1.27.2005
Apollo 1...1967 remembered
This day in 1967 the three astronauts of Apollo 1 died in a fire in the Apollo Command Module during a preflight test at Cape Canaveral.
A Probe reader -- a lawyer, of course -- wrote in to ask if the widows received compensation. According to NASA, the widows of Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee did sue spacecraft manufacturer North American Rockwell for negligence. NASA records, "In 1972, out-of-court settlements to the three totaled $650,000." Recall the Apollo 1 tragedy, and early NASA glory, in Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft.
A Probe reader -- a lawyer, of course -- wrote in to ask if the widows received compensation. According to NASA, the widows of Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee did sue spacecraft manufacturer North American Rockwell for negligence. NASA records, "In 1972, out-of-court settlements to the three totaled $650,000." Recall the Apollo 1 tragedy, and early NASA glory, in Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft.
