3 APOLLO ASTRONAUTS DIE IN FIRE;GRISSOM ,WHITE CAUGHTINCAPSULE DURING A TEST ON PAD

TRAGEDY AT CAPE

Rescuers Are Blockedby Dense SmokeCause Studied

By The Associated Press

CAPE KENNEDY , Fla., Jan.United Press International 27 three -man crewBEFORE AN EARLIER TEST : Lieut. Col. Virgil I.Grissom , left, Air Force Lieut. Col. Edward H. White 2d , center, astronauts for the Apollo 1misand Navy Lieut. Comdr. Roger B. Chaffee in front of the launching pad. Photograph was released Tuesday were killed tonight in aflash fire aboard the huge spacecraft designed to take man tothe moon

Those killed in the blaze on

a launching pad were:VIRGIL I. GRISSOM, 40 years

old Air Force lieutenantcolonel, one of the seven

original Mercury astronauts.EDWARD H. WHITE , 36,

a lieutenant colonel in the

Air Force, the first Americanto " walk " in space .

ROGER B. CHAFFEE , 31Navy lieutenant commander,

who had been awaiting hisfirst space flight.The astronauts were the first

American spacemen to be killedon the job and, ironically , died

while on the ground . The bodieswere removed hours later and a

space agency spokesman saiddeath " instantaneous .

Three other astronauts diedin airplane crashes, in the lineof duty , but today's tragedy involved the first " on premisesdeaths in the American spaceprogram - the first time anyonewas killed while in space hardware.

NASA , Press WirephotoHOURS BEFORE THE TRAGEDY : Colonel Grissom walking to the Apollo spacecraft ahead of Commander Chaffee,

Simulation Under Wayyesterday, some hours before the fire broke out. The capsule was atop aSaturn 1- B rocket, 218 feet above pad. P.M.while thethreemen were

The fire broke out at 6:31

taking part in a full- scale simulation of the scheduled Feb. 21launching that was to take theminto the heavens for 14 days oforbiting the earth.

They were trapped behind

closed hatches , according to the

National Aeronautics and SpaceAdministration .

[ Officials said an electrical

spark must have ignited the

pure oxygen inside the cabin ,

United Press International

reported . ]Paul Haney, spokesman for

America's astronauts , said heunderstood there had been a fire

in the cockpit. He said monitorshad received no word from the

astronauts during the fire .Mr. Haney said 26 members

of the launching pad crew weretreated for smoke inhalation.He said 24 were released and

two were hospitalized in goodcondition

Space agency officials werealerted by someone on the

ground that the fire had brokenout, Mr. Haney reported . Hesaid emergency crews tried toreach the astronauts but wereblocked by the dense smoke thatrolled out of the cockpit .

Officials at Cape Kennedysaid that the three astronautswere seated abreast in therocket in the exercise, justas they would be in actual

Continued on Page 10 Column 1

The New TimesPublished : January 28 , 1967

Copyright © The New York Times

Three Apollo Astronauts Killed by Fire in Capsule During Test on Pad at CapeGRISSOM WHITE

AND CHAFFEE DIE

Are Instantaneous

as Spacemen Are Trapped

Behind Closed Hatches

Associated PressSPACE VEHICLE : Saturn 1 rocket of type that wouldhave carried the craft. Apollo capsule rests atop it.

Continued From Page 1, Col.

flight, with Colonel Grissom

occupying the command pilot'sseat on the left Colonel Whitein the middle, and CommanderChaffee on the right.

In Washington President Johnson mourned the death of the

. He said the threemen had given their lives in thenation's service.

Representative JosephKarth, Democrat of Minnesota ,said a dinner meeting of spaceprogram executives was underway in Washington when theannouncement was made thatthere had been " a flash fire re

sulting from the use of pureoxygen ..." He said no further

explanation had been given atthe dinner

The fire was reported duringa " plugs out " test of the booster

and Apollo 1 craft . Mr. Haneysaid the test meant that thebooster and spacecraft had been

operating on their own power

systems and not power from theground .

NASA officials later said the

Apollo's escape system could

not have been used. The systemrequired an astronaut to trigger

rocket attached to the top ofThe rocket would

jerk the spacecraft away fromits booster .

A spokesman said a gantry

had been wrapped around theentire rocket during today'stest, enclosing the escape

NASA

rocket. Hesaid the onlyway THE SPACE WALK Lieut. Col. Edward H. White 2d outside the Gemini 4 on June3

theastronauts could havees He was firstAmerican to walk in space, and firsthumantomaneuver by jetpower.caped would have been to openthe hatches and scramble out.

Mr. Haney said the rehearsalhad reached the minus 10minute mark , meaning it was10 minutes away from a simulated liftoff. The hatches weresealed

A NASA official said minordifficulties hadcropped up during the countdown with twosystems, a communications system and the environmental control system

Cause of Fire UnknownOfficials said they did not

know whether the fire stemmedfrom the two troublesome systems . All data were held pending an investigation

Space officials said the threevictims possibly had no knowledge there was a serious problemaboard. The spacecraft androcket were not fueled and explosive devices aboard thespacecraft had been inactivatedand could not have caused thedisaster , they said .

The Air Force and NASA

jointly impounded all data Thespace agency said reporterswould not be permitted to thescene until tomorrow morningat the earliest and any picturesof the incident that might re

details were also beingwithheld

The backup astronauts forthe scheduled 14 -day flight-postponed indefinitely nowbecome the prime pilots forApollo 1.

a Flash

CAPE KENNEDY . Jan.27 (UPI) spacecraft was

on Launching Pad 34 atop a

two- stage Saturn 1 rocket. Aclosed circuit television camera

aboard the craft was relaying

pictures of the astronauts , whowere five hours into a crucialtest of the ship when suddenly" there was a flash and that

was it."

A spokesman watching the

screen in the blockhousea few hundredyards away said ,

There were no communicationswith the crewmen at that time.

They were never heard from

again .It took 10 to 15 minutes for

the first ground crewman torush up a high speed elevatorand try to rescue the astro

nauts .Emergency crews encoun

tered dense smoke in removingthe hatches " on the spaceship .said a spokesman for the Na .tional Aeronautics and SpaceAdministration

" We will go ahead with the

space flight program said

Administrator , James

Webb in Washington .Dr. Edward Welsh , exec

utive secretary of the agency .said the Union may havelost some of astronauts insimilar disasters we don'tknow if they have.

Although everyone realizedthat someday space pilots would

die, who could have thought the

first tragedy would be on theground Mr. Webb said.

Normal procedure in case offire in the cabin would be forthe astronauts to throw open

the three hatches, run along anaccess arm to the red tower

flanking the rocket and take

a high - speed elevator to the

groundThe fire struck so swiftly

and with such intensity thatthe astronauts apparently died

instantly an official said.

The NewYork TimesPublished : January 28 1967

Copyright © The New York Times

Excerpts from news parleyon accident, Page 10.

TheNewYork TimesPublished: January 28, 1967

Copyright © The New York Times