Editing Apollo 1 (section)

== Mission background ==
[[File:Apollo One CM arrival KSC.jpg|thumb|left|[[Apollo command and service module#Command module (CM)|Command module]] 012, labeled ''Apollo One'', arrives at [[Kennedy Space Center]] on August 26, 1966.]]
In October 1966, NASA announced the flight would carry a small television camera to broadcast live from the command module. The camera would also be used to allow flight controllers to monitor the spacecraft's instrument panel in flight.<ref>{{Cite news |date=October 13, 1966 |title=Apollo To Provide Live Space Shots |page=1 |work=[[Sarasota Herald-Tribune]] |agency=United Press International |location=Sarasota, FL |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=lescAAAAIBAJ&pg=3988%2C2557539 |access-date=July 12, 2013}}</ref> Television cameras were carried aboard all crewed Apollo missions.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wood |first=Bill |title=Apollo Lunar Surface Journal |publisher=NASA |year=2005 |editor-last=Jones |editor-first=Eric M. |place=Washington, DC |publication-date=1996–2013 |chapter=Apollo Television |editor2-last=Glover |editor2-first=Ken |chapter-url=http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/ApolloTV-Acrobat7.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/ApolloTV-Acrobat7.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Insignia ===
Grissom's crew received approval in June 1966 to design a mission patch with the name ''Apollo{{nbsp}}1'' (though the approval was subsequently withdrawn pending a final decision on the mission designation, which was not resolved until after the fire). The design's center depicts a command and service module flying over the southeastern United States with Florida (the launch point) prominent. The [[Moon]] is seen in the distance, symbolic of the eventual program goal. A yellow border carries the mission and astronaut names with another border set with stars and stripes, trimmed in gold. The insignia was designed by the crew, with the artwork done by North American Aviation employee Allen Stevens.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dorr |first=Eugene |title=Space Mission Patches – Apollo 1 Patch |url=http://genedorr.com/patches/Apollo/Ap01.html |access-date=July 18, 2009}}</ref><!-- Note: the genedorr.com site quotes Deke Slayton's book "Deke!: U.S. Manned Space : from Mercury to the Shuttle", ISBN 978-0-312-85503-1, for the premise that the crew designed the patch. I don't have the book to confirm and provide a cite. Someone who does may wish to add this as a reference. --><ref>{{Cite web |last=Hengeveld |first=Ed |date=May 20, 2008 |title=The man behind the Moon mission patches |url=http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-052008a.html |access-date=July 6, 2013 |publisher=[[collectSPACE]]}} "A version of this article was published concurrently in the [[British Interplanetary Society]]'s ''[[Spaceflight (magazine)|Spaceflight]]'' magazine." (June 2008; pp. 220–225).</ref>
<!-- collectspace says Stevens worked for "Rockwell" but that company wasn't acquired by North American until after the fire. -->{{Clear}}

=== Spacecraft and crew preparation ===
[[File:Apollo 1 prayer.jpg|thumb|The Apollo 1 crew expressed their concerns about their spacecraft's problems by presenting this parody of their crew portrait to ASPO manager Joseph Shea on August 19, 1966.]]

The Apollo command and service module was much bigger and far more complex than any previous crewed spacecraft. In October 1963, [[Joseph Francis Shea|Joseph F. Shea]] was named Apollo Spacecraft Program Office (ASPO) manager, responsible for managing the design and construction of both the CSM and the LM.
In a spacecraft review meeting held with Shea on August 19, 1966 (a week before delivery), the crew expressed concern about the amount of flammable material (mainly nylon netting and [[hook and loop fastener|Velcro]]) in the cabin, which both astronauts and technicians found convenient for holding tools and equipment in place. Although Shea gave the spacecraft a passing grade, after the meeting they gave him a crew portrait they had posed with heads bowed and hands clasped in prayer, with the inscription:
{{Blockquote|It isn't that we don't trust you, Joe, but this time we've decided to go over your head.<ref name="murray">{{Cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Charles |title=Apollo: The Race to the Moon |last2=Cox |first2=Catherine Bly |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-671-70625-8 |location=New York |ref=Murray & Cox |author-link=Charles Murray (political scientist)}}</ref>{{Reference page|page=184}}}}
Shea gave his staff orders to tell North American to remove the flammables from the cabin, but did not supervise the issue personally.<ref name="murray" />{{Reference page|page=185}}

North American shipped spacecraft CM-012 to Kennedy Space Center on August 26, 1966, under a conditional Certificate of Flight Worthiness: 113 significant incomplete planned engineering changes had to be completed at KSC. That was not all; an additional 623 engineering change orders were made and completed after delivery.<ref name="aibreport" />{{Reference page|pages=6-3}} Grissom became so frustrated with the inability of the training simulator engineers to keep up with the spacecraft changes that he took a lemon from a tree by his house<ref>{{Cite web |last=White |first=Mary C. |title=Detailed Biographies of Apollo I Crew – Gus Grissom |url=https://history.nasa.gov/Apollo204/zorn/grissom.htm |access-date=July 29, 2008 |website=NASA History Program Office |publisher=NASA}}</ref> and hung it on the simulator.<ref name="chariots8-7" />
[[File:Apollo 1 crew prepare to enter their spacecraft in the altitude chamber at Kennedy Space Center.jpg|thumb|Apollo 1 crewmen enter their spacecraft in the [[altitude chamber]] at Kennedy Space Center, October 18, 1966.]]

The command and service modules were mated in the KSC altitude chamber in September, and combined system testing was performed. Altitude testing was performed first uncrewed, then with both the prime and backup crews, from October 10 through December 30. During this testing, the environmental control unit in the command module was found to have a design flaw, and was sent back to the manufacturer for design changes and rework. The returned ECU then leaked water/glycol coolant, and had to be returned a second time. Also during this time, a propellant tank in another service module had ruptured during testing at NAA, prompting the removal from the KSC test chamber of the service module so it could be tested for signs of the tank problem. These tests were negative.

In December the second Block I flight AS-205 was canceled as unnecessary; Schirra, Eisele and Cunningham were reassigned as the backup crew for Apollo{{nbsp}}1. McDivitt's crew was now promoted to prime crew of the Block II/LM mission, re-designated AS-258 because the AS-205 launch vehicle would be used in place of AS-207. A third crewed mission was planned to launch the CSM and LM together on a Saturn{{nbsp}}V (AS-503) to an elliptical [[medium Earth orbit]] (MEO), to be crewed by [[Frank Borman]], [[Michael Collins (astronaut)|Michael Collins]] and [[William Anders]]. McDivitt, Scott and Schweickart had started their training for AS-258 in CM-101 at the NAA plant in Downey, California, when the Apollo{{nbsp}}1 accident occurred.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Teague |first=Kipp |date=January 26, 1967 |title=The Project Apollo Image Gallery, Early Apollo, AS-205/208 – would have involved dual Saturn IB launches; cancelled following Apollo 204 fire |url=http://www.apolloarchive.com/apollo_gallery.html}}</ref>
[[File:McDivitt, Scott and Schweickart in preliminary training for Apollo AS-258 mission.jpg|thumb|McDivitt, Scott and Schweickart training for the second Apollo mission on January 26, 1967, in the first Block II command module, wearing early blue versions of the Block II pressure suit.]]

Once all outstanding CSM-012 hardware problems had been fixed, the reassembled spacecraft completed a successful altitude chamber test with Schirra's backup crew on December 30.<ref name="aibreport">{{Cite book |last1=Thompson |first1=Floyd |author1-link=Floyd L. Thompson |url=https://history.nasa.gov/Apollo204/summary.pdf |title=Report of Apollo 204 Review Board |last2=Borman |first2=Dolah |last3=Faget |first3=Maxime |author3-link=Maxime Faget |last4=White |first4=George |last5=Geer |first5=Barton |date=April 5, 1967 |publisher=NASA |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160514220957/https://history.nasa.gov/Apollo204/summary.pdf |archive-date=May 14, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{Reference page|pages=4-2}} According to the final report of the accident investigation board, "At the post-test debriefing the backup flight crew expressed their satisfaction with the condition and performance of the spacecraft."<ref name="aibreport" />{{Reference page|pages=4-2}} This would appear to contradict the account given in the 1994 book ''[[Lost Moon|Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo{{nbsp}}13]]'' by [[Jeffrey Kluger]] and astronaut [[Jim Lovell|James Lovell]], that "When the trio climbed out of the ship,{{nbsp}}... Schirra made it clear that he was not pleased with what he had seen," and that he later warned Grissom and Shea that "there's nothing wrong with this ship that I can point to, but it just makes me uncomfortable. Something about it just doesn't ring right," and that Grissom should get out at the first sign of trouble.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lovell |first1=Jim |title=[[Lost Moon|Apollo 13]] |last2=Kluger |first2=Jeffrey |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|Houghton Mifflin Company]] |year=2000 |isbn=0-618-05665-3 |location=Boston |page=14 |lccn=99089647 |author-link=Jim Lovell |author-link2=Jeffrey Kluger |orig-date=Previously published 1994 as ''[[Lost Moon]]''}}</ref>

After the successful altitude tests, the spacecraft was removed from the altitude chamber on January 3, 1967, and mated to its Saturn IB launch vehicle on [[Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 34|pad 34]] on January 6.

Grissom said in a February 1963 interview that NASA could not eliminate risk despite precautions:<ref name="grissom196302">{{Cite interview |last=Grissom |first=Gus |interviewer=John P. Richmond Jr. |title=The MATS Flyer Interviews Major Gus Grissom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wZ7RZyYIsmIC&pg=PA4 |access-date=June 28, 2020 |work=The MATS Flyer |publisher=Military Air Transport Service, United States Air Force |date=February 1963 |pages=4-7}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|An awful lot of people have devoted more effort than I can describe to [make] Project Mercury and its successors, as safe as humanly possible ... But we also recognize that there remains a great deal of risk, especially in initial operations, regardless of planning. You just can't forecast all the things that could happen, or when they could happen.}}

"I suppose that someday we are going to have a failure. In every other business there are failures, and they are bound to happen sooner or later", he added.{{r|grissom196302}} Grissom was asked about the fear of potential catastrophe in a December 1966 interview:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilford |first=John |url=https://archive.org/details/wereachmoonnewyo00wilf |title=We Reach the Moon: The New York Times Story of Man's Greatest Adventure |publisher=Bantam Books |year=1969 |isbn=978-0-448-26152-2 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/wereachmoonnewyo00wilf/page/95 95] |oclc=47325 |author-link=John Noble Wilford |url-access=registration}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|You sort of have to put that out of your mind. There's always a possibility that you can have a catastrophic failure, of course; this can happen on any flight; it can happen on the last one as well as the first one. So, you just plan as best you can to take care of all these eventualities, and you get a well-trained crew and you go fly.}}