"officially considered non-hazardous"

[denny]

After a casual remark in the office, I had a quick look for info about Apollo 1 online. I didn't know anything about it until now, so for me the Wikipedia page made quite astounding reading.

Comments

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

All I knew about it was the reference in Apollo 13, where Jim (Tom Hanks) is talking to his son about things that can go wrong, and how they do lots of tests to make sure everything's safe, and the kid asks about Apollo 1 and he explains that "the door was broken so they couldn't get out when they needed to".

[mr_magicfingers]

You really didn't know about it? I've read so much about it over the years, being a complete space nut. One of the most haunting things was to read it from the perspective of the guys in mission control who could do nothing but listen as they died. So many things were changed after that. When I recover my books I'll lend you 'Failure is not an option' by Gene Krantz, who I had the great pleasure to meet once when I was over in the states. The inside story of mission control from the man who ran it for so many years.

[topbit.livejournal.com]

the wiki page references the HBO mini-series - 'From the Earth to the Moon' - one of the episodes is about the Apollo 1 accident. I've got the box-set, it is a fantastic view as well.

[kotenok.livejournal.com]

I never really knew about it either.

[mr_magicfingers]

I guess this is probably an age thing. I grew up watching the apollo launches on tv, hearing James Burke and Walter Kronkite talking us all through it. I remember making scrapbooks from newpaper cuttings, reading everything I could get my hands on about the russian and american space program.

Back then, the lessons from apollo 1 and then apollo 13 hung large in people's consciousness, it was an amazing time where anything seemed possible, missions to mars weren't far away and flying cars were going to become the norm. Then the budgets were cut and it all fell apart. The shuttle was a cludge built down to a budget and totally incapable of being what it was designed to be.

I actually remember the apollo 13 flight and the new bulletins about it, and about my earliest memory is of watching the apollo 11 landing on our old black and white tv. I was hooked and I dreamed that one day I could be up there too. I became a geophysicist primarily because in all the sci-fi books I read, they were one of the first trades up there, and the only civilian to go to the moon was a geologist.

Heady days, but when they shut down apollo 3 flights early I think everyone realised that age was ending, but I doubt anyone thought it would be so long again until man flew in space.