Rare footage of three astronauts moments before they lost their lives in the Apollo 1 tragedy

57 years ago, the Apollo 1 spacecraft was meant to be launched from the Earth. However, the mission could not be carried off. A tragic fire whizzed past the Command Module of the craft, setting the cabin ablaze. At this time, three astronauts were busy doing the launch rehearsal test inside the craft. As soon as the fire engulfed the craft into flames, the three astronauts lost their lives. Recently, rare footage has surfaced on social media that depicts the three astronauts gearing up for the space mission before the tragic fire.

The footage was shared on X by @Morbidful and has gathered over 200,000 views in just a day. It reveals the three crew members preparing for the mission which was to roll out from NASA's home in Cape Kennedy, Florida. The three spacemen were Command Pilot Virgil 'Gus' Grissom, Senior Pilot Edward White, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee. The three of them were inside the craft to lead a test. The short clip concluded with the astronauts getting seated and settled into the Apollo 1 capsule for the mission.

The three space pilots had voiced some issues which they thought the craft had, a few days before the launch date, as per History. Call it intuition or instinct, but they said they were concerned about the quantity of flammable nylon and velcro in the command module. They had communicated the same to Joseph Shea, manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office.

On January 27, 1967, they ascended the NASA tower in Florida at the launch pad 34 for a routine simulated launch test. They crossed the 218-foot-high catwalk and climbed inside the Command Module. At first, the “plugs-out” test was to be carried out. This was meant to test how the craft would behave in the event of the launch. Since the craft was unfuelled at this time, there was no hazard during this particular test.

The afternoon went by and dusk set in. In a moment, the engineers monitoring the cabin through television screens noticed a spark. Soon enough, there was a scream from one of the astronauts, “Hey! We’ve got a fire in the cockpit!” In an instant came another voice, “We have a bad fire! We’re burning up!” Given the cabin’s pure oxygen setting, flammable nylon mesh, and velcro, it didn’t take long for the spark to gush into the cabin and swallow the lives of the three spacemen. Even before the astronauts could unstrap themselves from their seats, they were dead.

50 years later, NASA dedicated a #rememberanceday for the three astronauts White, Chaffee, and Grissom. Also, the horrific story of the three spacemen has surfaced on the internet countless times. HBO’s 1998 miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon” also illustrates this tragic disaster in one of its episodes.