Fifty-five years ago today, this:

[lastlib]

Apollo 1 Capsule Fire Kills 3 Astronauts:





On January 27, 1967, a cabin fire during a launch rehearsal killed astronauts Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, mission commander; senior Pilot Edward H. White (the first American to walk in space); and pilot Roger B. Chaffee. The fire started from an electrical-wiring spark, and spread rapidly due to the high-pressure pure-oxygen cabin atmosphere and combustible nylon material. The capsule's hatch could not be opened against the internal pressure of the cabin. The astronauts died within 18 seconds. It was the worst tragedy in the U.S. space program until the Challenger disaster nineteen years later. The fire, and subsequent investigations nearly brought the Apollo program to a halt, and delayed further space flight for almost two years while design changes were made to improve safety and prevent other such disasters.

RIP, Apollo 1 Crew. - - - - - -

[Aristus]

1. ...

[lagomorph777]

2. I remember - it was horrifying.

Their deaths led to numerous critical safety changes to the Apollo program, so they didn't die in vain.

[PJMcK]

3. "A failure of imagination"

That is how astronaut Frank Borman explained the accident to Congress. His point was that everyone at NASA knew space flight was dangerous but they expected the real dangers to be in space, not on the launch pad.

In the aftermath of this tragedy, the Command Module underwent significant design changes that made the craft far safer. The engineers, scientists, technicians and astronauts all pushed their imaginations to conceive everything they could think of to strengthen the craft. These improvements very well may have prevented future problems.

[PlanetBev]

4. I was a senior in high school

Heard about it in my art class. Even today, the details of how they died horrifies me.