Source Notes

Chapter 18: The Fire That Seared the Spaceport

  1. 1. Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Report on Apollo 204 Accident, report 956, 90th Cong., 2nd sess., 30 Jan. 1968, pp. 3-7.

  2. 2. Idem, Apollo Accident: Hearings, 90th Cong., 1st sess., pt. 1, pp. 13-54. Dr. Charles A. Berry, chief of medical programs at MSC, introduced and discussed Dr. E. Roth's four-part report, "The Selection of Space- Cabin Atmosphere."

  3. 3. Frank J. Handel, "Gaseous Environments during Space Missions," Journal of Space Craft and Rockets 1 (July-Aug. 1964): 361.

  4. 4. Report of Apollo 204 Review Board to the Administrator, NASA, 5 Apr. 1967, app. D, panel 2, pp. D-2- 25, D-2-26.

  5. 5. Science Journal 2 (Feb. 1966): 83.

  6. 6. Space/Aeronautics 45 (Feb. 1966): 26, 28, 32.

  7. 7. Gen. Samuel Phillips, Apollo Program Dir., to John Leland Atwood, Pres., North American Aviation, "NASA Review Team Report," 19 Dec. 1965.

  8. 8. Ibid., p. 1.

  9. 9. Ibid., p. 66.

  10. 10. Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Report on Apollo 204 Accident, pt. 4, p. 318.

  11. 11. House Subcommittee on NASA Oversight of the Committee on Science and Astronautics, Investigation into Apollo 204 Accident: Hearings, 90th Cong., 1st sess., 1: 404.

  12. 12. Ibid., p. 450.

  13. 13. Report of Apollo 204 Review Board, p. 4-1.

  14. 14. "Daily Status Report, AS-204," 29 Aug. 1966; unless otherwise noted, the material in this section is based on these reports between 29 Aug. 1966 and 26 Jan. 1967.

  15. 15. Report of Apollo 204 Review Board, p. 4-1.

  16. 16. Ibid., pp. 4-1, 4-2.

  17. 17. Chauvin interview, 6 June 1974.

  18. 18. Report of Apollo 204 Review Board, p. 4-2.

  19. 19. Chauvin and Reyes interviews, 6-7 June 1974.

  20. 20. Ibid.

  21. 21. Report of Apollo 204 Review Board, p. 4-2.

  22. 22. Ibid.

  23. 23. Notes by M. Mogilevsky, signed, undated, relative to his conversation with Thomas R. Baron, 12-13 Dec. 1966, in files of Frank Childers, KSC.

  24. 24. Statement of Frank Childers, 9 Feb. 1967, submitted at the request of the KSC Director, copy in files of Childers.

  25. 25. John H. Brooks, Chief, NASA Regional Inspections Off., to Kurt Debus, "Thomas Ronald Baron, North American Aviation Employee," 3 Feb. 1967.

  26. 26. Ibid.

  27. 27. Hansel interview.

  28. 28. Brooks to Debus, 3 Feb. 1967.

  29. 29. Orlando Sentinel, 6 Feb. 1967. John Hansel said later than North American had ample reason for firing Baron, because he had violated procedural requirements that brought automatic dismissal. Hansel interview.

  30. 30. Brooks to Debus, 3 Feb. 1967.

  31. 31. Ibid.

  32. 32. Titusville Star-Advocate, 7 Feb. 1967.

  33. 33. Childers interview.

  34. 34. Reyes interview, 19 Jan. 1973.

  35. 35. House Subcommittee on NASA Oversight of the Committee on Science and Astronautics. Investigation into Apollo 204 Accident: Hearings, 90th Cong., 1st sess., 1: 498 ff.

  36. 36. Erlend A. Kennan and Edmund H. Harvey, Jr., Mission to the Moon (New York: William Morrow and Co., Inc., 1969), pp. 115-16, 147n. This book is highly critical of NASA and the space program, with special emphasis on the 204 fire.

  37. 37. Chauvin and Reyes interviews, 6-7 Jun. 1974.

  38. 38. Report of Apollo 204 Review Board, app. D, panel 7, p. D-7-12.

  39. 39. Ibid., app. B, p. B-142, testimony of Clarence Chauvin.

  40. 40. Ibid., p. B-145, testimony of William Schick.

  41. 41. Report of Apollo 204 Review Board, app. D, panel 7, p. D-7-13.

  42. 42. Ibid., pp. D-7-4, D-7-5.

  43. 43. Ibid., app. B, pp. B-153, B-154, testimony of Gary W. Propst; p. B-159, testimony of A. R. Caswell.

  44. 44. Ibid., p. B-91, testimony of Bruce W. Davis.

  45. 45. Ibid., p. B-39, testimony of D. O. Babbitt.

  46. 46. Report of Apollo 204 Review Board, app. D, panel 11, p. D-11-36. At least one member of the Pan American Fire Department, James A. Burch, testified that he had arrived in time to help open the hatch - even though he admitted the trip to the gantry took from five to six minutes and ascent on the slow elevator consumed two minutes more. Ibid., app. B, p. B-177.

  47. 47. Time, 10 Feb. 1967, p. 19.

  48. 48. Newsweek, 13 Feb. 1967, pp. 96-97.

  49. 49. The Sunday Star, Washington, 21 May 1967.

  50. 50. Quoted in Today, 14 Apr. 1967; 14 May 1967.

  51. 51. New York Times, 4 Apr. 1967.

  52. 52. H. Bliss, "NASA's in the Cold, Cold Ground," ATCHE Journal 13 (May 1967): 419.

  53. 53. Lyndon B. Johnson, The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency, 1963-1969 (New York: Popular Library, 1971), p. 284.

  54. 54. House Subcommittee on NASA Oversight of the Committee on Science and Astronautics, Investigation into Apollo 204 Accident: Hearings, 90th Cong., 1st sess., 1: 207.

  55. 55. Announcement of Dr. Kurt H. Debus, 3 Feb. 1967, "KSC Cooperation with the Apollo 204 Investigation."

  56. 56. Time, 10 Feb. 1967, reported rumors of lengthy suffering that preceded the astronauts' deaths. The autopsy disproved these charges.

  57. 57. Aviation Week and Space Technology, 13 Feb. 1967, p. 33.

  58. 58. Time, 14 Apr. 1967.

  59. 59. Report of Apollo 204 Review Board, 6 Apr. 1967, pp. 5-1, 5-2.

  60. 60. Ibid., p. 5-9.

  61. 61. Ibid., pp. 6-1, 6-2, 6-3.

  62. 62. Atkins interview, 29 May 1974.

  63. 63. Report of Apollo 204 Review Board, pp. 6-2, 6-3.

  64. 64. Ibid., p. 6-3.

  65. 65. House Subcommittee on NASA Oversight of the Committee on Science and Astronautics, Investigation into Apollo 204 Accident: Hearings, 90th Cong., 1st sess., 1: 81.

  66. 66. Atkins interview, 5 Sept. 1973.

  67. 67. Report of Apollo 204 Review Board, app. B, pp. B-39 through B-146.

  68. 68. Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Apollo Accident: Hearings, pts. l, 2.

  69. 690. Ibid., pt. 4, p. 365; House Subcommittee on NASA Oversight of the Committee on Science and Astronautics, Investigation into Apollo 204 Accident: Hearings, 90th Cong., 1st sess., 1: 13.

  70. 70. Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Apollo Accident: Hearings, 90th Cong., 1st sess., pt. 6, p. 541.

  71. 71. Ibid., pt. 2, p. 127; pt. 5, pp. 416-17; House Subcommittee on NASA Oversight of the Committee on Science and Astronautics, Investigation into Apollo 204 Accident: Hearings, 90th Gong., 1st sess., 1: 265.

  72. 72. House Subcommittee on NASA Oversight of the Committee on Science and Astronautics, Investigation into Apollo 204 Accident: Hearings, 90th Cong., 1st sess., 1: 386-87.

  73. 73. Ibid., pp. 390-91.

  74. 74. Ibid., p. 391.

  75. 75. Ibid., 1: 460-80, 501.

  76. 76. Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Report on Apollo 204 Accident, report 956, 90th Cong., 2nd sess., p. 7; Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Apollo Accident: Hearings, 90th Cong., 1st sess., pt. 4, p. 319. "Some early tendency to shift blame for the fire upon North American Aviation," Tom Alexander wrote in Fortune, July 1969, p. 117, "was gradually supplanted by NASA's admission that the fire was largely its own management's failure. NASA had overlooked and thereby

    in effect approved an inherent fault in design, namely the locking up of men in a capsule full of inflammable materials in an atmosphere of pure oxygen at sixteen pounds per square inch of pressure. NASA, after all, had more experience in the design and operation of space hardware than any other organization and was, therefore, more to blame than North American if the hardware worked badly." In 1972, however, North American Rockwell Corp., North American Aviation, Inc., Rockwell Standard Corp., and Rockwell Standard Co. settled out of court with the widows of the three astronauts who charged the spacecraft builders with negligence. The widows of White and Chaffee each received $150,000, the widow of Grissom S300,000. Washington Post, 11 Nov. 1972.

  77. 77. Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Apollo Accident: Hearings, 90th Cong., 1st sess., pt. 5, pp. 397, 428.

  78. 78. Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Report on Apollo 204 Accident, report 956, 90th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 11, 20.

  79. 79. "New Hatch Slashes Apollo Egress Time," Aviation Week and Space Technology, 15 May 1967, p. 26.

  80. 80. William J. Normyle, "NASA Details Sweeping Apollo Revisions," Aviation Week and Space Technology, 15 May 1967, p. 24.

  81. 81. George E. Mueller, "Apollo Actions in Preparation for the Next Manned Flight," Astronautics and Aeronautics 5 (Aug. 1967): 28-33; "Records of Spacecraft Testing, July 1968," in files of R. E. Reyes, Preflight Operations Br., KSC.

  82. 82. Normyle, "NASA Details," p. 25; Reyes interview, 30 Oct. 1973; Atkins interview. 5 Nov. 1973. Actually the official reports to Debus during 1966 show no written reports from the Safety Office. Atkins must have reported orally at irregular intervals.

  83. 83. Mueller, "Apollo Actions," p. 33.

  84. 84. House Special Studies Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations. Investigation of the Boeing-TJE Contract: Hearings, 90th Cong., 2nd sess., pp. 3-9.

  85. 85. Ibid., pp. 10, 13-14, 24.

  86. 86. "Technical Integration and Evaluation Contract," NASW 1650, Statement of Work, 15 June 1967.

  87. 87. Wagner interview; "Boeing-TlE Goals and Accomplishments," copy in file of Waiter Wagner, KSC.

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