In Memoriam: The Crew of Apollo 1

Ed White, Gus Grissom, and Roger Chaffee

On this day in 1967, a fire broke out during a routine test of the Apollo 1 space craft, resulting in the deaths of crew members Roger B. Chaffee, Edward H. White, and Virgil "Gus" Grissom. Chaffee was a newcomer to the space program, but it has been rumored that he was one of the pilots who took surveillance photos leading up to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ed White was the first American to walk in space during the Gemini 4 mission. And Gus Grissom was one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts who was widely considered the top pick to be the first man to walk on the moon, had the fire not taken his life and the lives of his crew.


So give a moment of silence and remembrance for three men who were great pilots, great astronauts, and great Americans.