Warbird Information Exchange

Alright guys, I am trying to find out who I can question about getting Apollo I displayed in an honorable way, not shoved into some corner in a storage building somewhere. I am pretty sure NASA is the controlling agency, but I don't even know where to start at. It is long over due that these three pilots be honored.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Good luck with that one. NASA has a tight grip on it and so far has blocked any attempts/suggestions at putting it on display. It has been in storage in it's own facility at Langley AFB for decades ( a new facility was built for it a couple of years ago because the old one was deteriorating). When Challenger was lost, NASA was going to move the Apollo 1 Command Module from Langley and put it into the missle silo with the Shuttle wreckage but public outcry (and some from the astronauts) stopped it.

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

Chris,

I know there is a huge memorial to them and the other 21 lost astronauts at the Kennedy Space Center.
However I could not recall ever seeing the capsule there so I googled it up and got this from Wacky.

The Apollo 1 command module has never been on public display.
After the accident the burned-out spacecraft was removed and taken to
Kennedy Space Center to be studied for any information that might
prevent a recurrence of the tragedy. It was then moved to the NASA
Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia and placed in a secured
storage warehouse. On February 17, 2007 the wreckage of CM-012 was
moved approximately 100 feet to a newer, environmentally-controlled
warehouse. Only a few weeks earlier Gus Grissom's brother Lowell
publicly suggested CM-012 be permanently entombed in the concrete
remains of Launch Complex 34

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Bill


Website

Thanks guys. I know that Betty Grissom was at one time a huge supporter of putting it out on public display. I am as well. To honor the men that gave their lives trying to get to the moon.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Here's an interesting thread...

http://collectspace.com/ubb/Forum41/HTML/000029.html

This link shows the plan to put the capsule in with Challenger and the cancellation of that plan...

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/te ... 900531.txt

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

Can't they be honored in a less macabre way?

August

I don't think there would be any better way to be really pay these men tribute then to stand in a museum and see the Apollo I capsule. It would be far more powerful then another plaque. We aren't doing them anything right now by leaving the module in a storage hangar.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

How about a forced perspective of three suit clad manaquins looking up past the Sarurn towards the moon?

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Personally, I don't think that displaying the capsule in a proper & respectful manner would be macabre, in fact maybe the opposite; I think if properly done it could be a very powerful portrait of just how great the risks were & are that are taken by the men & women who continue to push the edge of exploration, and the grim reality of the potential outcome should something go wrong.

Again, it would have to be well & delicately handled, that's for sure.

greg v.

I like that

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

Or an actual historic space artifact that has history. Granted it is tragic, but the story of Apollo I needs to be told. The toll these men paid for the moon missions are more than anyone else's.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

Without a doubt. A place like the NASM would be perfect for this.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

I agree it needs to be displayed in a respectful manner. If some of you think that that is macabre, what would you suggest we do with the U.S.S Arizona?

Well, depends on the way it is displayed. Many historical artifacts are associated with tragic events and death. The Civil War sumarine Hunley comes to mind. Now that it's been recovered, no one would dare think of hiding it away in a tin shed because human life was lost in it. Time is the key to displaying Apollo 1...

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

The USS Arizona isnt in a Museum, its a memorial and a war grave.

IMHO the memorial at the launchpad is tribute enough, it is a very moving place and I was in tears when I left it.

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