[Apollo 1]

Directly from the Estate of Chuck Friedlander, NASA

The present mug is personalized with “Chuck” in gold ink written on side. These Command Module-shaped mugs are rare on the market and when they do appear they also bear NASA employee names. We can find no other examples signed by the Apollo 1 crew. 

Apollo 1 was the first mission in the manned lunar landing program, scheduled to launch on February 21, 1967 from the Cape Kennedy Air Force Station Launch 34 Complex. The crew included Command Pilot Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee. Tragedy struck during a launch rehearsal test on January 27th when a cabin fire killed all three crew members and destroyed the Command Module. Investigations later determined that the cause of the fire was electrical and spread rapidly due to the high pressure, pure oxygen atmosphere of the cabin. 

Chuck Friedlander served as Chief at the NASA Astronaut Support Office, KSC from 1963-1967, and built close relationships with the astronauts. Deeply affected by the Apollo 1 tragedy, Friedlander left NASA for CBS News where he was Walter Cronkite’s Space Technical Consultant from 1967-1969.