Page 9 - The Appollo Story

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

Apollo 1 (AS-204) - Apollo's Darkest Hour
Things went badly from the start; Grissom detected an unpleasant odour from the cabin's life-support sys-
tem. Then there were problems with the communications link, causing Grissom to snap at the Control
Room, 'If I can't talk to you five miles away how can we talk to you when we are on the Moon?'
After more than five hours of this the astronauts were ready to proceed with the final stage of the count-
down from T-minus ten minutes.

The top cover is a memoriam cover with a Hometown, Illinois cancellation with a cachet by the South-
west Stamp Club at the Soupex 1967 Exhibition dated 22 April 1967. Below, a third anniversary cover
of the Apollo 1 fire with a rare Manned Spaceflight Cover Society cachet tied with a Cape Canaveral
postmark, and an Apollo 8 stamp.

Commemorates
THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY
January 27, 1970
of the
APOLLO I TRAGEDY

January 27, 1967
in Memorial to
GUS GRISSOM
ED WHITE
ROGER CHAFFEE SEABOARD STA
• P.O. Box 5824IMP SERVICE
Houston, Texas 77058