Useless Fact: Tragedy Strikes NASA's Apollo Program

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Tragedy Strikes NASA's Apollo Program

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On January 27, 1967 tragedy struck NASA's Apollo program when on the launch pad during a pre-flight test, astronauts Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee lost their lives when a fire swept through the Command Module. The Apollo I mission, which was scheduled to be the first Apollo manned mission, and would have been launched on February 21, 1967. The trio were the first astronauts killed in the NASA space program.

The exhaustive investigation of the fire and extensive reworking of the Command Modules postponed any manned launch until October 11, 1968 when Apollo 7 was successfully launched into Earth orbit.

Source: NASA

Posted: 2002-04-20 1:24:23 PM

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