Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia: Remembering NASA’s lost astronauts

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson) Update: Yesterday, February 1, marked 16 years since the 2003 Columbia disaster. Those both in the space industry and those watching have long realized and acknowledged the inherent risk in reaching the heavens ('The conquest of space is worth the risk of life,” as Gus Grissom once famously said). But events like this provide a somber reminder. In light of three recent days of NASA remembrance—January 27, January 28, and February 1—we're resurfacing our look at these tragedies and the astronauts lost. This post originally ran on January 28, 2016, and it appears unchanged below.


The middle of winter is a somber time of year for the spaceflight community. The three worst tragedies of NASA's manned space program fall within just six days on the calendar, from January 27 to February 1: Apollo 1, less than three years before Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the Moon; Challenger, watched live by millions around the world; Columbia—like Challenger before it, an avoidable accident rooted in NASA's internal culture.





The prime crew of Apollo 1, Virgil I 'Gus' Grissom, Edward H. White, II, and Roger B. Chaffee, during training in Florida. [credit:
NASA ]




Apollo 1: January 27, 1967
The loss of the Apollo 1 crew (along with the spacecraft) several weeks before its intended launch date was a severe setback for America's lunar ambition. Apollo 1 was supposed to carry Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee into low Earth orbit on February 21, 1967, the first launch in a series that would culminate in a pair of American astronauts walking on the Moon's surface in July 1969. Instead, all three suffocated when fire broke out in the Command Module during what was thought to be a low-risk test.
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