50th Anniversary of an American tradgedy

It was exactly 50 years ago this January 27th, at 18:31 hours, that the final radio call was made from the Apollo 1 capsule, "FIRE! Fire in the spacecraft!". And thus in the next 20 seconds, America lost three true pioneering astronauts - Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. This is Pad 34 as it remains today . . . hallowed ground at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Yes, that was a tragedy. It could have been avoided, filling a capsule with pure oxygen was stupid and there were warnings from some at the time. But NASA is a giant many headed monster that just doesn't listen. Inside NASA it's said that what it really stands for is "Never A Straight Answer", I can agree with that having worked for them. NASA has made a number of fantastic accomplishments despite themselves IMO.

An article from the BBC on this tragedy and how it paved the way for future space travel.


http://www.bbc.com …aved-the-apollo-programme