January 27, 1967.
Tragedy struck on the launch pad during a preflight test for Apollo 204
(AS-204), which was scheduled to be the first Apollo manned mission, and would have
been launched on February 21, 1967. Astronauts Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger
Chaffee lost their lives when a fire swept through the Command Module (CM).
The exhaustive investigation of the fire and extensive reworking of the CMs postponed any
manned launch until NASA officials cleared the CM for manned flight. Saturn 1B schedules
were suspended for nearly a year, and the launch vehicle that finally bore the designation
AS-204 carried a Lunar Module (LM) as the payload, not the Apollo CM. The missions of
AS-201 and AS-202 with Apollo spacecraft aboard had been unofficially known as Apollo
1 and Apollo 2 missions (AS-203 carried only the aerodynamic nose cone). In the spring of
1967, NASA's Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight, Dr. George E. Mueller,
announced that the mission originally scheduled for Grissom, White and Chaffee would be
known as Apollo 1, and said that the first Saturn V launch, scheduled for November 1967,
would be known as Apollo 4. The eventual launch of AS-204 became known as the Apollo
5 mission (no missions or flights were ever designated Apollo 2 and 3).
For more about Apollo 1, the entire Apollo program, and NASA, visit http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/history/apollo/apollo-1/apollo-1.html
This is the source of all NASA information/pics on this page.
In July of 1999, "Pete" Conrad was fatally injured in a motorcycle accident. Not as well known as the Apollo 11 crew, Pete was a member of the Apollo 12 crew. After an incident during the launch of Apollo 12, the crew went on to successfully complete their mission. While the Saturn rocket was clearing the tower, it was struck by lightning several times. It was the crew's quick thinking and cool heads that saved the mission from being a failure. After landing on the lunar surface, Pete added a little comedy to the dramatic scene. After stepping onto the moon's surface, he said "Whoopee!.....That may have been a small one for Neil, but it sure is a big one for me!". After Apollo, Pete went on to work on the SpaceLab project, and later worked with a company whose goal was to make spaceflight available to all. He will be missed.