[Apollo 1]

Directly from the Estate of Chuck Friedlander, NASA

Apollo 1 was the first mission in the manned lunar landing program, which was 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. 

The present lot is directly from the estate of Charles “Chuck” Friedlander. 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.