APOLLO 1 Three Astronauts Killed by Fire, ABC News, Jan 27,1967. We remember
Video from the channel All Things That Fly about Apollo 1, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 6:02. Language: English. Video type: Archive footage.
What it shows
ABC News report from 1967, broadcast after the Apollo 1 fire. It includes the last footage of Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee: their exit from the transfer van, the elevator ride up to the white room at 218 feet, and their entry into the spacecraft. It also shows footage of an identical rehearsal recorded on January 10, with the astronauts putting on their suits and taking their seats, and the mating of the command module and service module in the checkout building.
When and where it was filmed
The footage was filmed at Complex 34 at Cape Kennedy, partly on the same day as the fire, during the simulated flight test that ended in tragedy at 18:31, and partly two weeks earlier. The anchor broadcasts it the following day as unedited film just arrived from the Cape.
Context
The report introduces the crew: Grissom (41), as commander; White (36), the first American to walk in space; and Chaffee (32), responsible for the electrical system and designer of the mission emblem. It notes that spacecraft 012 accumulated delays at the North American Aviation plant in Downey: it arrived at the Cape in mid-August, and a leak in the environmental control system forced that unit to be replaced. Launch on a Saturn IB was scheduled for February 21.