--- title: This Week in History: TIME Magazine on the Apollo 1 Tragedy description: In a cover story in February of 1967—50 years ago—TIME Magazine examined what happened to three astronauts killed during a routine test. canonical: https://time.com/4644044/50-years-ago-apollo-1/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-30T14:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T12:12:26.000Z article:section: History og:title: This Week in History: TIME Magazine on the Apollo 1 Tragedy og:description: "If we die, we want people to accept it," Gus Grissom had once said. og:url: https://time.com/4644044/50-years-ago-apollo-1/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9403b2b515550a05/6988b6fd428a9efd76cd59a2/1101670203_400.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Feb. 3, 1967 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Week in History: TIME Magazine on the Apollo 1 Tragedy twitter:description: "If we die, we want people to accept it," Gus Grissom had once said. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9403b2b515550a05/6988b6fd428a9efd76cd59a2/1101670203_400.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 50 Years Ago This Week: Tragedy Strikes the Space Program  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Updated: Jan 24, 2024 12:12 PM UTCPublished: Jan 30, 2017 2:00 PM UTC  The Feb. 3, 1967, cover of TIME The Feb. 3, 1967, cover of TIMECover Credit: J. ALEX LANGLEY  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Updated: Jan 24, 2024 12:12 PM UTCPublished: Jan 30, 2017 2:00 PM UTC _Milestone moments do not a year make. Often, it’s the smaller news stories that add up, gradually, to big history. With that in mind, in 2017 TIME History will revisit the entire year of 1967, week by week, as it was reported in the pages of TIME, to see how it all comes together._ [_Catch up on last week’s installment here._](http://time.com/4635530/50-years-ago-air-pollution/) [**Week 5: Feb. 3, 1967**](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-02-03/pages/) The cover on this issue betrays little about what the lead story relates: three astronauts stand calmly, partially in uniform, looking like they might be on their way to the moon but they also might be on their way to fix a car. The story, however, is anything but calm. The three astronauts had been killed, on Jan. 27, in a routine test. The mission was later designated Apollo 1\. But, as TIME explained, the everyday image of the men at work was appropriate for the tragic irony of the accident: --- > “” --- The magazine portrayed the deaths as a reminder that, even after more than a dozen successful space missions—including landmark missions by [Grissom](http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1664897%5F1664899%5F1666053,00.html) and [White](http://time.com/3898131/edward-white-walk-space/)—what was going on at NASA was both highly dangerous and highly technical. As the National Air and Space Museum [explains](https://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/topics/apollo/apollo-program/orbital-missions/apollo1.cfm), a number of things had gone wrong that morning, and when the electrical fire began the men were unable to execute their escape procedure before they were overcome by the smoke and fire. ([You can read more about what happened here.](http://ti.me/2jET2PN)) The deaths would raise the perpetual question when it came to space exploration: was the risk worth the rewards? One answer to that question, TIME noted, had been supplied by Gus Grissom himself, who had spoken on the topic before his untimely death. “If we die, we want people to accept it,” he had said. “We are in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life.”” ### The Apollo 1 Launchpad Fire: Remembering Grissom, White and Chaffee  American astronauts Ed White, Roger Chaffee and Gus Grissom in the Apollo Mission Simulator, a replica of the capsule in which they died. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Readying for Apollo I tests, Cape Canaveral, Fla., 1966. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Apollo 1 astronauts (l-r) Roger Chaffee, Ed White and Gus Grissom, Fla. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Apollo 1 astronauts (l-r) Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, photographer the week before the fatal fire at Pad 34, from which their mission was to have launched in February 1967. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Apollo 1 astronauts Roger Chaffee, Ed White and Gus Grissom, 1967. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Apollo 1 astronauts (front to back) Roger Chaffee, Ed White and Gus Grissom, Cape Kennedy, Fla. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Roger Chaffee with his wife Martha and their children, Sheryl and Stephen, in their Houston home, 1965. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Astronaut Ed White leaps off a truck before an attentive audience of his fellow astronauts during a training exercise, 1963. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  In a husband-and-wife appearance before the press, Pat and Ed White (far left) and Pat and Jim McDivitt share delight with the news that President Johnson has promoted the astronauts after the flight of Gemini 4 in 1965. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  NASA astronaut Ed White and his wife Pat at home. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  During a family work-out on the horizontal bar, Bonnie Lynn and Eddie White compete against their father, astronaut Ed White. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Astronaut Edward White and family, Houston. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Astronaut Edward White and family, Houston. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Astronaut Gus Grissom in his space suit. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Gus Grissom often found relief from the pressures of being an astronaut simply by going fishing. He casts for sea bass near Cape Kennedy. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Astronaut Gus Grissom with his sons. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ![Home a hero after his successful 1965 mission in Gemini 3, \[Gus Grissom\] greeted his parents who came from Mitchell, Ind. for the flight.](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f70db44f33990b8/69877b268e0601a57a459d75/140123-apollo-1-grissom-white-chaffee-17.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp) Caption from LIFE. Home a hero after his successful 1965 mission in Gemini 3, \[Gus Grissom\] greeted his parents who came from Mitchell, Ind. for the flight. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Gus Grissom at home with his son. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Gus Grissom with his wife Betty and their sons Scott and Mark. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesE  Caption from LIFE. In seclusion at a private home high in the Hollywood Hills, the prime crews for the first and second Apollo flights spent two days earlier this winter in an intensive but informal review of flight plans. Grouped around the table are Gus Grissom (far left), Ed White, Roger Chaffee (back showing), Rusty Schweickart (above), Jim McDivitt and Dave Scott (far right). Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  LIFE magazine, February 3, 1967 LIFE Magazine  LIFE magazine, February 3, 1967 LIFE Magazine  LIFE magazine, February 3, 1967 LIFE Magazine  LIFE magazine, February 3, 1967 LIFE Magazine  LIFE Magazine  LIFE Magazine **Prescient reaction:** The [letters page](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-02-03/page/11/) contained a message from an engineer living in Binghamton, N.Y., who had read the previous week’s cover story about air pollution and proposed an idea that might help—something that may sound familiar to drivers of today’s hybrid cars. “One answer would be a vehicle combining a conventional internal combustion engine and an electric engine with batteries,” the engineer wrote. **A first:** The [death of James H. Bedford](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-02-03/page/63/), a California psychology professor, was an unusual milestone for science. Bedford, who died of cancer, was the first person to have his body preserved by the Cryonics Society of California in case revival was later possible after a cure for cancer was discovered. **Some things do change:** A [story in the world news section](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-02-03/page/32/) relayed word that British Prime Minister Harold Wilson had met with Charles de Gaulle to try to convince the French President to allow Britain to enter the European Common Market, which France had previously [vetoed](http://time.com/vault/issue/1966-11-18/page/67/). With the British pound in a delicate state, citizens were eager to join the other six nations of the Common Market, an event that [finally](http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/1/newsid%5F2459000/2459167.stm) took place about six years later. The Common Market would later become an element of the European Union—which Britons [voted](http://time.com/tag/brexit/) in 2016 to leave. **Strange vintage ad:** This one isn’t notable for any particular old-timey sentiment or design, but the wording still stands out, assuring business owners that “[now your employees don’t have to die](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-02-03/page/45/)” to benefit from insurance. **Coming up next week:** [A cover story about Japan](http://time.com/vault/issue/1967-02-10/page/1/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4644044/50-years-ago-apollo-1/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4644044/50-years-ago-apollo-1/"},"headline":"50 Years Ago This Week: Tragedy Strikes the Space Program","datePublished":"2017-01-30T14:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-24T12:12:26.000Z","description":"\"If we die, we want people to accept it,\" Gus Grissom had once said","url":"https://time.com/4644044/50-years-ago-apollo-1/","keywords":["Media","Space"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9403b2b515550a05/6988b6fd428a9efd76cd59a2/1101670203_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9403b2b515550a05/6988b6fd428a9efd76cd59a2/1101670203_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Feb. 3, 1967","caption":"Feb. 3, 1967","creditText":"Cover Credit: J. 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