Hard to believe it has been fifty-seven years. I was nine years old and watching the television show Time Tunnel when a news flash interrupted the show to convey the grim news that Apollo 1 astronauts Pilot Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Senior Pilot Edward H. White II, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee had died in a fire in the space capsule during a simulated practice launch. Subsequent investigation indicated that the fire probably started due to faulty electric wiring in the capsule, but the exact cause of the fire ignition has never been pinpointed, which has created a fertile ground for conspiracy theorists usually centering around an alleged plot to kill Grissom. A sad day for the American Space Program fifty-seven years ago.
I just reread “Earth, Moon and Beyond” (Bob Parrott 1969), by a Methodist minister who was a sort of chaplain to the Manned Space Center in Houston. He knew the men and their families, and spoke at length about the tragedy.
May they rest in peace.