In January 27, 1967, a massive fire broke out in the Apollo 1 capsule and the entire area filled with smoke, which caused the death of three of the
NASA astronauts; Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Roger Chaffee and Edward White. This is the first of this kind of an accident in the earlier days of this space agency. After 50 years of that untoward incident, Nasa marked the anniversary of that fatal incident on 27 January 2017 and displayed that scorched hatch, which had trapped those three astronauts, during the normal pre-launch routine test, inside that execrable spaceship.
- The three men were badly stuck inside the spaceship and could not help themselves to get out of that capsule by opening up the three-part hatch and succumbed to death, as the entire area was engulfed by heavy and deadly smoke.
- The Emergency rescue team rushed to the spot and tried their best to tame the fire but failed to do so as it was too late at the launchpad, which is now being known as the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It is now being uttered by several experts in this field that this lamentable incident helped in averting many accidents as the actual cause of the damage has been now in front of everybody. If this has happened in space, the actual cause of the incident would have been unknown to the world of space science and technology.
- The destroyed hatch is now displayed at the Kennedy Space Centre Visitor Complex, which works like a reminder to all about the risk factors of the spacecraft. It is now been noted that the death of these three astronauts has helped the future generation of space traveler to avert that kind of an accident, which is helpful for both the science and the mankind.
- In the investigation of that horrific accidents revealed some of the major mistakes in the design of the Apollo capsule, the most complex electrical wiring, an environment of pure oxygen and inflammable materials inside the cabin of the astronauts, are considered some of the major problems that instigated the fatal incident.
- After that incident, NASA has made some of the most important changes in the design and safety features of the future spacecraft and resumed the flying since October 1968, which paved the way for the most glorious and historic Lunar mission and the Apollo 11 was safely landed on the moon surface in July 1969.
- The ceremony was a part of the series of other events, those are commemorating the awful incident, where NASA paid fitting tribute to the crew of Space Shuttle Challenger, who were killed in January 1986 during the launching and also to the astronauts of Shuttle Columbia, who had met with the most horrible accident as their spaceship was broken apart, while trying to enter the Earth's atmosphere on the day of February 1, 2003.
- Members of the families of Grissom, White and Chaffee; gathered at the same place, where the gruesome accidents had occurred, to pay their respects.
