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Apollo 1
Last year we looked at the Challenger. This year: Apollo 1. On January 27, 1967, the three-man crew of Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee, and Ed White who were in training for the first Apollo flight were asphixiated in their capsule during a training exercise. The men reported communications glitches prior to the disaster, and it is believed that a spark in their pure-oxygen atmosphere quickly started an unstoppable blaze, consuming the many flammable components in the capsule. There were three hatches between the men and the outside of the capsule, which were not designed to be opened in less than 90 seconds. In addition, it is doubtful that the astronauts could have opened the internal hatch at all since pressure inside the spacecraft rose rapidly after the fire, exceeding the capacity of the pressure-equalization valves. Future designs were modified to remove most of the flammable components from the crew area and include a new quick-opening hatch. NASA has a retrospective.
They made the post-accident modifications rather quickly. It is hard to do that without creating chain-reaction design changes. I guess the gov *can* move fast if they have a press-viewable deadline and a blank check.
Humor:
What did "NASA" stand for after the Challenger accident:
"Need Another Seven Astronauts"
Table-ized A.I.
Asphyxiated? That means suffocated.
It was my impression they burned to death in the veritable blast furnace the capsule turned into.
As for design flaws.. the major flaw was the test itself. In space, they would have been okay.
Why?
They used a very high concentration of O2 in the air, and raised the pressure a few PSI above normal, to simulate the forces on the capsule?
The result? ALthough all forces were the same on the capsule, and yes, they would use the same o2 mix in space.. there was WAY, WAY, WAY more oxygen in there considering they were at a few PSI over 1 Atmosphere, rather than a few PSI over vacuum. That's a HUGE difference in the amount of O2 available to burn.
So what would have been a potentially minor smoldering in space turned into a blast furnace on the ground.
Well, of course the Americans didnt go to the moon! I mean, would you really go to the moon if you knew there were already Nazi moonbases up there!? I read it on the Intarweb too, so it must be true.
Liberty in your lifetime
At the higest point that the shuttle can go, there is still atmospheric drag so I think your right about that not being "outer space".
Americans couldn't get to "outer space" now if they had to.
Apollo was our pyramid of Cheops. The highlight in our history unless we collecectly decide to do better.
I'll get troll moded for these statments but I knew quite a few people involved with Apollo I and the latter systems and many of them still balme themselves for the fire.