Prime Crew of Apollo 1 at North American Aviation during training & checkout activity. Astronauts Virgil I. Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chaffee. Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, TX.
Remembering
Apollo 1
On January 27, 1967, veteran astronaut Gus Grissom, first American spacewalker Ed White, and rookie Roger Chaffee were sitting atop the launch pad for a pre-launch test when a fire broke out in their Apollo capsule.
The investigation into the fatal accident led to major design and engineering changes, making the Apollo spacecraft safer for the coming journeys to the moon.
Click below to learn more.
Virgil I. Grissom
(Lt. Col. USAF)
Command Pilot
Gus Grissom was born April 3, 1926, in Mitchell, Indiana. He won a Distinguished Flying Cross for his service as an Air Force pilot in the Korean War, before joining NASA in 1959 as one of the "Original Seven" Mercury astronauts.
Grissom piloted the second Mercury flight -- "Liberty Bell 7" -- on July 21, 1961, and went on to serve as command pilot on the first manned Gemini flight on March 23, 1965.
Edward H. White II
(Lt. Col. USAF)
Pilot
Ed White was born in San Antonio on November 14, 1930. A graduate of the United States Military Academy, White served with an Air Force fighter squadron in Germany before becoming a test pilot.
White joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1962 and made history with his first mission, becoming the first American to walk in space during the Gemini 4 flight in 1965. He was outside the capsule for 21 minutes, and became the first man to control himself in space with a maneuvering unit.
Roger B. Chaffee
(Lt. Cdr., USN)
Pilot
Roger Chaffee was born February 15, 1935 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He joined the Navy in 1957 and logged more than 2,300 hours of flying time before joining NASA's third astronaut class in October 1963.
In addition to regular astronaut training, Chaffee also worked on flight control, communications and instrumentation systems in the Apollo Branch of the Astronaut office. Apollo 1 was to have been his first space flight.
Remember the lost crew of Apollo1, with this video tribute.
