Apollo 1

The crew

Apollo One is the name given to the AS-204 spacecraft after it was destroyed by fire during a training exercise on January 27, 1967. Its crew were the astronauts selected for the initial Apollo program mission: Mission Commander Virgil Grissom, Command Module Pilot Edward White, and Lunar Module Pilot Roger Chaffee.

Immediately prior to the accident, the crew were reclining in their horizontal couches, running through a checklist of things they would do in space while a communication system problem was being fixed. Suddenly, a voice (now believed to be Chaffee's) crackled over the COM link, "Fire, I smell fire." Then another voice, believed to be Grissom's, also said there was a fire. The transmission ended with a cry of pain. The crew could not escape because the hatch opened inward, requiring that the cabin be depressurized. At best, the hatch would have taken 90 seconds to open, while the crew were killed in only 30 seconds.

The fire is believed to have been caused by a spark somewhere in 30 miles (50 km) of wiring, leading to rapid combustion in the pressurized oxygen atmosphere. The fire spread quickly, melting through the astronauts' space suits. Grissom's and White's suits were later found to have fused together. Autopsies confirmed that the crew had died of smoke inhalation rather than burns. The company that produced the command module, North American Aviation had originally suggested that the hatch open outward, and be able to open with explosive bolts in case of emergency. They had also suggested that the atmosphere be an oxygen/nitrogen mixture, like the air around us. NASA didn't agree, arguing that the hatch could be accidentally opened, and that if too much nitrogen were released into the atmosphere, the astronauts would pass out and then die. They also argued that since a pure oxygen atmosphere was used safely in Mercury and Gemini, it should be safe to use for Apollo. After the fire, Apollo was grounded pending a redesign, with the following results:

The atmosphere would not be pressurized to two lb/in² (14 kPa) above atmospheric pressure
The hatch would open outward, and more quickly
Flammable materials were replaced with self extingishing materials
Plumbing and wiring were covered with protective insulation
1,407 wiring problems were corrected

When North American Aviation shipped Spacecraft CM-012 to Kennedy Space Center, it bore a banner proclaiming it "Apollo One" and Grissom's crew had received approval for an "Apollo 1" patch in June 1966, but NASA was planning to call that mission "AS-204." After the fire, the astronauts' widows asked that "Apollo 1" be reserved for the flight their husbands would never make. For a time, mission planners called the next scheduled launch "Apollo 2." Suggestions were made that the flights should be called "Apollo 1" (AS-204), "Apollo 1A" (AS-201), "Apollo 2" (AS-202), and "Apollo 3" (AS-203). Finally, the NASA Project Designation Committee approved "Apollo 4" for the first (unmanned) Apollo-Saturn V mission (AS-501), but declared that there would be no retroactive renaming of AS-201, -202, or -203.

Preceded by :
Gemini 12 Apollo program Followed by :
Apollo 4