Locking the Fire Doors

Testifying before the Senate and House space committees last week, top NASA officials admitted that they had not fully anticipated the violent nature of the fire that took the lives of three Apollo astronauts in January. "Continued alertness to the possibility of fire," said NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans, "had been dulled by the previous ground experience and six years of successful manned missions."

Thus it was that the ill-fated Apollo was equipped with a hatch that took 90 seconds to open--much too long to save the astronauts, who died within 20 seconds of asphyxiation by carbon monoxide. Thus it also was that the spacecraft contained materials that had been tested for flammability under pure oxygen at a pressure of 5 Ibs. per sq. in. but not under the more dangerous 16 Ibs. used in the ground test.

To prevent another such disaster, the space officials said they were working on a new Apollo escape hatch that could be opened in two seconds in a ground emergency. Less flammable materials are also being studied for space suits and the spacecraft interior. As a further precaution, the Apollo cabin during future ground tests will probably be filled with normal air, rather than the pure oxygen that fed the fire.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.