50th Anniversary of Apollo 1 Fire

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O_P_T

O_P_T

Why Be Normal
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January 27th, 1967.

I remember when it happened. I was growing up in Acton, and a bunch of people in the neighborhood, including my Dad, were involved in some way with the space program.

Kinda weird that all of the major accidents NASA has had all took place in the same week of the year.

Apollo 1: January 27
Challenger: January 28
Columbia: February 1
 
That was terrible. The door where they couldn't escape.

Such an inspirational period, the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. The future seemed so bright. I'm sure if you talked to someone in 1969, early 70s they would have been absolutely certain that by the year 2016 we'd have bases on the moon and mars and would be exploring deeper space.

We need something like this again.
 
Roberto71 said:
That was terrible. The door where they couldn't escape.

Such an inspirational period, the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. The future seemed so bright. I'm sure if you talked to someomne in 1969, early 70s they would have been absilutely certain that by the year 2016 we'd have bases on the moon and mars and would be exploring deeper space.

We need something like this again.
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Kubrick's 2001 didn't seem far fetched at all.
 
A bit before my memory. I was just 6 when it happened. My first clear memory of the space program is Apollo 8 ( had just turned 8) with it's Christmas Eve broadcast from lunar orbit. It was amazing stuff.
 
I rememberr one experience I had when I was a teenager in my junior year of high school we were so used to the shuttle program launching all the time with pure success after success after success. And the day that Challenger exploded I was just finishing up changing classes and someone in my class said how did the Challenger do today and being a smart-ass myself I said it blew up Hardy harder Hardy har har har. Everybody in my classroom looked at me including my teacher and started yelling at me calling me names. What I did not realize the Challenger really did blow up. I was totally Blown Away and felt horrible. I will never forget that day when I saw on the television for the first time the Challenger blow up. A great deal of sadness came over me. I never ever joked about anything like that that could result in someone dying. I remember apologizing to the class and to my teacher privately and I told him I had no clue and I'm extremely sorry. He accepted my apology but I don't think he really truly believe me until he saw my eyes well up.....
 
bideau said:
A bit before my memory. I was just 6 when it happened. My first clear memory of the space program is Apollo 8 ( had just turned 8) with it's Christmas Eve broadcast from lunar orbit. It was amazing stuff.
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My first real memory was the first moon landing. I had just turned 5. One of those things that sticks with you forever.

I would really love to see a commitment to put a man on Mars, similar to the one JFK made with putting a man on the moon. There was such an amazing amount of consumer products and technology that crossed over from the space program. Going to Mars is an entirely different animal, I think the ultimate benefits to mankind are incalculable at this point.
 
O.Z.O. said:
My first real memory was the first moon landing. I had just turned 5. One of those things that sticks with you forever.

I would really love to see a commitment to put a man on Mars, similar to the one JFK made with putting a man on the moon. There was such an amazing amount of consumer products and technology that crossed over from the space program. Going to Mars is an entirely different animal, I think the ultimate benefits to mankind are incalculable at this point.
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It would be fantastic in this day and age because no doubt you'd be able to follow it 24/7 online if you wanted and really get immersed in the whole voyage.

There was indeed a lot of tech that passed into everyday life, from food tech to navigation tools that made Jet travel more accurate and so much more.
 
O.Z.O. said:
My first real memory was the first moon landing. I had just turned 5. One of those things that sticks with you forever.

I would really love to see a commitment to put a man on Mars, similar to the one JFK made with putting a man on the moon. There was such an amazing amount of consumer products and technology that crossed over from the space program. Going to Mars is an entirely different animal, I think the ultimate benefits to mankind are incalculable at this point.
Click to expand...

A Mars mission would require an international effort due to the costs. In this current world environment, that's very unlikely to happen.
 
bideau said:
A Mars mission would require an international effort due to the costs. In this current world environment, that's very unlikely to happen.
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well then maybe we could actually go back to the moon and build something this time.
 
Horrific tragedy.

The Mercury/Gemini/Apollo program was inspiring and exciting. I remember my parents visiting friends and talking about the Christmas mission in '68 by one of those silver trees with the color wheel that rotated. :cool: It was amazing, and this was before the first moon landing.
 
I remember Apollo 1 well. It's hard to explain that time to those that were too young to remember or not born yet. I had a talk with my daughter about it the other night in fact. I was 13 when Apollo 11 did the first landing.
The space program was forefront in the national consciousness, and I suppose a welcome distraction from the violence and assassinations. You think this political climate is toxic.. LOL.
A good friend of mine, older gent now, was an engineer at Draper Labs in Cambridge and worked on the guidance systems for the command module and lunar module in the Apollo program. Not to mention a number of other missions, such as the Mariner probes. The stories he tells are fascinating, and he knew a number of the astronauts although I can't say he ever mentioned the Apollo 1 guys. The intricate calculations they performed to do those missions were amazing and done without the aid of modern computers. No calculators, it was slide rules and pencil and paper. The guidance computers for the Apollo program were primitive, and an Iphone today has infinitely more compute power. That program was a great achievement and nothing America has done since even approaches it.
 
NSPatsFan said:
I was born in 79 so I'm too young to remember. One of my earliest memories as a child was the day Challenger broke up. Those poor people...
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Poor people is right! Newer articles report that the crew cabin wasn't destroyed by the explosion and remained intact, with crew alive, until impact with the ocean.

On a lighter note, I've heard the movie "Hidden Figures", about the female math whizzes in NASA is really good.
 
Roberto71 said:
It would be fantastic in this day and age because no doubt you'd be able to follow it 24/7 online if you wanted and really get immersed in the whole voyage.
Click to expand...

We did follow these things 24/7 on TV. I remember watching a Patriots game that had a rocket launch picture-in-picture on the screen. I'm guessing that was a Gemini mission. I remember recording the audio off of TV of the control room in Houston cheering the successful landing of an unmanned probe on the moon.

I am definitely in favor of spending money on space exploration but I don't see much point in sending humans into space unless it's a way to get congress to approve the funds, but from a scientific point of view I don't think it is particularly useful.
 
patswin said:
I remember Apollo 1 well. It's hard to explain that time to those that were too young to remember or not born yet. I had a talk with my daughter about it the other night in fact. I was 13 when Apollo 11 did the first landing.
The space program was forefront in the national consciousness, and I suppose a welcome distraction from the violence and assassinations. You think this political climate is toxic.. LOL.
A good friend of mine, older gent now, was an engineer at Draper Labs in Cambridge and worked on the guidance systems for the command module and lunar module in the Apollo program. Not to mention a number of other missions, such as the Mariner probes. The stories he tells are fascinating, and he knew a number of the astronauts although I can't say he ever mentioned the Apollo 1 guys. The intricate calculations they performed to do those missions were amazing and done without the aid of modern computers. No calculators, it was slide rules and pencil and paper. The guidance computers for the Apollo program were primitive, and an Iphone today has infinitely more compute power. That program was a great achievement and nothing America has done since even approaches it.
Click to expand...

HBO's From the Earth to the Moon does a pretty good job of telling the whole story of Apollo.

The episode on Apollo 8 pretty much focuses on the part in bold.

1968 wasn't the best of years. Tet offensive, assassination of MLK and RFK, riots, both here and the student riots in Europe.

The episode is filmed in B&W, except for the Apollo 8 crew footage.

It isn't until the Christmas Eve Earthrise moment that the earth based stuff is in color.

Nice touch.

Also, they read a telegram from some woman who says simply "thank you, you saved 1968".
 
O_P_T said:
HBO's From the Earth to the Moon does a pretty good job of telling the whole story of Apollo.

The episode on Apollo 8 pretty much focuses on the part in bold.

1968 wasn't the best of years. Tet offensive, assassination of MLK and RFK, riots, both here and the student riots in Europe.

The episode is filmed in B&W, except for the Apollo 8 crew footage.

It isn't until the Christmas Eve Earthrise moment that the earth based stuff is in color.

Nice touch.

Also, they read a telegram from some woman who says simply "thank you, you saved 1968".
Click to expand...

I have that DVD!!!
 
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