Disasters in Space Flight :: Essays Papers

Disasters in Space FlightOn January 27, 1967, the tether astronauts of the Apollo 4, were doing atest countdown on the launch pad. Gus Grissom was in charge. His crowd wereEdward H. White, the starting line American to walk in topographic point, and Roger B. Chaffee, anaval policeman going up for the first time. 182 feet below, R.C.A technicianGary Propst was seat in front of a bank of television monitors, listening tothe junto intercommunicate channel and ceremony various televisions for important activity.Inside the Apollo 4 there was a admixture door with a sharp edge. for each one timethe door was clear and shut, it scraped against an environmental control unitwire. The repeat abrasion had exposed deuce tiny sections of wire. A sparksolely would not cause a fire, but just below the cuts in the cable was a continuanceof aluminum tubing, which took a ninety-degree turn. There were hundreds ofthese turns in the whole capsule. The aluminum tubing carried a glycol coolingfluid, which is not flammable, but when exposed to assembly line it turns to flammablefumes. The capsule was filled with dainty oxygen in an apparent movement to allow theastronauts to work more efficiently. It withal turns normally not so flammableitems to highly flammable items. Raschel gauze that was highly flammable inthe pure oxygen environment was arise the exposed section of the wires.At 63104 p.m. the Raschel netting conniption into an open flame. A endorse afterward the netting burst into flames, the first message came over the crewsradio channel Fire, Grissom said. Two Seconds later, Chaffee said clearly,Weve got a fire in the cockpit. His sprightliness was businesslike (Murray 191).There was no camera in the cabin, but a remote control camera, if zoomedin on the embrasure could provide a partial, shadowy wad of the interior of thespace craft. There was a divide of motion, Propst explained, as White seemed tofumble with something and then(prenomi nal) quickly pull his build up back, then reach out again. some other pair of arms came into view from the left, Grissoms, as the flamesspread from the far left wing corner of the spacecraft toward the porthole(Murray 192). The crew struggled for about 30 seconds after their suits failed,and then died of asphyxiation, not the heat. To discombobulate out of the capsuleastronauts had to remove three separate hatches, atleast 90 seconds was necessitateto open all three hatches.Disasters in Space Flight Essays PapersDisasters in Space FlightOn January 27, 1967, the three astronauts of the Apollo 4, were doing atest countdown on the launch pad. Gus Grissom was in charge. His crew wereEdward H. White, the first American to walk in space, and Roger B. Chaffee, anaval officer going up for the first time. 182 feet below, R.C.A technicianGary Propst was seated in front of a bank of television monitors, listening tothe crew radio channel and watching various televisions for important activity.Inside the Apollo 4 there was a metal door with a sharp edge. Each timethe door was open and shut, it scraped against an environmental control unitwire. The repeated abrasion had exposed two tiny sections of wire. A sparkalone would not cause a fire, but just below the cuts in the cable was a lengthof aluminum tubing, which took a ninety-degree turn. There were hundreds ofthese turns in the whole capsule. The aluminum tubing carried a glycol coolingfluid, which is not flammable, but when exposed to air it turns to flammablefumes. The capsule was filled with pure oxygen in an effort to allow theastronauts to work more efficiently. It also turns normally not so flammableitems to highly flammable items. Raschel netting that was highly flammable inthe pure oxygen environment was near the exposed section of the wires.At 63104 p.m. the Raschel netting burst into an open flame. A secondafter the netting burst into flames, the first message came over the crewsrad io channel Fire, Grissom said. Two Seconds later, Chaffee said clearly,Weve got a fire in the cockpit. His tone was businesslike (Murray 191).There was no camera in the cabin, but a remote control camera, if zoomedin on the porthole could provide a partial, shadowy view of the interior of thespace craft. There was a lot of motion, Propst explained, as White seemed tofumble with something and then quickly pull his arms back, then reach out again. Another pair of arms came into view from the left, Grissoms, as the flamesspread from the far left-hand corner of the spacecraft toward the porthole(Murray 192). The crew struggled for about 30 seconds after their suits failed,and then died of asphyxiation, not the heat. To get out of the capsuleastronauts had to remove three separate hatches, atleast 90 seconds was requiredto open all three hatches.