Apollo 1

Note: This article is about an event and mission that was only mentioned in the show.

Apollo 1
(real life image)
General Information
Program	Apollo program
Operator
Rocket	Saturn IB
Launch site	Cape Kennedy
Command module	CSM-012
Mission Details
Alias	AS-204
Purpose	Crewed spacecraft verification test
Crew	Gus Grissom Ed White Roger B. Chaffee
Start date	21 February 1967 (planned)
End date	27 January 1967 (destroyed)
Duration	Up to 14 days (planned)
Result	CSM destroyed by fire on launch pad

Apollo 1 was supposed to be the first crewed mission of the Apollo program, planned to be the first low Earth orbit test of the Apollo Command and Service Module. The launch was scheduled for February 21, 1967, however, the mission never flew after a cabin fire during a launch rehearsal test at Cape Kennedy on January 27 destroyed the CSM. All three crew members, Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, were killed, being trapped inside the cabin.

After the Apollo 1 fire, NASA stopped taking risks the way they used to, which, according to Ed Baldwin, was why the USA lost the race to the Moon to the Soviet Union.

History

The day after the Soviet Moon landing in June 1969, Ed Baldwin and Gordo Stevens were sitting at the bar in the Outpost Tavern, drinking and playing cards, as most other NASA astronauts after they were sent home by chief astronaut Deke Slayton. Ed and Gordo were approached by Newsweek reporter Paul Santoro, who wanted to know what the Apollo 10 crew thinks about NASA losing the Moon race against the Soviets since they had been so close the month before, but they didn't want to comment on this. But Santoro insisted, telling them that NASA had always been known for pushing the envelope, and wanted to know why they didn't have the guts to let them land. After a while, Ed told him that he's right and that they used to be like that, but not anymore. Those days would be over since the Apollo 1 fire. During Mercury and Gemini, they would have hung over the edge all the time, but NASA would have stopped taking risks after Apollo 1. He told him that Gus, Roger, and Ed were good men and that he loved them, but good men would die in test planes all the time and you should not change the whole culture of flight test because good men die. And that would be why they lost the Moon.

Santoro wrote an article quoting Ed in the next Newsweek edition, leading to Ed being demoted and cancelled for Apollo 15, and assigned to the Apollo Applications Program instead.

At the concressional hearing over the lost Moon race, Rep. Charles Sandman accused Wernher von Braun for being too cautious after the Apollo 1 fire. Von Braun confirmed this, because unlike the Soviets, he would care about the lives of his astronauts. He quoted Neil Armstrong "we pick ourselves up and go back to work".

Behind the scenes

Apollo 1 is only mentioned in For All Mankind. The disaster happened 2 ½ years before the show's first season starts. However, it seems to have happened in the same way as in reality, with the same astronauts involved, Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger B. Chaffee.

Image: The destroyed command module (real life image)

See also

• Apollo program
• Saturn IB

External links

  Apollo 1 on Wikipedia