Did NASA Sabotage Its Own
Space Capsule?
From NASA Mooned America!
by Rene
THE RIGHT STUFF
The Seven Samurai is a 1954 Japanese cult movie about a poverty
stricken village that hired seven magnificent warriors to help them
fight the bandits.
In 1960 Hollywood filmed The Magnificent Seven
which was effectively the same story set in Mexico as a western.
Someone in the hierarchy of NASA had undoubtedly seen one or both
movies and decided that seven space samurai was a psychologically
appropriate number to start with. We were told that these men
represented the nation's finest and that they possessed what was
later called that elusive quality: the "Right Stuff."
Virgil Grissom certainly had the "Right Stuff." He was one of the
original seven, culled from the first batch of military test pilots
almost a decade before. Grissom was not the type of man who "went
along to get along." Men who spend their lives seeking the wild
hairs on a new air-plane's ass seldom are. He was a professional
test pilot, a mechanical engineer and had flown 100 combat missions
in Korea.
But he was dead before his flight to the Moon could
fulfill his dream.
ACCIDENTS
Compared to civilian test pilots the astronauts were underpaid.
However, their perks were impressive. Their celebrity status
instantly conferred upon them all the bonuses usually associated
with show business stardom. Each night on the town provided them
with all the young women they could handle, plus free drinks in
every bar in the country. They were also given a government jet
trainer as a personal toy.
Test pilots have a hazardous occupation which probably sees as many
fatalities per unit of time as do men in combat. However, before the
first Apollo manned flight ever cleared the launching pad eleven
astronauts
died in accidents. Grissom, Chaffee, and White were cremated in an
Apollo capsule test on the launching pad during a completely and
suspiciously unnecessary test.
Seven died in six air crashes:
Freemen, Basset and See, Rogers, Williams, Adams and Lawrence.
Givens was killed in a car crash.
When you reflect on their deaths in the light of the
three-man-instant crematorium one wonders. Add the fact that there
were eight deaths in 1967 alone. One wonders if these "accidents"
weren't NASA's way of correcting mistakes and saying that some of
these men really didn't have the "Right Stuff."
After 1967, only Taylor died in another plane crash in 1970. An
actuarial statistician would probably go berserk over these numbers
considering how small the group was. Another weighty factor, even
though they were "hot" pilots, the astronauts flew their trainer
jets only part time. And add to that the fact that trainers are
usually inherently safer than other planes in the same class. It
would raise his eyebrows to find how few of these men would ever
enter space.
I can't help but wonder what technicians serviced their
ships—because what we have here is an appalling "accident" rate.
They were the finest professional pilots in the world, operating
government planes where costs have little meaning. Yet they died.
Even if we call the cremation an accident we still have five more
"accident" deaths in one year. Very interesting!
I also wonder what the death rate was among the other
NASA employees who were in position to know too much?
THE PRELIMINARIES
The first American in space was Alan Shepard, followed by Grissom
and then Glenn. I'm convinced that every Mercury flight was real and
that the phony missions only started after Grissom's Gemini 3. And
even some of the later Gemini flights were real which leaves most of
the original astronauts smelling like a rose. Unfortunately, Wally Schirra and NASA General
Tom Stafford's Gemini 6A flight, with its
miracle of an undamaged antenna, turned the rosy aroma into real
toilet water. So did Alan Shepard's little golf game on the Moon
during the Apollo 14 mission.
All of these men barely entered near space (near-Earth-orbit) which
I define as any altitude less than 500 miles. Far space I reserve
for those interstellar journeys that may come during the next
millennium. That is, if we can solve our planetary problems before
we dissolve in the stew created by the Four Horsemen of the
Apocalypse: War, Famine, Plague, Pestilence.
And add a fifth
"horseman," Religious Fanaticism, which frequently causes the other
four.
Every other "race" involving aircraft, from hot air balloons through
rocket planes, entailed serious efforts to go higher and faster than
the other guy. For good technical reasons neither we or the Russians
played that game. To this day our Shuttle flights are limited to
very near space usually well under 200 miles in altitude.
Most writers on the Apollo Program either totally ignored, or played
down, the fact that by early January 67, Grissom, was no longer a
happy camper. He was very disenchanted with both NASA and the prime
capsule contractor, North American Aviation. This company had a
phoenix-like ability to weather every storm, including the fire on
Pad 34.
It ultimately combined with Rockwell Engineering to become
North American Rockwell.
GRISSOM'S LEMON
North American Rockwell's first Apollo capsule had been delivered
and accepted by NASA in August 66, with a flight date set for
November. But time after time the date had to be reset because of
problems with the craft.
"Grissom, a veteran of two test flights in
Mercury and Gemini, normally quiet and easy-going, a flight pro,
could not hide his irritation. 'Pretty slim' was the way he put
his Apollo's chances of meeting its mission requirements."1
According to Mike Gray,
"Grissom had a sense of unease about this flight.
He told his wife, Betty, 'If there ever is a serious accident in
the space program, it's likely to be me.'"2
We will never know if this statement was the result
of a psychic premonition or a burgeoning fear of our government.
Early in January 67, Grissom, probably unaware that NASA had other
internal critics, hung a lemon on the Apollo capsule. He was
threatening to go public with his complaints.3 He was already a
popular celebrity, especially with the press. He would have had no
problem in getting his story out. In a case like this even NASA's
censors would have had little control over the news.
Headlines like "Popular Astronaut Rips Into NASA!!"
couldn't be easily squelched.
SPACE RADIATION
NASA also had another serious problem, besides being in a space race
with the Russian Bear. This problem derived from our first answer to
the Sputniks. On January 31, 1958, Explorer 1 lifted into orbit. It
weighed a mere 18.3 pounds and carried a Geiger counter which
dutifully reported that a belt of intense radiation surrounded the
Earth.
The belt was subsequently named after the Explorer Project Head,
James A. Van Allen. However, the radiation was first predicted by
Nikola Tesla around the beginning of this century as the result of
experimental and theoretical work he had done on electricity in
space in general and the electrical charge of the Sun in particular.
He tried then to tell our academic natural philosophers (scientists)
that the Sun had a fantastic electrical charge and that it must
generate a solar wind. But to no avail. The experts knew he was
crazy.
It would take almost sixty years to prove him right.
However, predicting something is not the same as discovery so the
discovery of our magnetic girdle of radiation rightfully belongs to
the man who was suspicious enough to put a Geiger counter on board
the satellite, whichever technician actually thought of it.
Subsequent study showed that this belt, or belts, began in near
space about 500 miles out and extends out to over 15,000 miles.
Since the radiation there is more or less steady it obviously must
receive as much radiation from space as it loses. If not it would
either increase until it fried the Earth or decay away to nothing.
Van Allen belt radiation is dependent upon the solar wind and is
said to focus or concentrate that radiation. However, since it can
only trap what has traveled to it in a straight line from the Sun
there remains a dangerous question: how much more radiation can
there be in the rest of solar space?
The Moon does not have a Van Allen belt. Neither does it have a
protective atmosphere. It lies nakedly exposed to the full blast of
the solar wind. Were there a large solar flare during any one of the
Moon missions massive amounts of radiation would scour both the
capsules and the Moon's surface where our astronauts gamboled away
the day. The question is worse than dangerous—it's lethal!
In 1963 the Russian space scientists told the famous British
astronomer, Bernard Lovell that they,
"could see no immediate way of
protecting cosmonauts from the lethal effects of solar radiation."4
This had to mean that not even the much thicker metal walls used on
the Russian capsules could stop this radiation. How could the very
thin metal—almost foil—we used on our capsules stop the radiation?
NASA knew that. Space monkeys died in less than ten days but NASA
never revealed their cause of death.
Most people, even those interested in space, are still unaware that
killer radiation pulses through space. I believe our ignorance was
caused by the people who sell us space sagas. Sitting in front of me
is a 9-x-12-inch coffee table book titled The Illustrated
Encyclopedia of Space Technology, printed in 1981. The words "Space
Radiation" just do not exist on any of its almost 300 pages. In fact
with the dual exceptions of Bill Mauldin's Prospects for
Interstellar Travel published in 1992 and Astronautical Engineering
and Science written by early NASA experts, no other book I have read
even begins to discuss this extremely serious impediment to space
flights.
Do I detect the fine hand of my democratic government at
work?
The Russians were in a position to know because as early as the
spring of 61 their probes had been sent to the backside of the Moon.
Upon his return to England Lovell sent this information to NASA's
deputy administrator, Hugh Dryden. Dryden, representing NASA
obviously ignored it!
Collins spoke of space radiation in only two places in his book. He
said,
"At least the moon was well past the earth's Van Allen belts,
which promised a healthy dose of radiation to those who passed and a
lethal dose to those who stayed."5
In speaking of ways to dodge problems he wrote,
"In similar fashion,
the Van Allen Radiation belts around the earth and the possibility
of solar flares require understanding and planning to avoid exposing
the crew to an excessive dose of radioactivity."6
-
So what does "understanding and planning" mean?
-
Does it mean that
after the Van Allen Belts are passed that the rest of space is free
of radiation?
-
Or did NASA have a strategy for dodging solar flares
once they were committed to the trip?
It seems to imply that back in 1969 it was possible to predict solar
flares. My astronomy text has this to say on that subject,
"It is accordingly possible to predict only
approximately the date of the future maximum and how plentiful
the groups will then become."7
This text was ten years old by 1969. Later in this
book I will show that nothing had changed during the years of Apollo
Moon missions.
To continue with the Apollo Program after receiving this information
implies that NASA knew something the Russians didn't. Either we had
developed an effective extremely light weight radiation shield or
NASA already knew that no one was going any where near the Moon.
Could the cloth in our space suits stop the radiation?
I doubt that
because more than fifteen years have passed since the partial core
melt-down at TMI (Three Mile Island) and workers still can't enter
the containment dome. We don't yet have the technology to create
light weight flexible radiation shielding. High velocity could get
the capsule through the Van Allen belt but what could they do about
solar flares during the rest of the trip to the Moon? And if we
didn't go, why didn't the Soviets, our arch enemies, rat us out?
While I was thinking about this something rang a bell. Around the
time we were fighting communism in Vietnam (and other countries in
south-east Asia) we began to sell Russia, later to be called the
Evil Empire, wheat by the mega-ton at an ultra-cheap price.
On July 8, 1972 our government shocked the entire world by
announcing that we would sell about one-fourth of our entire crop of
wheat to Russia at a fixed price of $1.63 per bushel. According to
these sources we were about to produce another bumper crop while the
Russian crop would
be 10-20 percent less. The market price at the time of the
announcement was $1.50 but immediately soared to a new high of $2.44
a bushel.8
Guess who paid the 91 cents difference in price for the Russians?
Our bread prices and meat prices were immediately inflated
reflecting the suddenly diminished supply. It was the beginning of
the high inflation of the 70s. Now how much did the Moon cost us?
Would our government be a party to blackmail? Nah!
However, if NASA knew that Kennedy's dream was impossible in the
time frame given, they should have reported this to the President.
We are civilized now and no longer cut off the right arm of the
messenger who brings bad news. Now we cut off budgets! That's safer
for the messenger but fatal to the bureaucracy in question.
NASA must have decided if they couldn't make it they would fake it.
Big bucks were at stake here, to say nothing of American prestige.
Those bucks, properly funneled, would buy a lot of southeast Asia,
at least for awhile. And with proper prestidigitation some of the
same could wind up in numbered accounts handled either by the
"gnomes of Zurich" or off-shore Caribbean banks.
NASA'S OTHER PROBLEM
NASA's second problem was magnified as a result of the first. If
they were really going to land on the Moon they would be able to
take great quantities of real photos and pick up genuine Moon rocks.
Such pictures should include the Earth rising or setting against a
background of a bona fide starry sky.
However, if they weren't actually going to the Moon, the evidence
would have to be synthesized. Credible proof was vital to the
continued high rate of funding and to NASA's very survival. NASA's
labs could create "Moon rocks" to the specifications of an educated,
or rather an expected, guess that would pass any inspection, because
there wasn't anything else to compare them to.
Or they could have used rock samples picked up in Antarctica during
the intensive exploration of that continent during the International
Geophysical Year in 1957. They would do as well provided there were
no fossils in them. These rocks could be slowly doled out, but only
to those geologists who could be counted on to agree with anything
the government said. And most of academia can be relied on to do
just that!
Strangely enough rocks were later found in Antarctica that closely
resemble "Moon rocks." In point of fact, some geologists are now
positive that these rocks were blasted from the Moon to Earth during
immense meteoric impacts.
However, true-to-the-Moon photos posed a bit more of a problem.
Because the twentieth century is the age of increasingly
sophisticated photography, huge amounts of tape and film had to be
expended. NASA seemed to do precisely that.
As Harry Hurt put it,
"... Project Apollo was one of the most
extensively documented undertakings in human history..." 9
Despite this alleged fact and the fact that the NASA
Apollo mission photo numbers seem to indicate that thousands of
pictures were taken, we keep seeing the same few dozen pictures in
all the books on space.
Using the well developed art of Hollywood style special effects (FX)
the astronauts could be photographed "on the Moon" in the top secret
studio set up near Mercury, Nevada. Of course, there is a bit more
to great FX than having the best equipment. As in any art form, the
artists are always more important than their tools. The backbone of
superb FX is lodged in the Hollywood professionals who devote their
lives to it. Lacking access to these relatively liberal experts NASA
was forced to use CIA hacks... relative amateurs.
Nevertheless, they did their job well enough to pass casual
inspection for many years. It worked only because we wanted to
believe! As long as we had something to hang our hats on we could
continue to have faith and ignore the anomalies in the evidence the
photos provided.
It worked ... for a while!
GRISSOM'S FINAL MISTAKE
At the time of his death Grissom was one of NASA's old-timers. He
was the man who, a few short years before, certified that the
astronauts had been involved in every step of the program and had
been free to criticize at will, and even suggest ideas for
improvements.
He was the man whose fatal error was no more than in
being who he was; an independent thinker ... a free spirit who
seemed to be completely unaware that NASA had wholeheartedly opted
to enact the second part of the old saying,
"If you can't make it, fake it!"
He had been selected as Commander of Apollo I, the
first manned flight of the Apollo series.
Grissom's crew included
Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee. White flew on Gemini 4 but
Chaffee was a newcomer who had not as yet been in space, or verified
the NASA rite of passage by condemning the visibility of stars and
planets.
THE HANDICAP
Right from the beginning, NASA was operating under a tremendous
handicap. They were in a space race with a nation who, they knew,
had operational rockets that made ours seem like tinker toys by
comparison. The Soviets started their space program in capsules that
were 50 times heavier than those we were launching six months later.
Russian capsules were closer to being compressed air tanks than
flimsy space capsules. Their ships had sufficient wall strength to
maintain normal atmospheric pressure inside the craft against the
zero pressure outside in space. However, since we didn't have
rockets to lift that sort of weight, we couldn't afford this luxury.
We had to make light, [almost] tin foil, capsules just to get into
the ball game.
The differential in pressure between the 14.7 psi (our normal
atmospheric pressure) and the zero pressure of space amounts to 2116
pounds per square foot of outward loading on the enclosing wall of a
capsule. Compare this figure with the floor of a house—which is
designed to be safely loaded to only 30 pounds per square foot—and
you will realize that relatively heavy metal is vital for skin and
skeleton if you want to enjoy normal pressure. It is wall strength
that prevents catastrophic and explosive depressurization of small
capsules.
The LEM's walls will be discussed in more detail
later in the book.
BREATHING MIXTURES
The greater lifting capacity of their rockets allowed the Russians
the luxury of using a mixture of 20 percent oxygen and 80 percent
nitrogen—the equivalent to regular air. Naturally it wasn't stored
on board as bulky "compressed air." It was stored separately as
liquids in cryogenic tanks.
However, the nitrogen supply was smaller since the
gas is inert to the human body and additional nitrogen is required
only to help reestablish pressure when the cabin is vented to space.
Oxygen tanks were larger because the only oxygen used is that small
portion converted into CO2, by the necessity of breathing and this
is immediately removed from the cabin by chemicals.
A great deal is also lost when the cabin is vented to
space during depressurization.
PURE OXYGEN
Lacking strong walled capsules, NASA decided right from the
beginning to use 50 percent oxygen and 50 percent nitrogen at 7 psi.
This specification was changed in August 1962, into the use of pure
oxygen at 5 psi.10 A policy shift of this nature indicates that
approved design of the capsules being manufactured was weaker than
expected.
The amazing thing is that NASA made this deadly
decision despite testing that usually ended in disaster. One would
think that after testing showed disaster that one would never
implement a dangerous policy. But NASA was in a race with destiny.
They had no time for common sense.
NASA TESTS
Here is a list of all government sponsored testing that resulted in
oxygen fires. This information was extracted from Appendix in
Mission To The Moon written by Kennan
& Harvey:
-
September 9, 1962—The first known fire occurred
in the Space Cabin Simulator at Brooks Air Force Base in a
chamber using 100 percent oxygen at 5 psi. It was explosive and
involved the CO2 scrubber. Both occupants collapsed from smoke
inhalation before being rescued.
-
November 17, 1962—Another incident using 100
percent oxygen at 5 psi in a chamber at the Navy Laboratory (ACEL).
There were four occupants in the chamber, but the simple
replacing of a burned-out light bulb caused their clothes to
catch on fire. They escaped in 40 seconds but all suffered
burns. Two were seriously injured. In addition an asbestos
"safety" blanket caught fire and burned causing one man's hand
to catch fire.
-
July 1, 1964—This explosion was at an AIResearch
facility when they were testing an Apollo cabin air temperature
sensor. No one was injured. The composition of the atmosphere
and pressure isn't listed, but we have to assume 100 percent
oxygen (and possible pressure equal to atmospheric).
-
February 16, 1965—This fire killed two occupants
at the Navy's Experimental Diving Unit in Washington, D.C. The
oxygen was at 28 percent and the pressure at 55.6 psi. The
material in the chamber apparently supported extremely rapid
combustion, driving the pressure up to 130 psi.
-
April 13, 1965—Another explosion as AIResearch
was testing more Apollo equipment. Again, neither pressure or
atmospheric composition is given but a polyurethane foam cushion
exploded.
-
April 28, 1966—More Apollo equipment was
destroyed as it was being tested under 100 percent oxygen and 5
psi at the Apollo Environmental Control System in Torrance, CA.
-
January 1, 1967—The last known test was over
three weeks before Grissom, Chaffee and White suffered
immolation. Two men were handling 16 rabbits in a chamber of 100
percent oxygen at 7.2 psi at Brooks Air Force Base and all
living things died in the inferno. The cause may have been as
simple as a static discharge from the rabbits' fur... but we'll
never know.
Of course, NASA's moronic decision to use pure oxygen
would play a crucial part in the deadly fire on Pad 34 a few years
later.
Never mind that the test was classified as "non hazardous" by
NASA. Only after Grissom, White and Chaffee died in that fire, would
NASA again change the specs to either 60-40 or 50-50 oxygen/nitrogen
mixes at 5 psi, depending on what source I've read.11
In pure oxygen at normal pressure even a piece of steel wool will
burn rapidly. In fact, Michael Collins claims that even stainless
steel will burn.12 As mentioned already an asbestos blanket,
normally classed as fireproof, was consumed when used to smother
flames during an oxygen fire.13 Pure oxygen is extremely hazardous!
To successfully switch to reduced pressure breathing of pure oxygen
one must first purge the body of nitrogen. This prevents residual
nitrogen left in the body from forming small bubbles which expand
from the decreasing pressure. To deep sea divers this is known as
"the bends." To avoid this lethal hazard astronauts must spend some
period of time breathing 100 percent oxygen—which is medically
dangerous— at full atmospheric pressure just before the mission.
The pressure problem in a space capsule is [analogous] to those
encountered in a submarine. Submarine hulls are deliberately strong,
to resist the increasing pressure at depth. If a submarine hull was
as thin as our space crafts—at 200 feet deep it would require an
internal pressure of 100 psi—at 300 feet a pressure is 150 psi.
PRESSURE TESTING
The Apollo Program command capsules must be regarded as flimsy, even
though they were built of titanium which has the strength of steel
and weighs half as much. I reason that if our capsules were too weak
to with-stand normal pressure they must also have been too weak to
keep the atmosphere from crushing the capsule on the launching pad.
If this was true they had to be using 100 percent oxygen at normal
pressure during the launch.
It was found out that this is precisely what NASA did on all their
launches. It is obvious that the present Shuttles, with 50 tons of
cargo capacity, could use normal pressure and regular air. However,
the designers may still begrudge the few pounds of extra material in
the cabin that it takes to do this. By the same token our large
diameter commercial air-liners are able to maintain almost regular
atmospheric pressure, and don't have to resort to pure oxygen, even
when flying over 40,000 feet. Neither does the SST which hits
altitudes of 60,000 feet.
To insure the integrity of the capsule NASA subjected it to their
pres-sure test. One would assume that they would use compressed air
for this test because the electric panels had power and live men
were inside the unit. However, when it came time to test the 012
capsule on Pad 34 it was decided to use pure oxygen at a pressure
somewhat above our atmospheric pressure of 14.7 psi. What the
actual pressure was is confusing. It was either 16.7 psi according
to Michael Collins, or 20.2 psi as reported by Frank Borman.14
One would think that intelligent men with the "Right Stuff' would
precisely know the pressures used. But either way, there were
astronauts locked inside—practicing for their first Apollo mission.
After the accident NASA claimed the test was SOP (Standard Operating
Procedure). In either case an idiot was in charge.
If it was SOP, then the idiot was the official who instituted and
approved this test program. If not, then it was the low level idiot
in direct charge of the test who gave the order to proceed. I have
no fear of a libel suit because of this accusation. The only legal
defense in a libel suit is whether what you said was the truth, as
determined by a jury. If you were on a jury and watched steel wool
explode in a 16.7 psi 100 percent oxy-gen atmosphere what would you
decide?
I find it hard to believe that this test was SOP. In fact, I suspect
that it wasn't, simply because two men with the "Right Stuff' can't
agree. NASA telling us after the fire that it was always done that
way, doesn't prove a thing. NASA, like all political organizations,
can always be counted on to say anything to better their position.
Using pure oxygen at this pressure, once the panels were live, means
that every launch was always one small spark away from disaster.
Combustion in 100 percent oxygen even at low pressures, is extremely
rapid.
At higher pressures it becomes explosive!
HIGH PRESSURE OXYGEN
Consider this standard procedure: Burning a substance using high
pres-sure oxygen is precisely the method used to determine the
number of calories in that substance. The test procedure requires
placing the sample in a strong steel pressure vessel called a
"Calorimeter Bomb." The "Bomb" is placed in an insulated container
of water holding a known quantity of water at a known temperature.
There is an electrical sparking device in-side the bomb and
sufficient high pressure oxygen is added to insure complete
combustion of the material.
Even relatively wet foodstuffs are quickly reduced to ashes once the
electric spark initiates combustion. This process produces high
pressures in the steel chamber. That's why it's called a Calorimeter
Bomb. The heat transfers to the surrounding water and the rise in
temperature using known parameters results in the quantity of
calories (energy) in the substance tested.
To get back to the discussion, every time an electric switch is
thrown the induction of the electric current causes a tiny spark to
jump between the two switch contacts. If the unit is explosion proof
(like the switches motors, and lighting fixtures used in hazardous
or explosive locations), that spark is safely enclosed in a
hermetically scaled container. If not any-thing near it that is
combustible can burn.
In standard electrical switches the electrical insulation is some
form of plastic (hydrocarbon). All hydrocarbons can be oxidized if
there is sufficient oxygen and heat to raise the temperature of some
small portion of that substance beyond the flash point.
Bear in mind that an electric spark is a plasma.
Indeed the temperature at the core of a large spark can be so high
it is indeterminable.
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION
The phenomena we call spontaneous combustion is also oxidation.
Under normal conditions oxygen in the air begins to oxidize almost
any material. In fact what we call rust on metal is supposed to be
very slow oxidation. If the material is insulated to any degree, the
heat created by the process cannot escape as fast as it is
generated.
So the entrapped heat creates a small temperature
rise which increases the rate of oxidation. If some or all of that
increased heat cannot escape there is a self-escalating "loop." The
temperature continues to rise until the flash point is reached. At
that point the material concerned bursts into flame. That's
"spontaneous" combustion.
In an atmosphere containing a higher percentage of oxygen or a
higher pressure the oxidation rate is greatly increased. It is well
known that a pile of oily rags in an oxygen environment will burst
into flame.
In 100 per-cent oxygen any hydrocarbon or carbohydrate
becomes potential fuel needing only a small spark or increase in
heat to set it off.
THE TEST
On January 27, 1967 astronauts Grissom, White and Chaffee approached
Pad 34 where an obsolete model of the command capsule had been
installed on top of an unfueled Saturn 1B rocket.15 This was the
same type of rocket that had carried the smaller and lighter Gemini
capsules. The capsule itself was already outmoded and would be
replaced before any Apollo missions were launched.
However this was a full "dress" rehearsal. But somebody neglected to
tell the maintenance people to clean out all the extremely
combustible extraneous construction materials. The urgency of this
test was simply that they were scheduled for a manned mission that
had been repeatedly postponed. As we will see later, NASA had every
intention of sending Apollo I, Grissom's mission, into space even
though neither that Saturn V (actual moon rocket), nor the Apollo
capsule, had ever actually been tested in space.
Would you not have smelled a rat?
Perhaps Grissom was a bit worried
because he got Wally Schirra to ask Joe Shea. NASA's chief
administrator, to go through that with him.
"Grissom still wanted Shea to be with
him in the spacecraft. "16
Shea refused because NASA couldn't patch
in a fourth headset in time for the test. Is that likely?
It is difficult to believe that this couldn't have been done in the
24 hour time frame available. If I had a crew of technicians who
couldn't install another headset-jack in that amount of time I'd
fire the whole damn crew.
The original Apollo capsule had different hatches, but by 1300 hours
all three astronauts were strapped in their acceleration couches
with the new hatches sealed behind them. It was later revealed that
these hatches were so poorly designed that even with outside help
and in a non-emergency situation, it took seven or eight minutes to
open them. They were originally supposed to spend a few hours
practicing throwing the proper switches at the right time in
sequential response to computer simulations. However, with delay
piled upon delay and everyone in a hurry, each time a switch was
thrown, unnoticed by any, tiny sparks jumped.
During the test of the Apollo capsule on Pad 34 Grissom and his crew
were in 100 percent oxygen simulating the real thing. In fact they
reported a burning smell a few times earlier that day. When that
happened technicians would come with "sniffers," open the hatches,
but find nothing. One wonders if the review board considered that
these hatch openings flushed out the smell with the fresh air
admitted by opening the hatch. These incidents delayed the test and
time was running out.17
The extraneous combustible materials may have been
combining with the pressurized oxygen each time pure oxygen refilled
the cabin. Oxidation makes heat, and if you stop the process that
heat remains in the material. Each time you re-pressurize the craft
the combustible material will be at a slightly higher temperature. I
sense that the board of review missed this angle.
I also feel that spontaneous combustion would have been much too
subtle for the CIA. If it was a CIA hit they would have done it with
an electric squib or incendiary device wired to a switch programmed
to be thrown toward the end of the test.
While the testing was going on, some mastermind in mission control
decided to save some time. In his wisdom that unknown leader made
the decision to speed up the testing. As the board of inquiry later
noted, "To save time, the space agency took a short cut." What he
did was simply order the capsule to be pressurized with 100 percent
oxygen at either 16.7 or 20.2 psi. Notice, that no name was used.
The entire agency takes the blame.
I have great difficulty in believing that apparently not one of
these rocket scientists in Control, nor the astronauts themselves,
knew that, a Calorimeter Bomb consists of a combustible material,
pressurized oxygen and a spark. These were highly educated men, men
with technical degrees, men who had taken chemistry courses, and men
who must have spent some time around welding and cutting torches
that used oxygen.
Also I cannot understand why Grissom et al entered that capsule in
the first place if they knew it was to be pressurized with oxygen
over 14.7 psi. For example in a hospital no one is allowed to smoke
in a room where oxygen is in use. In this situation we have only a
small section of a room with tiny amounts of low pressure oxygen
being used. Yet everyone seems to know of the danger.
Grissom was a test pilot and engineer while both
White and Chaffee had degrees in aeronautical engineering.
Apparently not one of them complained. Didn't anyone know about
Calorimeter Bombs? Didn't NASA send them copies of the fire reports?
Or maybe no one told them they were jacking up the pressure!
At 17:45 hours (5:45 P.M.) Grissom was getting angry with the
communication people for a static filled on again-off again
communication system. At one point he ragged them,
"How do you expect to get us to the moon if you
people can't even hook us up with a ground station? Get with it
out there."18
In the meantime around 6 P.M. Collins had to attend a
general meeting of the astronauts. Let Collins tell you about it in
an incredible single paragraph: 19
On Friday, January 27,1967, the astronaut office
was very quiet and practically deserted, in fact. Al Shepard,
who ran the place, was off some-where, and so were all the old
heads. But someone had to go to the Friday staff meeting, Al's
secretary pointed out, and I was the senior astronaut present,
so off I headed to Slayton's office, note pad in hand, to jot
down another week's worth of trivia.
Deke wasn't there either, and in his absence, Don
Gregory, his assistant presided. We had just barely gotten
started when the red crash phone on Deke's desk rang. Don
snatched it up and listened impassively. The rest of us said
nothing. Red phones were a part of my life, and when they rang
it was usually a communications test or a warning of an aircraft
accident or a plane aloft in trouble. After what seemed like a
very long time, Don finally hung up and said very quietly, "Fire
in the spacecraft."
That's all he had to say.
There was no doubt about which spacecraft (012)
or who was in it (Grissom, White, Chaffee) or where (Pad 34 Cape
Kennedy) or why (a final systems test) or what (death, the
quicker the better). All I could think of was My God, such an
obvious thing and yet we hadn't considered it. We worried about
engines that wouldn't start or wouldn't stop; we worried about
leaks; we even worried about how a flame front might propagate
in weightlessness and how cabin pressure might be reduced to
stop a fire in space.
But right here on the ground, when we should have
been most alert, we put three guys inside an untried spacecraft,
strapped them into couches, locked two cumbersome hatches behind
them, and left them no way of escaping a fire. Oh yes, if a
booster caught fire, down below, there were elaborate if
impractical, plans for escaping the holocaust by sliding down a
wire, but fire inside a spacecraft itself simply couldn't
happen. Yet it had happened, and why not?
After all, the 100 percent oxygen environment we
used in space was at least at a reduced pressure of five pounds
per square inch, but on the launch pad the pressure was slightly
above atmospheric, or nearly 16 psi. Light a cigarette in pure
oxygen at 16 psi and you will get the surprise of your life as
you watch it turn to ash in about two seconds. With all those
oxygen molecules packed in there at that pressure, any material
generally considered "combustible" would instead be almost
explosive.
Here Collins reported that the pressure was 16 psi.
Other authors went higher. A staff meeting at 6 P.M. on Friday
night? Do you have a feeling that this Friday night staff meeting
was the first and last in the long history of our government
bureaucracies?
THE FIRE
At 6:31:03 P.M., one of the astronauts smelled smoke and yelled
fire. The capsule had suddenly turned into a Calorimeter Bomb. They
tried their best to open the hatch. Without panic the triple hatch
that sealed them in usually took about nine minutes to open. They
didn't have nine minutes. In fact, they barely had ninety seconds
before their suits burned through and the deadly poisonous gasses
released from the plastics silenced them forever.
The capsule's internal pressure soared from the great quantity of
hot gasses created by the quasi-explosive burning of all the
combustible material. This short term fire was so intense that it
melted a silver soldered joint on the oxygen feed pipe pouring even
more oxygen into the conflagration.
At 6:31:17, fourteen seconds from the first smell of smoke, the
pressure reached 29 pounds and the capsule ruptured, effectively
releasing the heat and damping the fire. But it was too late. They
were already dead.
Let me put in some additional questions here. If this was not murder
and just an example of extreme stupidity in governmental slow motion
why did government agents in rapid action, raid Grissom's home
before anyone knew about the fire? Why did they remove all his
personal papers and his diary? Why didn't they bring his diary, or
any other paper with the word "Apollo" on it back, when they
returned some of his personal papers to his widow? And if it really
took 29 psi to blow the cabin why didn't they use regular air at
higher pressure?
Also was it really the vicissitudes of life that the outward opening
hatch was coincidentally changed that very morning to one that
opened inward? An inward opening hatch meant that any inside
pressure, acting outward, would prevent it from being opened—even if
someone was standing by, which they weren't.
It was also boiled up from the outside and lacked
explosive bolts.20
THE AFTERMATH
NASA should have known better. And they did! You have read earlier
of the men injured in flash explosive fires in their own tests. NASA
had even commissioned a report by Dr. Emanuel M. Roth which was
published in 1964. Dr. Roth cited difficulties with 100 percent
oxygen atmospheres even under low pressures. Any competent engineer
should have known the dangers of oxygen at 16.7 or 20.2 psi.
This is why I cannot believe that this was "standard
operating procedure," or that Grissom and his crew knew that about
it. NASA not only ignored their own tests on pure low pressure
oxygen but upped the ante by increasing the pressure above
atmospheric.
Kennan and Harvey had this to say,
"Most U.S. scientists could not believe their
ears when they learned that fact. Oxygen at such pressure comes
in the category of an 'oxygen bomb.'"21
A Board of Inquiry termed "The Apollo 204 Review
Board" was quickly convened to investigate the fatal fire by
appointing astronaut Frank Borman as the chairman. In effect, NASA
sent the fox into the chicken house to investigate mysterious
disappearances of the occupants.
The board's final report was about what you might
expect when an in-house investigation investigates itself:
"One key to the caution which reveals itself on
every page of the Board's report is that it was written by
government employees. Thompson himself was director of the space
agency's Langley Research center, and no fewer than six of the
eight Board members were NASA officials."22
The pressure of 16.7 psi is quoted from
Journey to
Tranquility where the authors wrote that they learned the pressure
of the pure oxygen in the capsule was 2 psi over atmospheric.
Collins reported it as nearly 16 psi. It seems strange that NASA
told two insiders, Borman and Collins, plus the authors of
Tranquility three different capsule pressures? Apparently NASA, like
the rest of us find it almost impossible to keep all the little
white lies straight. And if it's a group lie we get the results
shown in this book.
Borman writes that,
"We brought in every learned mind we could
enlist—including a chemistry expert from Cornell..."23
Didn't this expert know that oxygen has a deep and
forceful desire to breed little oxides by passionately mating with
hydrocarbons and carbohydrates? Didn't this "so-called" expert tell
them that?
Borman, played dumb when he was called before Congress. In testifying
under oath he said,
"None of us were fully aware of the hazard that
existed when you combine a pure-oxygen atmosphere with the
extensive distribution of combustible materials and a likely
source of ignition... and so this test... was not classified as
hazardous."24
And if Borman was as unaware of all the dangerous
fires that erupted during NASA's own safety tests over the years why
did he later write about 20.2 psi oxygen in this manner,
"That is an
extremely dangerous environment, the equivalent of sitting on a live
bomb, waiting for someone to light the fuse. "25
Aldrin in his 1989 book,
Men From Earth written twenty-two years
after the cremation has this to say,
"As every high school chemistry student learns,
when a smoldering match is put into a beaker of oxygen, it
blazes into a spectacular flame."26
He (Aldrin) continues by telling us how there was a
multitude of switches and miles of electrical wiring all of which
were easy to short and could act as a match.
"But the risk was considered acceptable because,
in space, the astronauts could instantly depressurize their
cabin..."27
Hey Buzz, didn't you claim that the reason your EVA
[extravehicular activity] on the Moon was late in starting because
it took so long to vent the last of the oxygen from the LEM?
Say what?
Borman, who held a Masters in engineering and taught
thermodynamics at West Point claims nobody was aware of the danger!
After all these years Aldrin now claims he knew. Obviously, either
Borman is lying or Aldrin didn't have the guts to open his mouth.
When Deke Slayton was asked about the pressure test he reportedly
blurted out,
"Man, we've just been lucky. We've used the same
test on everything we've done with the Mercury and the Gemini up
to this point, and we've just been lucky as hell."28
Why do I doubt that? I suspect that everything about
the pressurization test is a lie. I think that it was a one time
only occurrence specially configured to suit the job at hand.
Borman contended that Ed White and his wife Pat were friends of his
and that he listened to the audio tapes of the fire over and over
again.
Then he states,
"The only comfort derived from listening to the
tapes was the knowledge that the agony hadn't lasted long; that
death had come from noxious fumes before the flames reached
them."29
Borman's acumen might be judged by the fact that
Eastern Airlines played submarine when he was at the helm as CEO.
Nobody dies in 14 seconds from noxious fumes. Ed White died inhaling
super heated oxygen which set fire to his lungs, throat and skin the
same way that technician's hand burned in the test years before. The
chances are that they survived for minutes and were conscious for a
good part of that time. However, death was definite after the first
breath.
Borman then writes about "nuts" and disgruntled employees who tried
to give his committee information:
As the investigation progressed, all sorts of
nuts came out of the wood-work with their own theories. There
also were some serious allegations directed against North
American Aviation, most of them coming from former employees
with large axes to grind. They charged the the company with
criminal neglect and mismanagement, and we investigated each
accusation thoroughly. We found that in every case we were
getting input from people who simply had personal grievances
against the company, with no evidence to back them up.30
That's odd!
One of Borman's superiors, General
Phillips, had also made a report in November, 1966 that shredded
North American Aviation. He could hardly be classified as a
disgruntled employee. Speaking of classified, Michael Gray in his
book disclosed the fact that Phillip's report was classified.31 Borman apparently ignored that report.
Time and time again, NASA has bragged about how open NASA was. One
wonders, then, who classified this report? What could it possibly
have had to do with national security? No wonder that Bill Kaysing
was never able to obtain a copy. To paraphrase an old saying, the
"TOP SECRET" stamp, because it reflects patriotism, has always been
the last refuge of scoundrels.
On April 27, 1967 the 204 Board was still in the process of almost
learning new things. A low level employee named Thomas Baron had
already testified in Washington and now was a target for NASA's ire.
His voluminous reports were day by day accounts of North American's
screw-ups and were written years earlier. It seems very strange that
both Baron's and Phillips' reports disappeared. After accepting his
reports, the 204 Board wrote off his testimony.
By the very next evening Baron, his wife and stepdaughter would all
be dead. The two women were totally innocent but, maybe, that's what
they get for associating with a NASA whistle-blower.
One of the common accidents to governmentally sensitive folks in
Florida is the old railroad crossing gambit. There are lots of
semi-desert-ed country roads and active railroad tracks in Florida.
Usually after the grisly event, the bodies are found by someone so
powerful that he can have them immediately cremated, frequently
before an autopsy can be performed—which is contrary to Florida
state law. And they used to tell us horror stories about the KGB! I
no longer live in Florida so if they come after me for writing these
words they will have to think up a new method.
And please note: I am not suicidal. I say that because suicide is a
common cause of death in this context. For instance there is a
suspicion that another casualty of NASA is Mrs. Pat White, who
committed suicide a few years alter her husband's cremation. From
post-mortem reports—she wasn't suicidal cither.
Low level whistle
blowers die like flies and yet, General Phillips, goes on to head
NASA after he told basically the same story.
Borman also complained about the windows that kept fogging up on his
Gemini 7 mission and again on Apollo 8. North American, for four
straight years failed to find a solution for such a simple problem
as window fogging yet he couldn't find anything seriously wrong with
them. That's about par, isn't it?
Borman was stationed at Clark Air Force base in Manila during 1952
and part of his duty was to inspect a huge warehouse that stored
heavy equipment, supposedly ready to roll on an instant's notice.
His inspection revealed that,
"there wasn't a vehicle or a piece of
equipment that wasn't in deplorable shape—most of it unusable
without major overhauls. The stuff had been there since the end of
the war and obviously hadn't been touched since."32
The Captain in charge asked Borman to certify that it was in good
condition and he refused. The code of West Point of "Duty and Honor"
took precedence. However, when a Colonel insisted that he sign-off
as in good condition he caved in. "Honor" be dammed. The new moral
code is apparently totally dependent upon the rank of the officer
who gives the order? Go along to get along.
Next Borman, still the politician that Collins first pegged him for,
tells perhaps the greatest lie of his life. He concludes,
"We didn't sweep a single mistake under the rug,
and to this day I'm proud of the committee's honesty and
integrity." 33
Presumably Mr. Borman, had his fingers crossed when
he wrote that!
The committee was still in the middle of its stately review process
when on April 7, 1967, a House subcommittee was also convened to
investigate the fire. The next day a dismayed New York Times fired
off a lead editorial. They used the words, "Even a high school
chemistry student" (knows better than to play with 100 percent
oxygen). The editorial went on to accuse those in charge of the
Apollo project of "incompetence and negligence." 34
The 204 Board concluded with a real wrist spanker of a statement
against NASA:
A sealed cabin, pressurized with a pure oxygen
atmosphere without thought of fire hazard; an overly extensive
distribution of combustible materials in the cabin; vulnerable
wiring carrying spacecraft power; leaky plumbing carrying a
combustible and corrosive coolant; inadequate escape provisions
for the crew, and inadequate provisions for rescue or medical
assistance.
Both committees would prove about as useful as a
screen door in space (and about as effective as the politicians who
manned the Warren Commission's investigation of the Kennedy
assassination a few years before). Like all government inquisitions
they use a method best described as "let's all gang-bang the
whistle-blower."
At the beginning of the Mercury Program, NASA tests on pure oxygen
proved that the safe pressure limit for breathing was between 2.9
and 6.67 psi. But they also concluded that pressures,
"outside these
limits would cause severe, if not permanent damage." 35
In plain English, murder begins at 6.7 psi!
Kennan & Harvey have this to say about the fatal test on the
capsule,
"The day of the plugs-out test, the TV camera
inside the space-craft, which was an important piece of flight
and test equipment, was absent; its retaining brackets had some
how been bent during installation." 36
These authors never called it murder but they
continued with this statement,
"It is of the greatest significance
that the fire extinguishers were located in that (008) spacecraft
during its testing. Not only were fire extinguishers included but
fire resistant teflon sheets were draped over wire bundles and the
astronaut's couches. These particular items, non flight items, were
conspicuously absent in command module 012 during the fatal
plugs-out test on January 27, 1967." 37
They also summed up the test with these statements:
-
It was the first and only use of the new
three piece hatch.
-
It was the first plugs-out test in which as
many as three hatches were closed on a crew in an oxygen
atmosphere at a pressure of sixteen pounds per square
inch...
-
It was the first occasion of the Apollo
emergency escape drill under all-out pre-launch conditions.
-
It was the first occasion when certain non
flight flammable materials, such as two foam rubber
cushions—were placed in the cockpit.38
Later NASA would rule out the use of any material
which could be ignited by spark at 400°F in pure oxygen at 16.7
psi.39
"They included the couch padding, to which
astronaut White's body was welded by the heat: this, it emerged,
could be ignited by a spark at 250°F."40
Notice they still had every intention of using 16.7
psi oxygen. Or was it 20.2 psi?
If a civilian corporation killed three men by extreme stupidity
there would be criminal proceedings, trials and fines. But because
the government is the suspected culpable party nothing happens. To
repeat: I cannot believe that in such a highly technical field as
space that even the lowest paid technician would not have questioned
the moronic decision to use 100 percent oxygen to try a pressure
test on a capsule with live electric panels, and which contained
locked in and strapped down astronauts.
Especially, on a capsule that would never fly.
At the time, there was talk the Apollo Program would be scratched.
But even if 50 people had been killed the operation would have
continued, with no more than a brief pause, because the bucks were
too big.
As Collins points out,
"I don't think the fire delayed the first lunar
landing one day, because it took until mid-1969 to get all the
problems solved in areas completely unrelated to the fire."41
According to the newspapers, NASA committed another
unequivocal example of utter stupidity on March 19, 1981. They had a
chamber on the Space Shuttle Columbia filled with nitrogen and seven
people entered it. Two died and five were injured.
I believe that the cremation was mass murder. If not that it was
unconscionable stupidity. We may never know for sure. What I am sure
of is that the entire Apollo Program was a show, a simulation
produced by the CIA, directed by NASA, invested in by Congress, and
paid for by Mr. and Mrs. American Taxpayer!
As shown, I also believe that, to protect their multi
billion dollar income, the CIA murdered three astronauts on Pad 34,
plus four more on plane rides, and one in a car.
REFERENCES
-
Barbour, Footprints on the Moon (The
Associated Press, 1969), p. 117.
-
Gray, Angle of Attack (Norton, 1992), p. 218.
-
Barbour, Footprints on the Moon (The
Associated Press, 1969), p. 117.
-
Young, Silcock and Dunn, Journey to
Tranquility (Doubleday, 1969), p. 173.
-
Collins, Carrying the Fire (Ballentine Books,
1974), p. 62.
-
Ibid, p. 101.
-
Baker, Astronomy (Van Nostrand, 1959), p.
291.
-
"Economics Of Wheat Deal," National Review
(1972), p. 1168.
-
Hurt, For All Mankind (Atlantic Monthly
Press, 1988), p. 323.
-
Young, Silcock and Dunn, Journey to
Tranquility (Doubleday, 1969), p. 193.
-
Lewis, Voyages of Apollo (Quadrangle, 1974),
p. 163.
-
Collins, Carrying the Fire (Ballentine Books,
1974), p. 275.
-
Young, Silcock and Dunn, Journey to
Tranquility (Doubleday, 1969), p. 194.
-
Borman and Serling, Countdown (Morrow, 1988),
p. 175.
-
Wilford, We Reach the Moon (Bantam, 1969), p.
101.
-
Murray and Cox, Apollo: The Race to the Moon
(Simon & Schuster, 1989), p. 187.
-
Young, Silcock and Dunn, Journey to
Tranquility (Doubleday, 1969), p. 186.
-
Wilford, We Reach the Moon (Bantam, 1969), p.
96.
-
Collins, Carrying the Fire (Ballentine Books,
1974), p. 270.
-
Kennan and Harvey, Mission to The Moon
(Morrow, 1969), p. 32.
-
Ibid. p. xi
-
Young, Silcock and Dunn, Journey to
Tranquility (Doubleday, 1969), p. 192.
-
Borman and Serling, Countdown (Morrow, 1988),
p. 174.
-
Kennan and Harvey, Mission to the Moon
(Morrow, 1969), p. 146.
-
Borman and Serling, Countdown (Morrow, 1988),
p. 175.
-
Aldrin and McConnell, Men From Earth (Bantam,
1989), p. 162.
-
Ibid. p. 163.
-
Gray, Angle of Attack (Norton, 1992), p. 233.
-
Borman and Serling, Countdown (Morrow, 1988),
p. 174.
-
Ibid. p. 178.
-
Gray, Angle of Attack (Norton, 1992), p. 241.
-
Borman and Serling, Countdown (Morrow, 1988),
p. 51.
-
Ibid. p. 178.
-
Murray and Cox, Apollo: The Race to the Moon
(Simon and Schuster, 1989), p. 220.
-
Baker, The History of Manned Space Flight
(Crown, 1982), p. 39.
-
Kennan and Harvey, Mission to the Moon
(Morrow, 1969), p. 21.
-
Ibid. p. 57.
-
Ibid. p. 20.
-
Young, Silcock and Dunn, Journey to
Tranquility (Doubleday, 1969), p. 195.
-
Ibid. p. 198.
-
Collins, Carrying the Fire (Ballentine Books,
1974), p. 276.
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