Apollo 1 Memorial at KSC

Recent news that NASA is making headway toward another “manned” mission to the moon’s surface reminded me of the space agency’s previous lunar efforts – sometimes successful and sometimes not. In the early 1990s, while employed by NASA, I traveled to the Kennedy Space Center on assignment for an upcoming Space Shuttle launch. After the liftoff and having a few hours before returning home to Huntsville, Alabama, I drove to an old Saturn rocket launch pad – Launch Complex 34 - one that was mothballed in 1968. On that site in February 1967, NASA was preparing to launch Apollo 1 on an earth-orbital mission with three astronauts onboard to study the vehicle’s performance. Just one month before that launch, on a January morning, with the three crewmembers locked in the Apollo crew cabin for a training exercise, exposed wiring caused a spark in the cabin filled with pure oxygen and created a fierce fire, killing the three astronauts within a minute. It is presumed lethal fumes took their lives even before the fire could, but the crewmembers knew what was happening and tried desperately to open the hatch. On the afternoon of my visit, some 25 years after the accident, I was the only one there and I felt a very melancholy spirit around the complex. Cracked and stained concrete provided evidence of many rocket ignitions in the past. There were no birds including seagulls to be seen anywhere nearby. Even under a bright Florida sun and with the beauty and crashing surf of the Atlantic Ocean within sight and sound, it was not a place where I wished to remain for very long. Each of the three astronauts had already flown successfully for NASA and would likely have been chosen for a manned fight to the moon in an upcoming launch. They each left young families behind. Yet, their sacrifice led to many needed improvements in the spacecraft which eventually proved extremely reliable during six successful missions to the moon and back.

(In the spirit of full disclosure, the accompanying image is not mine, but NASA’s.)