Page 8 - The Appollo Story

------------1 The Apollo Story.------------

Apollo 1 (AS-204) - Apollo's Darkest Hour
On Friday 27 January 1967 the crew of Apollo 1 strode across the gantry at Launch Pad 34 to the White
Room which sunounded the capsule perched on top of a 200ft-high Saturn 1 B booster. Heading the trio
was Commander Gus Grissom, a veteran of Mercury and Gemini. He had been the second American in
space aboard Mercury 4's brief sub-orbital lob; a mission which ended under a cloud when a hatch inex-
plicably blew after splashdown and the capsule sank. Despite Grissom's strenuous denials that he had
triggered the hatch bolts, here was a man with something to prove. Accompanying Grissom were Ed
White, the first American to walk in space, and rookie astronaut Roger Chaffee.

VIRGIL GRISSOM - EDWARD H. WHITE - ROGER CHAFFEE

A postcard from the French International Air & Space Museum, LeBourget showing the three astronauts
tied with a 30c stamp depicting the Saturn rocket launching.

Did You Know?
The Apollo 1 Command Module has never been on public display. After the accident, the spacecraft was
removed and taken to Kennedy Space Center to facilitate the review board's disassembly in order to investi-
gate the cause of the fire. When the investigation was complete, it was moved to the NASA Langley Re-
search Center in Hampton, Virginia, and placed in a secured storage warehouse.
On 17 February 2007, the parts of CM-012 were moved to a newer, environmentally controlled warehouse
at Langley. Only a few weeks earlier, Gus Grissom's brother Lowell publicly suggested CM-012 be pem1a-
nently entombed in the concrete remains of Launch Complex 34.