ASTRONAUTS DIE IN FIERY CAPSULE
Three-Man Crew Killed Instantly
CAPE KENNEDY, Fla. (AP) ─ The three Apollo I Astronauts were killed last night by a flash fire that trapped them aboard the huge spacecraft designed to take a man to the moon by 1970.
Locked behind sealed hatches and killed instantly just 218 feet above the ground were:
Air Force Col. Virgil (Gus) Grissom, a space pioneer and the first man to soar twice into the heavens; Air Force Col. Edward H. White II, First American to walk in space, and Navy Lt. Cmdr. Roger B. Chaffee, a rookie eagerly awaiting his first flight.
People are also reading…
The three were hooked into a pure oxygen breathing system in their spacesuits and the oxygen fed the fire. Valiant pad workers trying to rescue the trapped men fell back one by one as they fought through dense, acid smoke toward the capsule.
Although the tragedy postponed indefinitely the Apollo's scheduled Feb. 21 blast off, space officials and President Johnson vowed to press ahead with the moon program despite the deaths.
"Three valiant young men have given their lived in the nation's service," Johnson said. "We mourn this great loss and our hearts go out to their families."
James E. Webb, administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, promised to pursue the program with renewed dedication.
"We in NASA know that their greatest desire was that this nation press forward with manned space flight exploration, despite the outcome of any one flight," Webb said. "With renewed dedication and purpose we intend to do just that."
The astronauts were the first to be killed in space hardware. Ironically they were killed while the spacecraft was still on the launch pad.
Three other astronauts died in airplane crashes in the line of duty, but yesterday's tragedy involved the first "on premises" deaths in America's space program.
NASA official Gordon Harris said the fire broke out at 6:31 P.M. (EST) while the astronauts were involved in a full-scale simulation of the launch that was to take them into the heavens for 14 days of orbiting next month.
The astronauts' bodies were left in the tiny compartment for more than four hours while Space Agency and Air Force investigators probed the cockpit for clues as to what might have set off the fire.
Harris said the astronauts were wearing their spacesuits at the time of the fire and were on a "pure oxygen system." The bodies were taken to a dispensary at the Cape about 1½ miles from the launch site.
Eyewitnesses reported they could see fire around the spacecraft above the unfueled rocket. Harris said the witnesses reported there was "just a flash."
