5.02.2024

Dark shadows lengthened amid a fading orange sunset at long-abandoned Launch Complex 34, where the rust-streaked launch pedestal looms like a memorial to one of NASA's most haunting tragedies.

On Jan. 27, 1967, pioneering Apollo 1 astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chafee died here in their spacesuits while sealed inside their command module atop a massive Saturn IB rocket. Flames and toxic fumes unexpectedly erupted during a pre-launch testing session, stunning the nation.

Lowell Grissom still wonders whether his big brother would have later become the first man to walk on the moon.

"It's always kind of an eerie feeling. I really have mixed emotions, a lot of different feelings," Grissom reflected, gazing up from his chair at the monolithic 27-foot-tall concrete structure.

"Sadness. You think about what happened here, and how tragic that was," Grissom said.

"A little anger. Because I really feel like — had some people done their job — there wouldn't have been an accident or a fire," he said.

"And a sense of pride, in what he accomplished in a short period of time," he said.

Grissom returned to the remaining ruins of LC-34 on Jan. 27 for a 57th-anniversary memorial marking one of NASA's grimmest days. Purple LED lights bathed the stark, shadowy pedestal during the somber evening ceremony, which marked the time of the 6:31 p.m. fatal fire at today's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Officials mothballed LC-34 in November 1971. Today, the few surviving structures bear the strange geometric symmetry of a lost civilization, including the domed blockhouse measuring 120 feet in diameter.

Astronauts Memorial Foundation officials hope to expand the annual Apollo 1 memorial service — traditionally limited to invitation-only small groups — to include more people at this site considered hallowed ground by many NASA supporters.

Indeed, Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum Director James Draper considers the remnants of LC-34 "one of the most powerful places on the Cape" and a tangible connection with the early days of the Space Age.

Had the Apollo 1 disaster not triggered NASA investigation and safety reforms, America may not have met President John F. Kennedy's national goal of reaching the moon by the end of the 1960s, said Thad Altman, Astronauts Memorial Foundation CEO and executive director.

“As we look at what this year has in store — 111 planned launches, including more crewed missions, at least a dozen new rockets being developed and planned for an opportunity to launch — all made possible today because of the legacy built by those who came before us,” Space Force Col. Jessica Wedington told the crowd during the memorial service.

“The Apollo 1 crew came here with a promise: to push the boundaries of exploration and further our understanding of space," Wedington said.

"They not only achieved this, but they paved the way for future generations to continue the same promise," she said.

Built off ICBM Road from 1959 to 1962 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, LC-34 was the world's biggest, most advanced launch complex. It was also the first constructed for the peaceful exploration of space, per a Library of Congress historical engineering record.

NASA launched seven rockets here from 1961 to 1968: four Saturn I test flights, two Saturn IB flights, and Apollo 7 — the program's first crewed spaceflight, which lifted off 20½ months after the deadly capsule fire.

Decades later, roaring surf is steadily audible at otherwise quiet LC-34, which stands sentinel about ¼-mile from the deserted beach via an asphalt-gravel-dirt lane. Watch for rattlesnakes, memorial-service attendees were warned.

On the dune line, a ramshackle doorless hut-like structure stands partially filled with wind-driven sand and green viny plants. Ocean debris and decaying ropes that wash onto the beach remain in place as property of the federal government. A possible bobcat pawprint was imprinted in the sand.

Inhabited by scraggly weeds, crossed with rusty-red railroad tracks leading to nowhere, the circular reinforced-concrete rocket launch pad measures 430 feet in diameter and eight inches thick, the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum reports. Even the stenciled "Abandon in Place" painted on the pedestal by military personnel has nearly faded away.

"When you look at the photos of this (launch complex) active, you'll see this pedestal is so shrouded in piping and wiring. It's almost completely obscured and hidden by all the machinery around it," Draper said, standing near the edge of the launch pad.

"It's just the bare skeleton of what existed. It's an incredible sight. I'm in awe every time I'm out here," Draper said.

Titusville resident Mark Poff worked on the space shuttle program from 1978 to 2017, primarily as a software engineer for McDonnell Douglas and The Boeing Co. Today, he serves as a NASA docent.

"I grew up here. And I was a space nerd since I was a kid. I was in sixth grade when Apollo 1 happened. And I remember the news breaking into whatever I was watching on TV," Poff recalled, standing at LC-34 alongside two dilapidated 43-foot-long flame deflectors.

"People remember Challenger. People remember Columbia. I've got to tell you, Apollo 1 was much more dramatic, I think. Certainly for me, but probably for the nation at large because it was the first time we lost astronauts," Poff said.

"And back then, these guys were superstars. They were our troops against the Soviet Union, if you will," he said.

To Draper, LC-34 "epitomizes power of place for the Cape." The Apollo 1 memorial ceremony featured prayer, remarks from NASA and military leaders, Taps, a moment of silence and flag folding by the Patrick Space Force Base Honor Guard as darkness fell.

Justin Purvenas, the grandson of Roger Chafee, helped close the event by darkening a trio of white candles at the base of the launch pedestal. Cmdr. Sammy Green, Naval Ordnance Test Unit executive officer, hailed Chaffee as a hero.

"Roger Chaffee would prove himself most worthy of the title of astronaut — not by flying in space, but by choosing to remain strapped in his couch attempting to transmit emergency messages to the blockhouse while fire raged mercilessly through the Apollo 1 spacecraft," Green told the audience.

"He continued to relay data back to the blockhouse, though. The mission came first," he said.

Born in 1979, Purvenas, a 44-year-old St. Pete Beach resident, never got the chance to meet his grandfather.

"He was brave. He was smart. He was an inspiration to me," Purvenas said, minutes after the ceremony concluded.

"It would have been nice to have met him. But obviously, he made the greatest sacrifice.

Quelle: Florida Today