THE APOLLO ONE CATASTROPHE; NASA’S FIRST SAFETY FAILURE

Paul J. Burke

Embry Riddle Aeronautical University
ASCI 611 Aviation and Aerospace System Safety
7 October 2014

Abstract
In January 1967, America’s Manned Space Program stood at the pinnacle of success. The recently completed Mercury and Gemini missions had been spectacularly successful. NASA’s only rival, the USSR’s space program, had been left far behind. NASA was now poised to take the first steps towards fulfilling President Kennedy’s May 25, 1961 challenge to “… commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth”, (American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1994) which had been initially considered unattainable. Then, on January 27, 1967, a fire occurred in the Command Module during a launch pad test of the Saturn space vehicle being prepared for its first piloted flight. Three astronauts died, not in space flight, but on the ground, in a dress rehearsal. Could the tragedy have been averted? What had gone wrong, why, and what was to be done to prevent such a tragedy from happening again? That NASA used the lessons of the disaster wisely is indicated by the manned space program’s subsequent safety record and successes, including the near calamity of Apollo XIII, until the Challenger accident, 19 years and a one day later, on January 28, 1986. We will examine the events and conditions that led to the Apollo I disaster, determine their causes and whether they could have been avoided and finally, look at the changes engendered by the accident to understand the success of the remaining Apollo missions.
Table of Contents

Th Apollo One Disaster; 6:31:04.7 P.M. to 6:31:22.4 P.M. EST 1 The Apollo One Disaster; Pelude...………...………………………………………………………………1 Apollo Saturn-204 (AS-204) 2 Plugs -Out Test……………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………… x
The Investigation x
Findings x
Recommendations x
Results x
Discussion..................................................................................................................................................... x

The Apollo One Disaster; 6:31:04.7 P.M. EST to 6:31:22.4 P.M. EST
At 6:31:04.7 EST on January 27, 1967, a garbled transmission from the Command Module of AS 204, probably from Command Pilot Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, called out either "Hey" or "Fire", which one is still not clear today. The next transmission began at 6:31:06.2 EST with either “I've” or “We've”, but the remainder of the message is a clear and emphatic:"...Got a fire in the cockpit". It ended at 6:31:10 EST. (Apollo 204 Review Board , April 5, 1967) At 6:31:19, the Command Module ruptured and fire began to spew forth. By 6:31:22.4 EST, transmissions of voice and data ended. All three crew members, Command Pilot Grissom, Senior Pilot Edward H. White II and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee, perished. The nation mourned. How could this happen? More importantly, what could be done to prevent such a catastrophe in the future? NASA was stunned. The future of the Apollo program, with its goal to place a man on the moon, was in doubt. An investigation would be convened to ascertain the answers. What the investigation revealed and the changes it engendered would change the In the meantime, Apollo flights would be suspended for 20 months while the future of NASA and the manned space flight program was determined. The Apollo One Disaster; Prelude Apollo Saturn-204 (AS-204)
Apollo One began life as Apollo Saturn-204 (AS-204) with the Command Module known as CM 012. CM 012 was built by North American Aviation and was delivered to the Kennedy Space Center on August 26, 1966. It was a common opinion of many of the astronauts that CM 012 wasn't ready for space yet. Engineering changes were still in progress as NASA prepared for the countdown test. The problems encountered were frustrating to the point that, on his last