Never forget —
From the archives: NASA’s three worst disasters are clustered at the end of January.
Aurich Lawson
Update: Yesterday, February 1, marked 16 years since the 2003 Columbia disaster. Those both in the space industry and those watching have long realized and acknowledged the inherent risk in reaching the heavens (“The conquest of space is worth the risk of life,” as Gus Grissom once famously said). But events like this provide a somber reminder. In light of three recent days of NASA remembrance—January 27, January 28, and February 1—we’re resurfacing our look at these tragedies and the astronauts lost. This post originally ran on January 28, 2016, and it appears unchanged below.
The middle of winter is a somber time of year for the spaceflight community. The three worst tragedies of NASA’s manned space program fall within just six days on the calendar, from January 27 to February 1: Apollo 1, less than three years before Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the Moon; Challenger, watched live by millions around the world; Columbia—like Challenger before it, an avoidable accident rooted in NASA’s internal culture.
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The prime crew of Apollo 1, Virgil I “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White, II, and Roger B. Chaffee, during training in Florida.
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Grissom, seen here in one of the Mercury pressure suits, could have been the first man to walk on the Moon.
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Ed White was the first American astronaut to spacewalk, on June 3, 1965.
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Roger Chaffee never made it into orbit. He’s seen here in Mission Control during the flight of Gemini 3, March 1963.
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Portrait of the Apollo 1 prime crew for first manned Apollo space flight. From left to right are: Edward H. White II, Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, and Roger B. Chaffee.
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Launch complex 34 is now the Apollo 1 memorial. Seen here with a Delta IV rocket in the background.
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The Space Mirror Memorial at Kennedy Space Center. Grissom, White, and Chaffee’s names are to the lower right.
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The Apollo 1 crew during training, January 1967.
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Apollo 1: January 27, 1967
The loss of the Apollo 1 crew (along with the spacecraft) several weeks before its intended launch date was a severe setback for America’s lunar ambition. Apollo 1 was supposed to carry Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee into low Earth orbit on February 21, 1967, the first launch in a series that would culminate in a pair of American astronauts walking on the Moon’s surface in July 1969. Instead, all three suffocated when fire broke out in the Command Module during what was thought to be a low-risk test.
Both Grissom and White had been into space before; Grissom was one of the original Mercury Seven, White was one of NASA’s second wave of astronauts—recruited for Gemini—which saw him become the first American to walk in space. Chaffee was part of NASA’s third astronaut intake, and Apollo 1 was to be his first mission.
The accident occurred on January 27 during a test that involved the Apollo spacecraft running on internal power. Grissom, White, and Chaffee were strapped in and sealed into the command module. It’s thought there was a spark from one of the myriad exposed wires which quickly
