Apollo 1

Apollo 1 is the official name given to the vessel Apollo/Saturn 204 ( AS-204 ) after it was destroyed by a fire at the time of a floor exercise the January 27th 1967 and which caused the death of the astronauts Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee present in the Module of order Apollo.

Following that, the rocket Saturn V is controlled basic in roof and several modifications are made to correct the many defects which are the cause of the accident, causing a delay with the Programme Apollo which made that no astronaut flew in 1967.

Crew

Second team

There were two secondary crews out of Apollo 1. From April to December 1966: Who became the crew of Apollo 9

And of December 1966 to January 1967:

  • Walter Schirra, commander
  • Gift Eisele, pilot as a chief ( senior pile )
  • Walter Cunningham, pilot
Who became the crew of Apollo 7

Mission

From one 14 days duration, the mission Apollo 1 was to be the first placing in terrestrial orbit of a capsule of the program with a crew on his board. This launching was to make it possible to test the operations of takeoff, follow-ups on the ground and piloting, like evaluating the performances of the Saturn-Apollo couple.

Test

The test envisaged on January 27th, 1967 was of " type; plugs-out" , i.e. the connections between Saturn and outside were physically disconnected and capsules it sealed. The communications were done only by radio.

As of the beginning, several problems emerge, like a bitter and irritating odor for the throat or of grésillement on the radio operator making indistinguishable the voices of the three astronauts.

Accident

The element release of the fire is a Court-circuit under the seat of the astronauts. Because of the pure Oxygen under pressure, the cabin blazed up quickly, killing the astronauts in less than nine seconds. It was impossible for them to leave in time, because the system of opening of the capsule required a long procedure of more than two minutes, where the trap doors of the Mercury capsules opened in less than one second using explosive bolts.

Causes

The investigation showed many errors due to the eagerness of NASA to arrive the first on the the Moon vis-a-vis the Soviet . Problems of designs (involving the use of bad components or of flammable materials) but also of organization (the risks were not taken enough into account).

Consequences

During 21 month, the rocket Saturn V and Apollo are re-examined basic in roof and several modifications are carried out as the replacement of the pure Oxygène by a mixture of Azote (60%) and of oxygen (40%), the combinations are improved to make them less flammable, the electric cables are insulated better and finally the trap door is modified to open in less than 10 seconds.

This complete re-examination of the Apollo program was beneficial for the continuation, so much so that Donald Slayton, chief of the teams of astronauts declared: I am persuaded that we would have finished by us on several occasions breaking the figure before arriving on the Moon, perhaps even would not be us there never arrived if there had not been Apollo 1. We fell on a vipers' nest which would have given us wire with retordre well thereafter. The problems would have been dealt with gradually, on several flights, by zigouillant several people with the passage. The fire obliged us to stop all the program and to make large the nettoyage.

Homages

The astronaut David Scott deposited a commemorative plaque on the moon at the time of the mission Apollo 15, in the honor of the victims of the space conquest, all confused nationalities.

The memory of Roger Chaffee is honoured by a crater on the hidden side with the Moon, by the Gamma star of the constellation of the Veils (baptized " Regor" ) and by a Martian formation.

The memories of ED White and Gus Grissom are also honoured by attribution with their name to a Martian formation.

Source

  • '' 40 years ago: the drama of the fire of Apollo 1 ''

External bonds

  • Official site
  • Page devoted to the mission Apollo 1

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