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07/15/2019 – Ephemeris – The Apollo 1 tragedy
Ephemeris for Monday, July 15th. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 14 minutes, setting at 9:25, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:12. The Moon, 1 day before full, will set at 5:48 tomorrow morning.
On January 27th, 1967 the crew of Apollo 1 were running a dress rehearsal of their upcoming launch. On board were Gus Grissom, veteran of the Mercury and Gemini programs, Ed White the first American to walk in space on Gemini 4, and rookie astronaut Roger Chaffee from my home town of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Five and a half hours after the test started one of the crew called out “Fire in the cockpit”. In a very few minutes the astronauts were dead. They were running in a pure oxygen atmosphere at a bit above atmospheric pressure and a spark may have ignited the flammable materials in the spacecraft. The accident delayed the program nearly 2 years as the capsule was redesigned.
The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Left to right: Virgil I. (Gus) Grissom, veteran of the second Mercury flight and Gemini 3, the first manned Gemini flight; Edward H. White first American space walker on Gemini 4, and rookie Roger B. Chaffee. Credit: NASA.
The outside of the Apollo 1 capsule after thr fire that took the three astronaut’s lives. Credit: NASA.
11/04/2014 – Ephemeris – Last week was a bad one for commercial space
Ephemeris for Election Day, Tuesday, November 4th. The sun will rise at 7:24. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 3 minutes, setting at 5:27. The moon, 2 days before full, will set at 5:46 tomorrow morning.
Last week was not a happy one for commercial space companies. First, last Tuesday the Orbital Science’s Antares blew up (or in space-talk: “Suffered an anomaly”) attempting to deliver it’s third contracted commercial cargo to the International Space Station. No one was killed because it was an unmanned rocket and the spectators were kept at a safe distance. Then on Friday an anomaly occurred during a test flight of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo. In that mishap the co-pilot, Michael Alsbury, was killed. “Space is hard.” was the phrase heard quite often last week. And it’s true. I’ve found that the natural state of any mechanism is not to work. The more complicated the device is, like a rocket, the harder it is to get it to work.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The initial signs that the Antares rocket was in trouble. Credit: Parabolic Arc.
A sequence of photos of the flight and breakup of SpaceShipTwo. Credit: Kenneth Brown/Reuters.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 