50 éve történt az Apollo 1 tragédiája

középfok

50 évvel ezelőtt, január 27-én következett be az első Apollo űrhajó tragédiája. Erre emlékezünk olvasmányunkkal, amelyhez videó és szószedet is tartozik. 

Jan. 27, 1967, tragedy struck on the launch pad at Cape Kennedy during a preflight test for Apollo 204 (AS-204). The cabin caught flames after a spark ignited the pure oxygen environment. The mission was to be the first crewed flight of Apollo, and was scheduled to launch Feb. 21, 1967. Astronauts Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee lost their lives when the fire swept through the command module, or CM.

The exhaustive investigation of the fire and extensive reworking of the Apollo command modules postponed crewed launches until NASA officials cleared them for flight. Saturn IB schedules were suspended for nearly a year, and the launch vehicle that finally bore the designation AS-204 carried a lunar module, or LM, as the payload, instead of a CM. The missions of AS-201 and AS-202 with Apollo spacecraft aboard had been unofficially known as Apollo 1 and Apollo 2 missions. AS-203 carried only the aerodynamic nose cone.

In the spring of 1967, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight, Dr. George E. Mueller, announced that the mission originally scheduled for Grissom, White and Chaffee would be known as Apollo 1, and said that the first Saturn V launch, scheduled for November 1967, would be known as Apollo 4. The eventual launch of AS-204 became known as the Apollo 5 mission. No missions or flights were ever designated Apollo 2 or 3.

The second launch of a Saturn V took place on schedule in the early morning of April 4, 1968. Known as AS-502, or Apollo 6, the flight was a success, though two first-stage engines shut down prematurely, and the third-stage engine failed to reignite after reaching orbit.

Vocabulary

to strike (struck struck)

sújtani

launch pad

kilövőállás

to catch flames

lángra lobbanni

spark

szikra

to ignite

begyújtani

pure

tiszta

crewed

személyzettel, legénységgel rendelkező

to schedule

időzíteni

to sweep through

keresztülsöpörni

exhaustive

kimerítő, mélyreható

extensive

átfogó, széleskörű

to postpone

elhalasztani

to clear for flight

repülésre / felszállásra alkalmasnak minősíteni

to suspend

felfüggeszteni

vehicle

jármű

to bear

viselni, hordani

payload

rakomány, teher

cone

tölcsér

eventual

végleges

prematurely

idő előtt