Apollo 1: Destination Moon (Ch4 Documentary)

[cuprabob]

Aired last night and tells the story of the 3 astronauts who tragically died during the preparations for the Apollo 1 mission. Well worth a watch if you have 90 mins to spare.

It's available on the 4 Player for the next 29 days.

[Eric Mc]

Watched it this morning.

Even though I am very familiar with the events of January 27 1967, I still thought that the documentary had a lot to say. It was very good that they were able to interview the children of Ed White and Roger Chaffee - and Ed White's widow, Pat.

Very good.

[Panamax]

Thanks for the mention. I've now seen it on catch-up. A good effort. (Apart from the plonking, funerial piano music.)

There was an excellent series shown on the BBC about four years ago called Chasing The Moon. Highly recommended. Regrettably "not currently available" on iPlayer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chasing_the_Moon_(TV...

The Russians also lost a number of astronauts/cosmonauts through the same period. I believe they also learnt the "pure oxygen" risk before the Americans - possibly Valentin Bondarenko (1961). Also the deaths of Vladimir Komarov (parachute failure) and the Soyuz 11 crew (air leak) were particularly distressing.

About 10 years ago the Science Museum in London presented a very good exhibition "Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age". It was apparent that Soviet engineering was more Fred Dibnah than Werner von Braun. Their "space toilet" was particularly eye-catching and, I believe, a similar approach is still used today.
https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/what-was-on/cosmo...

[PinkTornado]

Yes, there was some nice footage in this, and the inclusion of the relatives was good too. It could possibly have added a little more colour to the astronauts- Grissom hanging a lemon on the Apollo 1 sim, Young taking the corned beef sandwich on their Gemini flight, that sort of thing. It showed their Gemini capsule, but could also have shown the recovered Liberty Bell 7, too.