‘Countdown’ Podcast Episode 3: The Tragedy of Apollo 1

Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee did not get to experience the past half century — and if anybody had been set to have a fantastic half-century, it was those three. Grissom was one of the original seven astronauts and had flown in space twice; White, a member of the second astronaut class, was the first American to walk in space; and Chaffee—well, Chaffee had everything. He was just a rookie — part of the third astronaut group — but he had cover-boy looks and piloting grit and had already distinguished himself as a hero of the Cold War when he flew reconnaissance over Cuba during the diplomatic stare-down that was the 1962 missile crisis. Fittingly, in 1966, the men were chosen to be the first to crew to fly NASA‘s three-man Apollo spacecraft — the spacecraft that would one day carry Americans to the moon. Grissom, White and Chaffee would make their test-run flight only in Earth orbit, but when NASA was at last ready to begin flying lunar missions, they’d be better positioned than any of the other men in the fiercely competitive astronaut corps to get their tickets punched for one of the trips. Only it would never happen. NASA’s open secret was that the Apollo was a jalopy, a hurry-up spacecraft that was being designed mostly with beating the Soviet Union to the moon in mind. The ship was shot through with shoddy workmanship, sloppy cabling and constant breakdowns. On the evening of January 27, 1967, with Grissom, White ...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Apollo 1 Countdown NASA Podcast space Source Type: news