On Jan. 27, 1967, a fire swept through the Apollo 1 Command Module during a launch rehearsal test, tragically killing the three astronauts trapped inside. Astronauts Gus Grissom (left), Ed White (middle), and Roger Chaffee (right), died on Jan.
The Apollo 1 fire was not only a result of a potentially explosive atmosphere but also an interior filled with combustible materials, such as nylon netting, foam pads and an excess of Velcro. Velcro that covered the inside of the spacecraft caught fire explosively in the pure-oxygen environment.
As they would on launch day, the astronauts and ground crews sealed the three hatches of the capsule and pressurized it with pure oxygen at 16.7 pounds per square inch (psi), slightly higher than atmospheric pressure. At 6:31 p.m., a flash fire broke out inside the cabin.
The crew splashed down on Dec. 19 in the South Pacific Ocean. Apollo 17's astronauts spent a record 22 hours performing extravehicular activities on the moon. The astronauts drove about 21 miles (34 kilometers) in the lunar rover and brought back 108 kilograms (238 lbs.)
The command module of Apollo 13 entered Earth's atmosphere and splashed down on target on April 17 at 1:07 PM Eastern Standard Time. The mission has been referred to as a successful failure, in that all the crew members survived a catastrophic accident.
On August 24, 1974, a Saturn V exploded on the launch pad at Cape Kennedy during the final countdown for Apollo 23. Twelve ground crew were killed, including Gene Kranz.
Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins Dies : NPR. Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins Dies Collins was the crew member who stayed in orbit on the Apollo 11 command module while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon.
This was also the first mission to reunite crewmates from a previous mission (Lovell and Borman, Gemini VII). As of April 2023, all three Apollo 8 astronauts remain alive.
7, Apollo 15 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, about 335 miles north of Honolulu, ending a flight of 12 days, seven hours. The crew was picked up by helicopters from the prime recovery ship, the USS Okinawa, 6.32 miles from the targeted touchdown point.
Altogether, Apollo 12 spent 3.7 days in lunar orbit, circling the Moon 45 times. The crew returned safely to Earth on November 24, 1969 after a flight of 10 days and 4 hours.
After a flight of 195 hours, 18 minutes, 35 seconds - about 36 minutes longer than planned - Apollo 11 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, 13 miles from the recovery ship USS Hornet. Because of bad weather in the target area, the landing point was changed by about 250 miles.
The Apollo 4 command module and one of its parachutes float in the Pacific Ocean following splashdown near the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, USS Bennington. The Apollo 4 mission yielded flight information on the Saturn V launch vehicle and Apollo spacecraft's structural integrity, compatibility and subsystem operation.
Apollo 13 was NASA's third moon-landing mission, but the astronauts never made it to the lunar surface. During the mission's dramatic series of events, an oxygen tank explosion almost 56 hours into the flight forced the crew to abandon all thoughts of reaching the moon.
The cabin was pressurized with 16.7 pounds per square inch (psi) of 100 percent oxygen, a pressure slightly greater than one atmosphere. With everything just as it would be on February 21, the crew went through a full simulation of countdown and launch.
The first burn took place 30hrs into the flight, lasted for 4 seconds and took the craft out off this course to allow it to land on the Moon. The first step after the explosion was to put Apollo 13 back on a free-return trajectory, done by a 35 second burn using the Lunar Module Descent Propulsion System.
Two Apollo missions were failures: a 1967 cabin fire killed the entire Apollo 1 crew during a ground test in preparation for what was to be the first crewed flight; and the third landing attempt on Apollo 13 was aborted by an oxygen tank explosion en route to the Moon, which disabled the CSM Odyssey's electrical power ...
With the world anxiously watching, Apollo 13, a U.S. lunar spacecraft that suffered a severe malfunction on its journey to the moon, safely returns to Earth on April 17, 1970.
Mitchell entered the changes with minutes to go until planned ignition. A second problem occurred during the powered descent, when the LM landing radar failed to lock automatically onto the Moon's surface, depriving the navigation computer of vital information on the vehicle's altitude and vertical descent speed.
Apollo 7 splashed down without incident at 11:11:48 UTC on October 22, 1968, 200 nautical miles (230 mi; 370 km) SSW of Bermuda and 7 nautical miles (8 mi; 13 km) north of the recovery ship USS Essex. The mission's duration was 10 days, 20 hours, 9 minutes and 3 seconds.
As part of the Apollo 12 mission, the camera from the Surveyor 3 probe was brought back from the Moon to Earth. On analyzing the camera it was found that the common bacterium Streptococcus mitis was alive on the camera.
Two of the three astronauts (Lovell and Haise) are still alive today. Sadly, Swigert died in 1982 due to complications from cancer in 1982.
Originally scheduled to launch on February 28, 1969, the liftoff of Apollo 9 was postponed because all three astronauts had colds, and NASA did not want to risk that the mission might be affected. Around-the-clock labor shifts were required to keep the spacecraft in readiness; the delay cost $500,000.
On Jan. 27, 1967, a fire swept through the Apollo 1 Command Module during a launch rehearsal test, tragically killing the three astronauts trapped inside. Astronauts Gus Grissom (left), Ed White (middle), and Roger Chaffee (right), died on Jan.
The Apollo 13 malfunction was caused by an explosion and rupture of oxygen tank no. 2 in the service module. The explosion ruptured a line or damaged a valve in the no. 1 oxygen tank, causing it to lose oxygen rapidly.
Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee died when a fire erupted in the 100 percent oxygen atmosphere of their Apollo spacecraft during a pre-launch test at Kennedy Space Center, FL.