Jan 28 1967
From The Space Library
NASA Nike-Tomahawk sounding rocket launched from Churchill Research Range carried GSFC-instrumented payload to 128-mi (209-km) altitude to gather data on charged particle fluxes and to investigate distribution of electric fields in the ionosphere during auroral displays. Rocket and instrumentation performance was satisfactory, but vehicle spin rate was excessive. Most scientific data were lost because nose cone failed to eject properly and antennas failed to deploy. (NASA Rpt SRL)
NASA Deputy Administrator Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr., appointed Apollo 204 Review Board to investigate Jan. 27 accident at KSC which killed Astronauts Virgil I. Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chaffee: Dr. Floyd L. Thompson, Director of LaRC, Chairman; Astronaut Frank Borman, MSC; Maxime Faget, MSC; E. Barton Geer, Lax; George Jeffs, North American Aviation, Inc.; Dr. Frank A. Long, Cornell Univ.; Col. Charles F. Strang, Norton AFB, Calif.; George C. White, Jr., NASA Hq.; and John Williams, ICSC. Three advisory members were added later: Charles W. Mathews, Director of Saturn/Apollo Applications, NASA Hq. OMSF; John Yardley, McDonnell Co. executive; and L/Col. William D. Baxter (USAF) . LaRC Chief Counsel George Mallay would serve as counsel to the board. (NASA Release 67-16; Wilford, NYT, 1/30/67,2)
Senate Aeronautical and Space Sciences Committee would conduct a "full review" of the Jan. 27 accident at KSC which killed three Apollo astronauts, Chairman Clinton P. Anderson (D-N. Mex) announced. (NYT, 1/29/67,47; W Post, 1/29/67, A18)
The Nation mourned the deaths of NASA Apollo Astronauts Grissom, White and Chaffee. President Johnson: "Three valiant young men have given their lives in the nation's service. We mourn this great loss and our hearts go out to their families." Vice President Humphrey: "The deaths of these three brilliant young men . . . is a profound and personal loss to me. . . . The United States will push ever forward in space and the memory of the contributions of these men will be an inspiration to all future spacefarers." NASA Administrator James Webb : "We've always known that something like this would happen sooner or later, but it's not going to be permitted to stop the program. . . . Although everyone realized that some day space pilots would die, who would have thought the first tragedy would be on the ground?" Former President Eisenhower: "The accident that took the lives of three of our highly trained, skilled and courageous American astronauts is a tragic loss to our entire nation. . . ." (UPI, W Star, 1/28/67, 1; AP, NYT, 1/29/67)
New York Times praised signing of space law treaty and suggested further cooperation in space. "Surely the present is an appropriate time for another effort . . . the President could suggest to the Soviet Union that a precedent from Antarctic practice be followed in the future. Both the United States and the U.S.S.R. plan in the next few years to orbit capsules containing more than three astronauts and to put exploratory parties of men on the moon for stays of several weeks' duration. "It would be in the spirit of the Space Treaty to have such groups contain at least one representative of the other nation, just as in the Antarctic today Soviet and American scientists work at each other's bases. Agreement on such a first step would do much to build the mutual trust and confidence needed to make possible the far greater degree of international cooperation that the inexhaustible challenges of space require of all nations." (NYT, 1/28/67,26C)
Continuing shortage of physicists was threatening the Nation's scientific progress, American Institute of Physics warned in its biennial report on physics manpower. Study, prepared under an NSF grant, said U.S. colleges and universities were not producing enough graduates to meet growing demand of education, research, and industry. In recent years- during a time of rapid growth in total college enrollment-there had been a continuing decline in the number of physics majors and a leveling off of physics baccalaureate degrees awarded. (NYT, 1/29/67, 1)
Communist China charged that U.S.S.R. had betrayed Vietnamese people by signing space law treaty with US. and other nations Jan. 27. (Reuters, NYT, 1/29/67,9)
January 28-29: Press commentary on deaths of Astronauts Grissom, White, and Chaffee. Washington Evening Star: "There is bitter irony in the fact that the first disaster in our space program came during a simulated launch, a checkout in preparation for the real thing. From the beginning, it has been feared that some fatal mishap was inevitable. But most people had expected it during an actual launch, in space, during re-entry or in landing-hardly during a routine test with the rocket still on its pad. . . ." (W Star, 1/28/67, A6)
New York Times: "By chance, Grissom, White and Chaffee died on the day the space treaty was formally signed in Washington, London, and Moscow. Behind the unprecedented international cooperation represented by that treaty's conclusion was the knowledge that space holds more than enough risks for men without adding the horror arising from strife among nations. The tragedy at Cape Kennedy underlines that somber reality." (NYT, 1/29/67,10E)
Baltimore Sun: "They were brave men. When a man finally does put a foot on the surface of the moon, Grissom and White and Chaffee will be notable among those who assisted him in getting there." (B Sun, 1/29/67,30)
Most Soviet reporting of Jan. 27 flash fire in which three Apollo astronauts died was factual. A few members of Soviet and Italian press, however, charged that "haste" had contributed to the accident. Radio Moscow: "We in the Soviet Union are deeply grieved at the news of the tragedy at Cape Kennedy. "The courage of Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee had won our esteem and we join in paying homage to their memories. . . ." Trud (Moscow): "The astronauts became the victims of the space race created by the leaders of the United States space program. Recently, the hurry, the haste in space flights has continued to grow. There were a number of flaws in the Apollo system." La Stampa (Turin, Italy) : "Technical revisions must be brought about so that the tragedy will not repeat itself . . . perhaps the rigorous time schedule . . . ought to give way to slower and more secure rhythm." Il Popolo (Rome) : The accident offered "questions for reflection, above all an invitation to weigh in proper measure the margin of risk that accompanies all the conquest of man. . . . It is ironic that this happened, just when any danger seemed to be less proximate, during a normal exercise on earth." (AP, NYT, 1/30/67, 2, 3; AP, B Sun, 1/30/67; Trud, 1/29/67,3, USST Trans.)
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