hard way. There were other instances of fires taking place, with similar results. As I recall they kept going with the pure 02 to save the space and weight of a gas mixing system. |
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Posted: 1/27/2021 5:04:18 PM EDT
[#9]
What I find interesting is that the improvements made because of this fire most likely saved the Apollo 13 crew. All of the potting and extra insulation they put on every switch and wire in the CM kept it from shorting out due to all the moisture that built up during the Apollo 13 trip, when the CM was shut down.
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Posted: 1/27/2021 5:22:13 PM EDT
[#10]
Can you imagine being the crew of the next mission. Big Brass balls, or at least men looking at the bigger picture trying to advance mankind with a known risk to their lives. I wished we still lived in times like that.
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Posted: 1/27/2021 5:42:48 PM EDT
[#11]
I really think the crew with the biggest Brass Balls was Apollo 8. They were the first to leave the safety of low earth orbit, not really knowing if they could get back, on a rocket (Saturn V) that had never carried humans before.
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Posted: 1/27/2021 6:04:23 PM EDT
[#12]
Quoted: I was almost 7, followed the Space Program with my Father. I remember the event as if it happened yesterday. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1 |
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Posted: 1/27/2021 6:04:29 PM EDT
[#13]
I was eleven and cried something fierce. I lived and breathed the space program as a kid.
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Posted: 1/27/2021 6:44:31 PM EDT
[#14]
MrsFlyingGorilla's father was a lead technician on the Apollo Mission Simulator and had worked closely with Gus Grissom in developing that sim. He was devastated by the loss of the Apollo 1 crew, to the point that it affected his health. Other members of that team were similarly hurt by the loss of the crew and some people quit their jobs over the emotional impacts of that fire.
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Posted: 1/27/2021 8:10:40 PM EDT
[#15]
On Netflix is the show “The last man on the moon” is very worth the time
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Posted: 1/27/2021 9:33:39 PM EDT
[#16]
Quote HistoryQuoted: There's a thread going on page one where a guy didn't know who Gus Grissom was. I went to Virgil I Grissom school at Clark AB in the PI in 1969.... |
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Posted: 1/27/2021 10:40:29 PM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryQuoted: There were other instances of fires taking place, with similar results. As I recall they kept going with the pure 02 to save the space and weight of a gas mixing system. Not just that. They could use a thinner skin and save a ton of weight (literally a ton or so) since they could meet the crew's respiration needs at 5 psi instead of standard pressure. |
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Posted: 1/27/2021 10:59:42 PM EDT
[#18]
I remember it well as my dad was friends with one of the rescue crew. He came back to see family that summer. Bothered him a lot.
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Posted: 1/27/2021 11:11:01 PM EDT
[#19]
Quote HistoryQuoted: On Netflix is the show "The last man on the moon" is very worth the time |
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Posted: 1/28/2021 12:15:33 AM EDT
[#20]
Friend of mine from HS, his dad was a no shit rocket scientist at Huntsville when that happened. Did the material work on the honeycomb reinforcement for the door on the capsule. Said he told them they needed some sort of emergency jettison system in the door because they would never be able to either cut it, or pry it open.
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Posted: 1/28/2021 12:26:17 AM EDT
[#21]
Wasn't one of the Apollo 1 astronauts skeptical about being able to make it to the moon?
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Posted: 1/28/2021 12:44:56 AM EDT
[#22]
Quote HistoryQuoted: There were other instances of fires taking place, with similar results. As I recall they kept going with the pure 02 to save the space and weight of a gas mixing system. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Quoted: I never understood how they thought flooding the capsule with oxygen wouldn't be a fire hazard waiting to happen. It's hard to think of everything in advance when engineering a new system, and sadly some issues were learned the hard way. There were other instances of fires taking place, with similar results. As I recall they kept going with the pure 02 to save the space and weight of a gas mixing system. They were concerned about the crew getting the bends if the atmosphere controls malfunctioned. They got away with it on Mercury and Gemini. I don’t think either of those was filled with synthetic materials that would burn in the high density oxygen environment and produce a lot of dense smoke and toxic gas. |
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Posted: 1/28/2021 12:49:09 AM EDT
[#23]
In hindsight it might not have been a good idea (the 100% o2) but at that time we were still trying to beat the Soviets and the end of the decade to be the first to land on the moon and return. Mercury and Gemini were great successes and NASA could seemingly do no wrong so rushing headlong to get someone up there meant that NASA engineer's took some calculated risks and overlooking a lot of other materiel introduced into the crew compartment add to that wiring QC not being up to snuff --North American Aviation was rushing too-- and alot of people not understanding that a 100% o2 environment was essentially a blast furnace waiting for an ignition source. Basically it was a cumulative effort to be first that led to mistakes that killed the crew. Personally even having a hatch they could open from inside I dont think would have helped there was no time in that fire to get out of the seat --find-- then open a hatch and egress in that fire. They had seconds if that. And only one of three was in any position to do that.
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Posted: 1/28/2021 12:49:54 AM EDT
[#24]
Quote HistoryQuoted: MrsFlyingGorilla's father was a lead technician on the Apollo Mission Simulator and had worked closely with Gus Grissom in developing that sim. He was devastated by the loss of the Apollo 1 crew, to the point that it affected his health. Other members of that team were similarly hurt by the loss of the crew and some people quit their jobs over the emotional impacts of that fire. This was the first mission without Gunter Wendt leading the close out crew on the pad due to the switch from McDonnell to North American. After the fire the astronauts made enough of a stink to get him hired by North American. Some of them felt the fire may not have happened if he had been involved. Wendt himself said it was probably for the best that he wasn’t there. |
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Posted: 1/28/2021 10:18:07 AM EDT
[#25]
I don't know why they didn't do the plugs out with no hatch installed out on the 27th, and then install the hatch the next day and run the test with the hatch installed.
This would have allowed them to fix any problems quickly, and once the problems were fixed and they were satisfied, they could run the test the next day with less/any holdups. One extra day was not going to keep them from getting to the moon by the end of 1969. And why the BPC Boost Protective Cover hatch had to be installed is beyond me. But like they said, they had "Moon Fever". 
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