Apollo 1 capsule to be displayed

[Jackball74]

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/nasa-displays-apollo-capsule-hatch-50-years-after-fatal-fire/ar-AAmf1z9

 

[RocketGeekInFL]

I am not sure how I feel about this. I have been to the site, Launch Complex 34, and it is a memorial more than anything. I hope that they do this in a very similar way.

 

[RocketGeekInFL]

I am not sure how I feel about this. I have been to the site, Launch Complex 34, and it is a memorial more than anything. I hope that they do this in a very similar way.

 

[Zeus-cat]

I read that they contacted the two surviving widows and other family members and asked permission to do this. They showed them the capsule and hatch. If they did this first I feel confident that they will do a proper memorial.

 

[mjennings]

Seemed like the families really wanted this so I think it is a good thing.

 

[gpoehlein]

Did something change? Last I heard, some of the family members were uncomfotable with displaying the capsule. All they were going to display was the door - the rest is to continue to reside in Langley.

 

[Lowpuller]

The article says "hatch only". And it will be compared to the new design.

 

[ksaves2]

Did something change? Last I heard, some of the family members were uncomfortable with displaying the capsule. All they were going to display was the door - the rest is to continue to reside in Langley.

Read the link in its entirety. Says Betty Grissom was pushing for the capsule to be displayed at the 30 year anniversary of the fire but was declined. Kurt

 

[GlennW]

That is interesting since I thought I read some time back that Betty Grissom had been opposed to the recovery of Liberty Bell 7 from the ocean floor. I can't see how she would prefer having the capsule her husband died in put on public display.

 

[ksaves2]

That is interesting since I thought I read some time back that Betty Grissom had been opposed to the recovery of Liberty Bell 7 from the ocean floor. I can't see how she would prefer having the capsule her husband died in put on public display.

If that is true, I can see her point. In the movie the "Right Stuff" they made it look like Gus messed up on his Mercury flight when he did not. She may have feared some ivory tower bastard would pontificate some stupid theory and open old wounds up
with a recovered capsule. Suffice it to say, nothing could be determined from the recovered capsule without the lost hatch so that became a dead issue.

In reality I believe it was shown there may have been a malfunction with an external emergency hatch actuator that caused the malfunction. I believe it was said that the internal lever to blow that hatch took so much force and snapped back, that no one could do it without sustaining a bruised up arm. Gus didn't have a brusied up arm, was exonerated and stayed in the program. Being an engineer, he was involved with the Gemini space capsule so much that I've heard it was nicknamed the "Gusmobile" by the astronauts. Ask a Gemini astronaut about a liftoff and they say it zoomed up like a ferrari or a big block race car.

Also, one can compare the loss of the Liberty Bell to Scott Carpenters flight. There was tension between NASA and Carpenter for the 250 mile over shoot with Aurora 7 and he never flew again.

Grissom went on to fly Gemini and planned to crew on Apollo. It was unfortunate all three of the astronauts had their lives taken to prove the capsule defects. If that hadn't occurred, there might not have been a re-design and a
pretty good chance that the Apollo "bomb calorimeter" capsule design could have blown off en-route to the moon. Wouldn't have mattered whether the capsule had an outward or inward opening hatch in space then. Kurt