FROM THE ASHES OF APOLLO I

They gave their lives in service to their country in the ongoing exploration of humankind's final frontier. Remember them not for how they died but for those ideals for which they lived.

- Inscription on Apollo 1 memorial at Cape Canaveral

IT WAS SUPPOSED to be a relatively easy preflight test, but things had not been going well for the crew of Apollo 1.

Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee entered the Apollo capsule at 1 p.m. on Jan. 27, 1967, and were then plagued by a series of glitches.

The spacecraft was in a reality-simulating "plugs-out" test, and the plan was to go through an entire countdown sequence without an actual launch. After numerous communication problems with mission control, a frustrated Grissom remarked, "How are we going to get to the moon if we can't talk between two or three buildings!" The communication problems forced a hold in the count at 5:40 p.m.

Suddenly, at 6:31, something went terribly wrong. Ed White said, "Fire in the cockpit." Over the next 17 seconds, monitors showed White attempting to open the hatch, but it could only open inward and the interior pressure of the cabin made a quick escape impossible. It was also tightly secured by several latches.

Garbled transmissions from the crew sounded like, "We've got a bad fire - let's get out. We're burning up." Technicians tried to get to the capsule, but were driven back by intense heat and smoke. The final transmission from the crew was a cry of pain.

It took nearly 5 minutes before technicians could open the hatch, and nothing could have prepared them for the grisly scene inside. The three astronauts lay dead in the charred interior of the capsule. The heat had been so intense that Grissom and White's spacesuits were fused together.

The procedure for an emergency escape was that Grissom would lower White's headrest to enable him to unstrap his harness and open the latches, and Chaffee was to shut down the spacecraft and maintain communications until exiting.

The technicians found that White was nearly out of his harness, and Chaffee was still strapped to his seat.

In the last moments of their lives, the men had apparently followed the protocol in trying to escape rather than thrashing around in frenzied panic. That came as no surprise to those that knew them well.

An investigation concluded that faulty wiring inside the craft had been the primary cause of the fire and, during a one-year program delay, NASA implemented nearly 100 design changes. The vastly improved Apollo spacecraft that resulted eventually enabled us to safely land on the moon.

Former NASA flight director Chris Kraft acknowledged the sacrifice of the Apollo 1 crew. "I hesitate to say this, but I have to say it. I don't think we would've gotten to the moon in the '60s if we had not had the fire."

NASA has recently unveiled plans for returning to the moon, followed by an expedition to Mars. Initial testing of the new Orion spacecraft is expected to begin within the next few years.

AS WE START to prepare Orion for these expeditions, it's important to remember what happened 40 years ago at Launch Pad 34 in Cape Canaveral, and to accept the inherent risks of our imminent explorations.

Prophetically, just a few weeks before he died, Grissom said, "We're in a risky business, and we hope if anything happens to us, it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life."

In the southern hemisphere of Mars, three hills were discovered by the robotic Spirit rover. NASA named them the Grissom, White and Chaffee Hills.

Someday in the distant future, I'm certain that an astronaut will stand at the base of these hills.

I hope that he gazes up at the tiny, blue, starlike Earth shining brightly in the Martian night sky, and gives a word of thanks to the crew of Apollo 1 before he begins his exploration of the hills named in their honor.

If he knows the story of Apollo 1, he will certainly realize that he is standing on the surface of another planet because of the sacrifice of Grissom, White, and Chaffee, and the pursuit of the ideals for which they lived. *

Christopher Gibbons is a local writer and member of the Planetary Society. Contact him at gibbonscg@aol.com.