Apollo 1 Tragedy: Fire Killed 3 Astronauts | Today in History (1967)

Video from the channel Mr. Louis | Today in History about Apollo 1, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 4:32. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

A brief explainer piece from a daily "this day in history" series dedicated to the Apollo 1 fire. It recounts that on 27 January 1967 Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee died during a simulation on the launch pad, in preparation for the programme's first crewed flight, scheduled for the following month.

It places the accident within the lunar goal announced by Kennedy in 1961. It notes that the investigation attributed the fire to a faulty electrical wire inside a pressurised, oxygen-rich cabin, from which the crew could not escape. Congressional hearings followed, and crewed flights were suspended for more than a year.

It adds that the mission was named Apollo 1 in tribute to the crew, and that Apollo 7 carried the programme's first crew into space on 11 October 1968. The final segment covers other unrelated historical events from the same day.