BS: Apollo 1: 40 years on

Subject: BS: Apollo 1: 40 years on
From: Peter T.
Date: 27 Jan 07 - 07:44 PM

Hard to believe it was forty years ago. When I was 12 I spent a half hour with Gus Grissom talking about the space program, and his hopes to go up in space again.   It was a great thrill for a young boy, he was kindness itself, and I always think of him -- and those who died with him -- with great affection.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Apollo 1: 40 years on
From: catspaw49
Date: 27 Jan 07 - 08:23 PM

Hi PT.......I'm envious. Gus Grissom huh? Closest I ever got was to shake John Glenn's hand when he came home to Ohio and his hometown, just a few miles from my own.

"We have fire in the cockpit"

Gus, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee were a cross section of the first three groups of astronauts. I remember well when Liberty Bell 7 sank.......and standing in my backyard as Ed White flew overhead "walking" in space on his Gemini mission. Frank Borman said that the failure which caused the tragic fire was one of imagination. No one could imagine such a thing would happen......on the ground. But Gus knew that someday there would be losses. Just a few weeks before the fire he wrote:

"There will be risks, as there are in any experimental program, and sooner or later, we're going to run head-on into the law of averages and lose somebody. I hope this never happens, and... perhaps it never will, but if it does, I hope the American people won't think it's too high a price to pay for our space program."

Much has been made of the waste associated with the space program and how the money might have been better spent. But I tell ya' what...If you were alive in this country back then and can remember the feelings most of the nation had....... the pride, the drive, the determination.........damn......It hasn't been surpassed since,not even by 9/11. I think that's because it was a pride and a feeling based on accomplishment rather than hatred.

Just a thought. Thanks for the thread and the remembrance Peter.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Apollo 1: 40 years on
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 08:33 AM

Gratuitous Link to Starsoul a You-Tube link.
Song by Jody Krangle & Roger Burton-West, If I remember Jody's intro correctly, this was written at a time when the cost (in lives) made it unlikely that The US would continue to have a Space Programme

CHEERS
Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Apollo 1: 40 years on
From: alanabit
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 08:39 AM

I think you guys are a couple of years older than I am, because it was not until after the casualties and the near disaster of Apollo 13 that I woke up to how very dangerous it all was. It still is come to that. When you compare the computers we are using now to the silly toys they had back in those days, it gives you some idea of the sheer audacity of the undertaking.
Thanks for reminding me of it.

Subject: RE: BS: Apollo 1: 40 years on
From: Peter T.
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 03:54 PM

Yes, Gus Grissom always reminds me, in spite of everything, not to underestimate Americans.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Apollo 1: 40 years on
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 09:19 PM

I guess many of us feel close to the astronauts. I did security clearance investigations for many of them, so I felt I knew some of them very well. My parents sold our family home in Wisconsin to the family of Laurel Clark, who died in the Columbia disaster in 2003. I suppose it's a stretch to say that she and I grew up in the same house - she would have been in college by the time her parents bought the house.
Still, it feels like there's a connection.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Apollo 1: 40 years on
From: frogprince
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 09:50 PM

From now on, when astronauts return from space, will Homeland Security require them to show their U.S. passports?

Subject: RE: BS: Apollo 1: 40 years on
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 07:06 AM

Those days of courage and exploration should have inspired some good songs.
Missed opportunity.
Never too late though.

Subject: RE: BS: Apollo 1: 40 years on
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 03:47 PM

Keith:
Check the link in my post above (with sound turned on!)

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Apollo 1: 40 years on
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 03:53 PM

Just listened to it all the way through, and it skips the last verse, going straight to the last (revised) chorus.

Last verse (from memory)

Now if I should die in a bright burning flare
Just take what you find and throw it in the air.
Don't grieve for my death, don't ask "why?" for ten years
Just build one more ship and ask for volunteers.

(makes much more sense with that verse included)
CHERS
Nigel