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The Apollo 1 Disaster
© Copyright 2003, Jim Loy
On January 27, 1967, on launch pad 34, Edward White,
Virgil (Gus) Grissom, and Roger Chaffee (shown on the left) died in a fire,
during a preflight test. Their mission had been designated Apollo 204. After
the accident, it was renamed Apollo 1. There were no Apollo 2 and 3 missions.
The next manned mission was Apollo 7. Numerous problems developed with oxygen
and communications, and the test dragged on and on. Various communications
methods went awry. Then five and a half hours after they had entered the
command module, Chaffee said, "Fire, I smell fire." Two seconds later, White
shouted, "Fire in the cockpit." A few seconds later, they were dead from smoke
inhalation.
Numerous things contributed to the disaster.
- The test was performed in a pure oxygen atmosphere at nearly full
atmospheric pressure. While this is considered hazardous, it had been done on
all flights since the beginning of the Mercury program, as far as I can tell.
After the accident, air was used while on the ground, and pure oxygen at
reduced pressure was used once the spacecraft gained high altitude.
- There were many flammable objects within the command module. Some
substances are mildly flammable in air, but are much more flammable in pure
oxygen under those conditions.
- There was evidence of several electrical arcs, with no single
identifiable cause. There was no evidence of sabotage.
- The hatches could not be opened from either side, because of the
pressure of the hot gasses inside the command module, which soon ruptured. The
hatches were subsequently redesigned.
- Emergency evacuation was very complicated, and had never been done
in a little as 90 seconds. Rescue efforts were unsuccessful. 27 men were
treated for smoke inhalation, two were hospitalized.
On the right is the view into the main hatch, after the
bodies had been removed. The astronauts were aware that they had a dangerous
job, but they probably did not imagine dying during a test on the launch
pad.
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