In Memoriam
Clearly, I am behind on life again. As a result, you get both Thursday and Friday's Memoriams today.
Apollo 1
27 January 1967
Tragedy struck on the launch pad during a preflight test for Apollo 204 (AS-204; later renamed Apollo 1 at the request of the widows), which was scheduled to be the first Apollo manned mission, and would have been launched on February 21, 1967. Astronauts Edward White, Virgil Grissom, and Roger Chaffee lost their lives when a fire swept through the Command Module.
“If we die, we want people to accept it. We're 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.”
-Virgil “Gus” Grissom
“You’ll be flying along some nights with a full moon. You're up at 45,000 feet. Up there you can see it like you can't see it down here. It's just the big, bright, clear moon. You look up there and just say to yourself: I've got to get up there. I've just got to get one of those flights.”
-Roger Chaffee
“I think you have to understand the feeling that a pilot has, that a test pilot has, that I look forward a great deal to making the first flight. There's a great deal of pride involved in making a first flight.”
-Ed White
But think of it, then choose. Now, which?
Born to raw Earth, inhabiting a scene,
And all of it no sooner viewed, erased,
As if these miracles had never been?
Vast circlings of sounding fire and frost,
And all when focused, what? as quickly lost?
Or us, in fragile flesh, with God's new eyes
That lift and comprehend and search the skies?
We watch the seasons drifting in the lunar tide
And know the years, remembering what's died.
-Ray D. Bradbury, They Have Not Seen the Stars
This entry was originally posted at http://archane.dreamwidth.org/599361.html. You can view
comments there, or add your own using an Open ID login.
Apollo 1
27 January 1967
Tragedy struck on the launch pad during a preflight test for Apollo 204 (AS-204; later renamed Apollo 1 at the request of the widows), which was scheduled to be the first Apollo manned mission, and would have been launched on February 21, 1967. Astronauts Edward White, Virgil Grissom, and Roger Chaffee lost their lives when a fire swept through the Command Module.
“If we die, we want people to accept it. We're 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.”
-Virgil “Gus” Grissom
“You’ll be flying along some nights with a full moon. You're up at 45,000 feet. Up there you can see it like you can't see it down here. It's just the big, bright, clear moon. You look up there and just say to yourself: I've got to get up there. I've just got to get one of those flights.”
-Roger Chaffee
“I think you have to understand the feeling that a pilot has, that a test pilot has, that I look forward a great deal to making the first flight. There's a great deal of pride involved in making a first flight.”
-Ed White
But think of it, then choose. Now, which?
Born to raw Earth, inhabiting a scene,
And all of it no sooner viewed, erased,
As if these miracles had never been?
Vast circlings of sounding fire and frost,
And all when focused, what? as quickly lost?
Or us, in fragile flesh, with God's new eyes
That lift and comprehend and search the skies?
We watch the seasons drifting in the lunar tide
And know the years, remembering what's died.
-Ray D. Bradbury, They Have Not Seen the Stars
This entry was originally posted at http://archane.dreamwidth.org/599361.html. You can view
comments there, or add your own using an Open ID login.