The space shuttle accidents were unexpected, they thought they had worked out all the potential problems and those incidents were tragic but in 1967 this was all new, they didn’t know if it was safe but they did it anyway. They were pioneers and explorers.
So here’s to Command Pilot Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Senior Pilot Edward H. White, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee), thank you for your contributions to the space program.
When I was growing up and all of the other guys had baseball cards, I had astronaut cards.
They were my heroes and when I grew up I was going to be an astronaut!
When I discovered that you had to have perfect vision, I was really crushed.
Here’s to you, Grissom, White and Chaffee!
May your heroism never be forgotten!
In ‘67 I was a crew cut-wearin’ Florida kid completely enamoured with all the astronauts. I’ll never forget the shock of that day. Though older, the next two sure weren’t any easier.
For a long time I kept an editorial cartoon published shortly after the Apollo 11 landing. It showed a tableau rather like the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima: two spacesuited figures labeled Armstrong and Collins planting the flag, assisted by three somewhat transparent figures labeled Grissom, White and Chaffee.
I wonder every now and then whether it would be possible to track that puppy down. I still kinda choke up just thinking about it.
Yeah, most people have forgotten these guys…what a horrible accident.
Which leads to my question: how did NASA decide to use a 100% oxygen atmosphere for Apollo? Knowing the dangers, everything in that capsule should have been non-flammable.
I’m not quite old enough to remember them, or rather their deaths, personally, but I certainly know the tale. IIRC, Michener’s “Space” looked into that decision. In retrospect, it was clearly a bad decision, but it was not so clear before hand. (Who knew that even asbestos would burn in a pure O2 atmosphere.) I believe they were attempting to avoid nitrogen narcosis. Remember, technology such as scuba was new back then.