Airapollo Fire

Sadly, the astronaut most well known for spacecraft malfunction during the Mercury program, Virgil Grissom, as well as two other astronauts set for the first Apollo launch were caught in the first major tragedy of NASA’s history. On January 27, 1967, the three astronauts were performing a preflight test of their Apollo capsule when their capsule caught fire. In the hours before the fire, the astronauts encountered problems with a sour smell from the oxygen loop of Grissom’s spacesuit, unexplained high oxygen flows which triggered alarms, and worsening faulty communications between the launch pad and the control roomApollo 1. All of these items were identified and discussed before the test continued. The faulty communication even halted the test countdown for almost an hour until just before the fire itself Apollo 1.
The fire in the command module began very quickly with almost no warning. By the time one of the astronauts reported the smell of a possible fire, it was only two seconds before the presence of fire was announced over the radioApollo 1. Although emergency procedures were immediately begun after this report by the astronauts, it was already too late. The fire spread and became so hot, the command module ruptured before the hatch could be removed and hindered rescuers from even getting close to the command moduleApollo 1. After the hatch was opened and rescue personnel had …show more content…
However, one further design flaw caused this event to go from dangerous mishap to fatal tragedy. The command module had three separate hatches all of which were installed for the testApollo 1. The operation of the hatch was difficult and in the end proved fatal. The inner hatch, which needed to be pulled inward to be opened, was the biggest problem because the fire further increased the pressure within the command module Apollo 1. This made it impossible to physically open the