"Apollo 1" Burns on Pad

[Chip Fetrow]

Tody in 1967 AS-204 was the first manned mission of the U.S. Apollo manned lunar landing program.  The planned low Earth orbitaltest of the Apollo Command/Service Module never made its target launch date of February 21, 1967, because a cabin fire during a launch rehearsal test on January 27 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 34 (where most Shuttle launches occurred) killed all three crew members—Command Pilot Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Senior Pilot Edward H. White II, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee—and destroyed the Command Module (CM). The name Apollo 1, chosen by the crew and NAA, was officially retired by NASA in commemoration of them on April 24, 1967.[