In this special edition of Talking Space, we observe the anniversary of Apollo 1 allowing the crew to tell their own story and talk to us through courtesy of the NASA Internet Audio Archive. 

While launch preparations for Apollo 1 were underway, NASA had held a press conference with the prime crew of what was then called Apollo-Saturn 204

Command Pilot: Virgil I. Grissom

Senior Pilot: Edward H. White II

and Pilot: Roger B. Chaffee

The newly announced back-up crew was also in attendance: 

Back-up Command Pilot: Walter M. Schirra,

Back-up Senior Pilot: Donn F. Eisele

Back-up Pilot: R. Walter Cunningham,  

Chief of the US Astronaut Corps Donald K. "Deke" Slayton was also made available to the press for this conference. 

The purpose of the press event was to introduce the new back-up crew for the flight and to highlight training for the upcoming mission of the then new 3 person spacecraft that would be the lynchpin to get the United States to the Moon.  

Rather than recount the doleful events from January 27, 1967, we decided to take a different approach and allow people who may not have been alive or were too young to hear from the astronauts and remember these courageous individuals as they prepared for what was to be the first piloted mission for the Apollo program. 

For More information on Apollo 1, visit the NASA History web site 

Host: Gene Mikulka