We will never forget...

GUS Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee.

We remember.

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"I'm a sandman. I've never killed anyone. I terminate runners when their time is up." Logan from "Logan's Run"

http://sandmandecals.com/

Just a few hours early on the announcement....27th January is the day, but yes, hard to believe it's been 50 years. Was at KSC for the 30th and that only seems like a handful of years ago.

The 28th (Saturday) is the 31st anniversary of Challenger and February 1 will be the 14th anniversary of the loss of Columbia.

Strange how all those unfortunate losses spanning 36 years fall within 5 days on the calendar.

Salutes to them all and thoughts to their survivors for whom this time of year must be difficult, to say the least.


Earl

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Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

The KSC has had the components from the fire under storage the past 50 years, never displayed to the public.
They announced today that they will be putting them up for public display, starting with the hatch.

As an engineer I cannot understand how the designers could have thought an INWARD opening hatch was a good or even viable design option.
The hatch was redesigned to be opened outward in less than 5 seconds due to this tragedy. That even does not seem enough. It should have had emergency provisioning with explosive bolts to forcefully blow the hatch open should the need arise.

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When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

And as a person with common sense, it made absolutely no sense to use 100% oxygen at 14.7 psi.

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I love sanding.

A door designed to be held against its pressure seals by the pressurization of the cabin is common aircraft practice and even simplifies a number of aspects from a certification standpoint (see DC-10 brought down by a cargo door blowing open followed by a collapse of the passenger floor due to the decompression as an example) ....but for a spacecraft sitting on top of a rocket - well - that was a very costly lesson learned by North American. It makes me wonder about the Crew Dragon and Boeing CST-100 designs with respect to crew hatches.

As noted above - we must never forget.

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Bernard Cawley
NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member
SAM 0061
AMA 42160
KG7AIE

The inward opening hatch was a requirement insisted on by NASA. Thenintent was, in a twist of irony, to avoid what happened on Grissom's Mercury flight, where the hatch blew and he nearly drown.

The cabin was pressurized with pure oxygen because NASA was trying to get well on schedule. Two pre-flight objectives were being performed at the same time. The crew was inside performing a "plugs out" test, a count down rehearsal. The spacecraft was at the same time undergoing a pressurization test, to verify its seals. Also, the outer layer of the space suits was nylon and the cabin was full of combustible plastics.

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Friends Don't let Friends Do TRF

I was too young to remember the accident. Here is a good write up of the events.
https://arstechnica.com/science/201...-in-17-seconds/

Jim

The North American Rockwell engineers designing it had input from NASA not wanting an accidental opening of the hatch wile in space. An inward opening hatch will be held closed by the differential pressure between the capsule and the vacuum outside.

I read this yesterday.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/...-techtopstories

R.I.P. crew of Apollo 1.

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If it flies, I can crash it!

Totally agree with tbzep regarding the 100% O2 at 14.7 PSI comment as well.
Using 100% Oxygen for anything BUT as an 'oxidizer' is just itching to start an uncontrolled 'thermal event'.

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !