Apollo 1: 45 Years

Lieutenant Colonel Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, USAF

Lieutenant Colonel Edward H. White II, USAF

Lieutenant Commander Roger B. Chaffee, USN

Spacecraft fire, Launch Complex 34

18:31 EST - January 27, 1967

If we die we want people to accept it. We are in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us, it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life. Our god-given curiosity will force us to go there ourselves because in the final analysis, only man can fully evaluate the moon in terms understandable to other men.