ASTRONAUT DEATHS

 APOLLO 1
The first U.S. Apollo mission was to be called Apollo 1. Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee were the astronauts for this mission. The three men died, however, in a fire inside their command module during a pre-flight test at a launch pad in Florida. The date of this tragedy was January 27, 1967.
The atmosphere inside the Command Module was pure oxygen at 16.0 psi. Note that air pressure at sea level is 14.7 psi.

An electrical spark from a wire apparently ignited the oxygen. The spacecraft was filled with flames and smoke. The temperature soared to 2500 degrees F.

The astronauts were unable to escape because the hatch required ninety seconds to open. The astronauts died of smoke inhalation.

The Command Module was redesigned after the fire. The hatch was redesigned to allow for a quick escape. Furthermore, a mixed-gas atmosphere was used for future pre-launch activities. The pre-launch mixture was changed to 60% oxygen and 40% nitrogen. The mixture was gradually changed to pure oxygen as the spacecraft ascended.

Also, the astronaut spacesuit was modified to be fire-resistant.
 SOYUZ 1
The Soviet Soyuz 1 spacecraft crash landed in April 1967, because its
parachute failed to deploy. Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov died in the crash.
 SOYUZ 11
Three more cosmonauts died during the Soyuz 11 mission in 1971. A valve in the descent module activated during re-entry, releasing the cabin air into space. The cosmonauts were Georgi Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev.
 CHALLENGER STS-51L
The Space Shuttle Challenger launch time was January 28, 1986 at 11:38:00 AM Eastern Standard Time. The launch site was Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch, at an altitude of about 46,000 feet. All of the astronauts were killed.
The seven astronauts for the final Challenger mission were: Francis R. Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ronald E. McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik, Gregory B. Jarvis, and Sharon Christa McAuliffe.
The final mission was called STS-51L. It was the 25th shuttle flight.
COLUMBIA STS-107
The space shuttle Columbia was launched on January 16, 2003, for the STS-107
space research mission. The shuttle reentered the atmosphere on February 1, for
the planned landing at Kennedy Space Center.
The vehicle broke up while traveling at12,500 mph (Mach 18.3) at an altitude of
207,135 ft over East Central Texas resulting in the tragic loss of both the vehicle and the astronauts.
The seven astronauts were: Rick Husband, William McCool, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Mike Anderson, Laurel Clark, Ilan Ramon.

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