The Apollo 1 Fire: A Tragedy That Almost Ended the Program

At 6:30 PM on January 27, 1967, the crew of Apollo 1 — Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee — was sealed inside their command module at Launch Complex 34 at Cape Kennedy for a routine plugs-out test. No fuel, no oxidizer, no actual launch. A simulation.

At 6:31 PM, a fire broke out inside the capsule.

The atmosphere inside was pure oxygen at slightly above sea level pressure. In pure O2, materials that are barely flammable in normal air burn fast and hot. The capsule interior, which had been built with extensive use of Velcro and netting, was a tinderbox. The hatch took 90 seconds to open under ideal conditions. There were no ideal conditions.

All three men died within seconds of incapacitation from smoke inhalation and burns. The official report noted that Grissom had pulled on the hatch from inside, stripping the threads on two bolts before the fire consumed the cabin.

**The investigation and rebuild**

NASA stood down Apollo for 21 months. The subsequent investigation was thorough, and its findings were damning: the capsule had an oxygen-enriched atmosphere, flammable materials throughout, a hatch that couldn't be opened quickly, and wiring that had been routed and re-routed until it was a mess of potential shorts. There were over 20 miles of wiring in the command module.

North American Aviation, the prime contractor, came under intense scrutiny. The redesign required 1,407 engineering changes. The atmosphere was changed to a mixed nitrogen-oxygen at launch, transitioning to pure oxygen in orbit. The hatch was replaced with a new outward-opening design that could be operated in seconds. Flammable materials were replaced throughout.

The cost was not just financial. Three astronauts were gone. The investigation surfaced a culture of schedule pressure and contractor complacency that had built up as the 1970 deadline loomed. Engineers who had raised concerns found they'd been ignored.

**The recovery**

Apollo 7 flew in October 1968 — the first crewed Apollo mission — and was a success. Wally Schirra's crew tested the command module for 11 days and broadcast the first live television from an American spacecraft.

Apollo 8 followed in December 1968, and it was audacious: no lunar module, just a command module sent on a loop around the Moon. Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders became the first humans to orbit another celestial body. They photographed "Earthrise" — the Earth rising above the Moon's horizon — and read from Genesis on Christmas Eve.

The fire had cost 21 months and three lives. What came back from the rebuild was a spacecraft capable of going to the Moon.

The Apollo 1 Fire: A Tragedy That Almost Ended the Program

// COMMENTS

ON THIS PAGE