The Apollo 1 Tragedy
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.พ. 2025
- Our story delves into the catastrophic event of January 27, 1967, focusing on the Apollo 1 tragedy and its profound impact on space exploration. We delve into the pivotal moments leading up to the disaster, then explore the lives and legacies of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. Their dedication and bravery not only paved the way for future missions but also left an enduring legacy, demonstrating the human capacity for resilience and the relentless pursuit of progress despite great adversity.
This documentary goes beyond the tragedy, examining the subsequent investigation, the critical safety reforms implemented by NASA, and how these changes propelled the Apollo missions to success. Witness the resilience and innovation that led to groundbreaking advancements in space travel, culminating in the iconic moon landing of Apollo 11 and beyond.
Featuring archival footage, and dynamic animations, this documentary is a tribute to human courage, ingenuity, and the unyielding pursuit of knowledge. Join us in revisiting one of humanity's most audacious achievements: the moon landing, a symbol of what we can accomplish when we dare to dream big and work tirelessly towards our goals.
Perfect for enthusiasts of space history, science, technology, and the enduring spirit of exploration, this film sheds light on the pivotal moments and key figures that shaped the course of space exploration. Subscribe and embark on a journey through time, celebrating the legacy of the Apollo program and its significance in our quest to explore the vastness of space.
I am old enough to remember watching the first moonwalk. I have watched dozens and dozens of documentaries about all aspects of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. But I have never seen much of the footage that you used for this documentary. Man, I hope you turn your attention to other stories of the early space program, I. can't wait to see what you turn out. Stunning!!!!
Thank you for the kind words. Glad you enjoyed it! I'll certainly be doing more early space program content in the future! Cheers
I too really enjoyed this segment. Subbed.
More please
@@jeffjeff4477 Thank you!!
New subbie. Really tragic for the men and families.
They died on the day I was born so every year I have a drink and say a prayer for them on my Birthday to keep their memory alive .
That's a very kind jesture.
N1 mick
You can't physically prove that
You are 364 days younger than me. 🙂
No one died Indoctrinated Space Sheeple
There's a fascinating story about Roger Chaffee.
The Apollo 1 crew were visiting the factory that was building the CM, when Roger spotted a groups of men standing apart from the rest of the people there.
He learned these were the men, who built the machines, that built the machines, that built the CM.
He went over and spoke to them, and made them feel that they were the most important people there.
Thank you for that curious anecdote!
@@Forgotten_Fables Glad I'm not the only one that went "what are you talking about" when reading that comment.
Anyone who’s seen From The Earth To The Moon knows this. And it wasn’t North American engineers he spoke with, it was Grumman engineers. 🙄
@@JMG717 Apologies. I was working from memory. I thought it was North American.
This is a really well made mini-doc. Great footage, well put together with fantastic music to really set the mood. Above all else, it's informative.
Subscribed and i hope to see more videos from your channel pop up in my feed!
So glad you enjoyed! Thank you for the kindness!
Sorry to say I disagree. Whoever edited this apparently could not tell the difference between a Saturn IB and a Saturn V. Reaction shots of flight controllers were from other missions, edited in a way that these people appeared to be reacting to the fire. They were not. During the fire sequence, a shot was used looking OUT a Command Module window during a reentry, possibly Apollo 4 or Apollo 6. Those are just a few examples. This practice is nothing new in space program documentaries. I guess I was hoping this one would be different.
@@toonist123 I only got halfway through it. This "documentary" gets explanations and reasons for the fire mostly wrong. First of all, they were using a block 1 design that was only meant to fly in Earth orbit. The hatch did not need to be opened after launch until splash down. The block 2 capsule was already being built at North American and included some major design changes including a different type of hatch.
The most comprehensive documentary about the space race that includes a very detailed and honest explanation about the Apollo 1 disaster with interviews from the people involved including Frank Borman (without the filter of the NASA PR department) is PBS: American Experience "Chasing the Moon".
Frank Borman who was the NASA Astronaut liaison to North American had to twist arms to get the hatch completely redesigned because they were already over budget and behind schedule. But was able to get it pushed through. He described the new hatch as "An Aeronautical Engineers wet dream". It worked much like hatches on modern passenger aircraft work.
All ground tests after Apollo 1 were still at 16 PSI to mimic a 5 PSI environment in the vacuum of space and consisted of a filtered 21 percent Oxygen and 79 percent Nitrogen mix. At launch the capsule was pressurized using the same ratio and after launch slowly purged and replaced with a pure Oxygen environment at 5 PSI.
The CM used Hydrogen - Oxygen fuel cells to generate electricity during the mission the byproduct of which is water that the crew used for drinking and excess O2. The CM environmental system also included an electrolysis system that could separate H2O into breathable Oxygen and air scrubbers that removed the CO2 exhaled by the crew from the CM and LM.
After Apollo was cancelled the Space Shuttle and Space Station both used / use an Oxygen - Nitrogen mix at 5 PSI.
I’ve been a space junkie since I was a little kid. Gus was my hero. When I saw this on TV at 8 years old I cried.
I can only imagine your upset, as a boy.
You've been an indoctrinated Space Sheeple since you were a kid
Gus was my favorite astronaut also. I was nine at the time. I also cried. I know how you feel. All 3 were tremendous men. True heroes.
@@Biggestfoot10209 had it not been for the fire I believe that Gus and Ed would have been the LEM crew on 11.
Losing Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee is a national tragedy.
You thinking this actually happened is a tragedy
@@David-cv1seYou're absolutely disgusting to deny the horrible deaths of 3 people just because you need everything to be some grand conspiracy to entertain you.
What would even be the point of faking this? All it does is make NASA look bad.
@@David-cv1seyou thinking it didn't is a bigger tragedy.....
@Neesie75 You not knowing that you watched a made for TV movie is what's tragic
@@David-cv1sego away you prick
Excellent documentary! Congrats and thank you
Many thanks!
@@Forgotten_Fables Wow, so many questions - this is great work. Did you create documentaries elsewhere before this channel? Are you the narrator? Seems like you’ve got the power of the algorithm on your side. ❤
I was a ten year old kid and deep into "outer space" when this happened. It was a real gut punch.
Please produce more top-notch content! You have a beautiful voice, and are a talented storyteller.
RIP
Gus Grissom
(1926-1967)
Ed White
(1930-1967)
and
Roger B. Chaffee
(1935-1967)
Honestly. This video is awesome. You'r channel is so underrated.
Such a tragic loss but sadly they learnt a lot of lessons that day. I can’t even begin to imagine how horrific their last moments were but thankfully it changed it for the better. May they all rest in peace xx
didn't change enough. NASA is disgusting.
There isn’t enough gratitude in our world for those who’ve sacrificed everything like these great heroes
Wow nice production!
13:22 is a great description of what a fire would be like in a pure oxygen atmosphere
The most ironic part to this entire story. . .is that if President Kennedy was alive for this he would have completely torn Nasa apart
"How are we going to get to the Moon if we can't talk between three buildings?"
Yeah, they were having trouble with poor wiring.
Sadly astronauts that visited North American Aviation in California to see construction of the Apollo command module complained to NASA management about shoddy construction. Obviously their complaints went unheeded a theme in the Challenger and Columbia tragedies: warnings about safety problems going unheeded.
Excellent job - well done!
Glad you liked it! Thank you!!
My first memory of the space program, was the funerals of these space pioneers!
Great documentary! I'm a big space nerd -- could I ask where you sourced your footage? It looks really good!
Hey, thank you for the kind words. Most of the NASA footage is U.S. National Archives footage. Very glad you enjoyed!
The actual goal in Kennedy's mind was to land a man on the moon before the Soviets
The irony is crazy almost cruel….Gus got blamed for Liberty bell 7 that had an explosive hatch and Apollo 1 didn’t have one that would have saved him
Apollo program vids. would be pure nirvana..!
It's such a shame that Gus was blamed for the Liberty 7 hatch malfunction and the very redesign of the hatch for Apollo because of that mission helped seal the fate of these three brave heroes.
Nope that is bullshit. The design of the Block 1 Apollo capsule hatch had nothing to do with that incident (one of the many facts this video got wrong). Remember the Gemeni missions all included a hatch that could be opened by the crew for space walks. Liberty Bell 7 (Mercury-Redstone 4) hit the water much harder than expected because they believe that one of the parachute canopies was partially collapsed and was not fully open when he hit the water. He also landed in rough seas. Additionally, he was having trouble communicating with the recovery crew and actually thought they were hooked up to the capsule when the hatch blew. As soon as the hatch came off, the capsule began to fill with water and he exited quickly not realizing that a valve was not fully closed on his pressure suit, and he began to sink. It is a good thing that he was in top physical shape and could tread water as long as he did. In fact, he almost drowned. The recovery crew said he was coughing up sea water when they finally got him into the recovery helicopter.
After his flight they changed the protocol for recovery which included frogmen in the water with an inflatable raft and an inflatable Mae West as part of the Astronauts gear (just in case).
Watching this while eating my tea and have started with terrible wind 💨
Did any NASA engineer ever warn management about the high risk of fire in a pure oxygen environment?
Ad Astra Per Aspera.
I got to listen to the Challenger STS-51 recovered flight recorder. I STILL have nightmares and flashbacks of those poor souls frantic screams on that free fall to the oceans surface. I can't get those screams outta my head. RIP Challenger and Crew 🇺🇸🫡😢
No you didn't.
@@Nighthawk268 well I know YOU didn't... AND your disbelief makes it that much more intensive... Gameboy!!!
Stop lying dude. No such recording exists since after vehicle breakup, there was no power to run any recorders and there was no battery backup. Lying POS.
You're completely right... The wrong one was the psychiatrist who discharged you.
@@Kannon_BR well, I hope you're NOT insulting me 'cause you haven't.... I've been well compensated by NASA and the US Navy... I've been living in hotels for 35years...and haven't payed fo' ANYTHING....how YOOU DOIN'🫵
What I can’t figure out is why was Apollo 1 mamnned and the next 2 Apollo missions we unmanned
Apollo l was to be launched on top of a Saturn 1B, the next two used the Saturn V, actually Apollo 7 used the Saturn 1B
They were unmanned to simply test the different Saturn rockets in terms of how they functioned under a simple launch scenario. Apollo 1 was a terrible accident that forced NASA to make countless changes to the program, including the designs of the spacecrafts.
Apollo 1 was meant to be the third (after two unmanned tests). They retired the name after the fire.
Not the first to die in the program there was deaths all over the place. X1 to X15 all had deaths.
Had we did not have the fire...we would not gotten a very improved capsule to goto the moon....
How did the fire START? WHY work in PURE OXYGEN?
A wire under the seat ripped and burned into the seats. The astronauts were not able to escape because they were locked inside the capsule. They only way to open the cabin wad from the oustisde, and there was nothing mission control could do until they burned up
They complained too much. No one complained after this.
Tradegy is one word for it. 🤔
RIP
The original Command Module by North American was so shoddily built it probably could have never made it to the moon and back
How do you know? Were you an engineer working there? If not stfu and just stay in your mommy’s basement
Perez Dorothy Lewis Timothy Williams Matthew
technology was more advanced in the 60s , that’s basically what NASA is saying lol
What does "advanced" mean? We still do things the same way. You can do most anything with a blank check.
Sad
Rip to the crew ? But possibly they weren't destined to go there ! As yet !😮 God can only tell who enters his universe!!!
JFK said return save from the moon. From the moon or from the earth?
What?
@@davidhoward4715 Huh?
͜T͜͜H͜͜E͜ ͜S͜͜U͜͜I͜͜T͜͜S͜ held
There is not fat people !
What?
You watched a made for TV movie
Enough with your insane, moronic obsession with this being "faked." You have 0 proof, it would make 0 sense, and you're being grossly disrespectful to these 3 men and their loved ones. JUST STOP IT.
What nutjob
This was all fantasy and fairy tales.
Wow what an ignorant human
It must suck to have to deny everything because someone can’t handle reality due to their fragile mind.
@@TitaniumTurbineexactly
MAN NEVER LANDED ON THE MOON, NOT BACK THEN WITH TERRIBLE TECHNOLOGY AND CERTANLY NOT NOW WITH ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY, NOW GO CRY ME A RIVER
We did go to the moon, cope, seethe even xD
@@JeanRodo BS
Aww, a flat earther has entered the chat.
You besmirch the sacrifice that these brave men gave in this epic endeavor, you are less than nothing!
@@jooei2810 NOT A FLAT EARTHER BUT YOU ARE SINCE YOU BELIEVE THAT MAN STEPPED FOOT ON THE MOON IN 1968, LMAO
Wow. Guys screaming for help and nobody reacting or seemed to care is so trifle. American way
Why are you blatantly lying? What benefit do you get out of it?
they couldn’t help, they couldn’t do anything cause the plug door hatch, which could not be opened against the internal pressure of the cabin.
Seems weird but guess it's similar to 000 calls.
R. I. P.