Grissom • White • Chaffee

On January 27, 1967, during routine launch pad tests for Apollo/Saturn 204, the first scheduled Apollo flight, a deadly fire erupted inside the command module soon after the crew was sealed inside the cabin, and the astronauts died within seconds despite frantic rescue attempts. After the disaster, the Apollo program was shut down for almost two years. Although investigators did not determine the exact source of the fire, they found numerous design flaws, and the command module was redesigned with many safety improvements, including elimination of the highly explosive pure oxygen atmosphere in the spacecraft. In honor of the crew, the mission was officially renamed Apollo 1, and its mission patch was placed on the Moon by the crew of Apollo 11 during the first lunar landing.

Huntsville, Alabama · United States