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NASA Day of Remembrance at Kennedy Space Center Jan. 29, NASA
"NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., will pay tribute to the crews of Apollo 1 and space shuttles Challenger and Columbia, as well as other NASA colleagues, during the agency's Day of Remembrance observance on Friday, Jan. 29."
Print this articleinordinate? - Exceeding reasonable limits
If that is true they were not courageous. They were foolish. And I don't buy that.
I believe they (and the manager and engineers) knew there were large risks in the Apollo program. Given the schedule and engineering challenges some extra risks were necessary but to characterize the risks as inordinate seems out of place. We were willing to be risk takers because the rewards were worth it.
I also think the real courage lies with managers who put people into those ships knowing they will have to deal with the consequences when failure occurs. That is real responsibility.
"Inordinate" is an understatement. The design and workmanship of the Apollo 1 capsule interior was insane. There was not simply a risk of a fire, there was little chance there could not be a fire.
Of course there are inherent dangers in riding a rocket into space, but the Apollo 1 environment added an extreme additional danger that was not needed.
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I remember Apollo 1. It was hard to take. The public was familiar with the astronauts.
According to other Apollo astronauts, they were all aware of the capsule's inordinate danger, but did not want to speak out and lose their places.
That shows you the kind of courage and zeal they had.