“Fire! We’ve got a fire in the cockpit.” Eight seconds later, “We’ve got a bad fire—Let’s get out…We’re burning up!” A cry of pain followed the last transmission of the Apollo 1 crew before their radio went silent forever. Many people forget it was not the Challenger explosion of 1986 that was NASA’s first major disaster. No, instead it was the fiery deaths of a crew locked in an earthbound capsule, almost exactly nineteen years earlier. The year was 1967 and the United States was quickly running out of time to full late-president Kennedy’s promise of a successful moon landing before the end of the decade. The Soviet Union had humiliated the US space program by repeatedly launching satellites and humans while conducting other innovative space feats before their rival world power. Pressure to launch the first mission of the Apollo lunar program became paramount. Unfortunately, there were a series of obstacles that would prevent the historic …show more content…
After months of investigation, it was found that the main factors behind the tragedy were a 100 percent pure oxygen environment in a sealed and confined space, an abundance of flammable material such as Velcro and nylon netting in the cockpit, unprotected and frayed wiring, unprotected plumbing carrying corrosive and combustible coolant, the inability for the astronauts to emergency egress from the capsule due to a poorly designed hatch, and an inability for medical and rescue teams to respond and assist quickly in the situation. For the next 18 months, the Apollo program was put on hold as NASA and North American undertook numerous revisions to the command module that would not only prevent such a disaster from ever happening in space, but ultimately ensure Apollo 11 could safely land on the moon over two years