THREE ASTRONAUTS KILLED -- BOARD WILL PROBE CAUSE OF TRAGEDY.

Cape Kennedy, Fla. (AP) -- Investigators poked today through the charred hulk of the Apollo 1 moonship, seeking the cause of a searing flash fire that turned it into a death trap for three of the nation's spacemen.
A team led by Maj. Gen. Samuel Phillips, Apollo program director, began a preliminary search for clues to the disaster that stalled perhaps for months the U.S. drive for a landing on the moon.
A formal board of inquiry was to convene later, headed by Dr. Floyd Thompson, director of NASA's Langley Research Center.
One and one-half miles from Pad 34, site of Friday night's first great spacecraft tragedy, the bodies of astronauts VIRGIL I. (GUS) GRISOM, EDWARD H. WHITE II and ROGER B. CHAFFEE lay in an infirmary.
They were practicing for a two-week space mission the first of the Apollo flights which will culminate in the lunar landing, when the hot blaze snuffed out their lives in an instant.
Grimly, space officials said they would push on with the program, but the holocaust which capped a long series of troubles with the Apollo spacecraft will call for a soul-searching look before other lives are risked.
And Rep. Charles A. Mosher of Ohio, second-ranking Republican member of the House Science and Astronautics Committee, said it was
"inevitable" that safety procedures will be reviewed in Washington.
Apollo, first scheduled to blast off before the end of last year, has been plagued by malfunctions.
During the final checkout and testing of Apollo 1, many changes and modifications were made.
Not a word came from the astronauts when the fire flash ripped into the explosive pure oxygen atmosphere of the spacecraft. Death, said space officials, was instantaneous.
Two victims of the holocaust on Pad 34 were space veterans, the other a rookie.
The 40-year-old GRISSOM flew in Mercury and Gemini programs, helping blaze the first American trails in space. WHITE, 36, was the first U.S. astronaut to leave his ship and became a human satellite. CHAFFEE, 31, was training for his launch.
Someday, every dpaceman knew in his heart, it was bound to happen. It was too much to hope that the perilous route to the moon could be traveled without loss of life.
But when it came, they thought, it would be in the far reaches of space, not this way.
Going through a full-scale simulation of the launch that was to carry them aloft Feb. 21 for a two-week ride, GRISSOM, WHITE and CHAFFEE were trapped in the spacecraft when it was swept by the flash fire.
No word came over the monitors, said Paul Haney, voice of the astronauts. Apparently, all three died instantly from heat or asphyxiation.
The emergency escape system was closed to them, because the entire craft was locked in a protective gantry.
Fire hot enough to ignite metal seared and blackened the spaceship. Bodies of the astronauts were badly charred.
"Three valiant young men have given their lives in the nation's service," said a shocked and saddened
President Johnson. "We mourn this great loss and our hearts go out to their families."
Twenty-seven launch pad crewmen were overcome by smoke in futile efforts to get through to the astronauts. Two were hospitalized.
Not until 1:55 a.m., more than seven hours after the fire broke out, were the bodies removed from the smouldering space ship. They were taken to a nearby dispensary.
"They didn't have a chance," said a NASA spokesman. "It was instantaneous."
Until this sudden disaster, so far unexplained, Americans had come through many daring space rides without a mishap. Three other astronauts had died, but in airplane crashes.
Johnson and officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the moon program would push forward with renewed dedication and purpose -- as the three men would have wanted it.
"If we die," GRISSOM once said, "we want people to accept it. We are in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life."
The astronauts were in their space suits, in a pure oxygen environment, when the blaze flared up. During the countdown, minor troubles had been reported with the communications and environmental control systems, but it was not known whether the fire stemmed from this.
Gordon Harris, chief of public affairs for NASA's Kennedy Space Center said the men probably died without any knowledge that there was serious trouble aboard.
The spacecraft and rocket were not fueled and explosive devices aboard the spacecraft had been inactivated.
Navy Capt. Walter M. Schirra Jr., now steps into GRISSOM'S role as command pilot for the first Apollo mission. Other members of the backup crew will be Air Force Majors Walter Cunningham and Donn F. Elsele, both space rookies.
GRISSOM, an Air Force lieutenant colonel, was one of the original seven astronauts and the first to ride a blazing rocket twice into the skies.
After his first flight, a sub-orbital hop in a Mercury spacecraft, GRISSOM would up swimming for his life when the ship sank in the Atlantic.
With Navy Cmdr. John W. Young, he flew the first three-orbit mission in Gemini 3 and became the first man to maneuver a spacecraft in flight.
WHITE, also an Air Force lieutenant colonel, was the first American to walk in space, orbiting outside the Gemini 4 spacecraft for 21 minutes.
CHAFFEE joined the space program in 1963 with the third group of astronauts after logging more than 1,800 hours in jet aircraft. He was a Navy lieutenant commander.
Parents of the dead astronauts were in seclusion, stricken with grief.
President Johnson sent personal messages to families of the lost spacemen.
The President and five astronauts -- L. Gordon Cooper, Jr., M. Scott Carpenter, Neil A. Armstrong,
Richard F. Gordon and James A. Lovell -- were at the White House in the hour of tragedy. They were celebrating the signing of the treaty on peaceful uses of outer space.
Despite the terrible loss, Sen. John Stennis, D-Miss. said the United States must press on with the conquest of space.
"I don't think this indicates any dereliction on the part of those conducting our space program," he said. "Perhaps it is only the law of averages catching up with us."
All three of the dead men were married and each had two children.

Anderson Daily Bulletin Indiana 1967-01-28

Transcriber's Note: This is only a very small part of information to be gathered on this tragedy. If you are interested in learning more, Wikipedia is a great starting place.
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!