Apollo 1

Today we're talking about Moonshot.

Billy Joel's Moonshot brings us to 1969 and one of the most famous moments of the 20th century, Apollo 11, and the first time human beings walked on the moon.

But the moon landing didn't begin with Apollo 11.

It was the result of a competition that had been building for more than a decade.

We have talked about the story before in our Spunk Neck episode.

Yeah.

She calculated the flight path for Alan Shepard, and John Glenn asked her to personally check the electric computer's math before he orbited Earth.

Then she helped calculate the flight path for Apollo 11.

Mm-hmm.

And even an Apollo I patch.

And it's the Hubble STS-125 patch.

That's beautiful.

Right.

So, uh, if we turn our attention to the Apollo program that began in 1962 and the race to the moon, can you tell us about the tragedy of Apollo 1?

Right, yes.

Apollo 1, well, you know, uh, during, uh, Mercury and Gemini, we would pressurize our spacecraft with 100% oxygen, right? And, uh, just Figured we'd contain the, uh, fire hazard by not having any, uh, ignition sources, you know.

But during Apollo 1, so, you know, they were not r- they were not launching, they were doing an exercise and a, and a test.

Uh, so the, the three, you know, Grissom, Chaffee, and White, um, got into the spacecraft and, you know, they closed up the hatch and pressurized it to little more than one atmosphere with pure oxygen.

And, you know, we'd gotten away with it over two programs and testing and all that, and but in this particular day, during this t- this particular test, there was a spark, and it, it l- came from one of the o- it was like a broken heater, um, kind of, I, you know, a- assembly for an oxygen tank.

Virgil Gus Grissom, 40 years old, one of the original Mercury astronauts, the first American astronaut to go twice into space.

You know, it's, it's, um, it's difficult to challenge the system and actually, uh, survive that without being canceled, and so is it worth it?

There's a movie on Apple now about the, the moon, the Apollo mission.

I'm trying to think of the, the name.

It's got Channing Tatum in it, uh, and, um-

And, uh, yeah, exactly.

It's like a soft closure where you then, where you can upend it, and you say like, "Yeah, we shot it, but we didn't, we didn't show it." Yeah.

But that's the first Apollo movie that I can remember that's actually questioned the official narrative to some degree.

It, it, the first half was great.

no other decade was as much of a disruptor than the 60s.

And, you know, you had the show that was not only inspired by the tumultuous times, but But while they were making the show, for example, I think the week that Tomorrow is Yesterday aired on NBC, the first week of January of 1967, it aired, I think, right after the Apollo 1 fire, which is crazy.

And the week that they were filming Who Mourns for Outer Knives, is the week that Sergeant Pepper came out.

I mean, so, you know, Shatner is driving to the studio and he's listening to the radio.