The Apollo One tragedy was an unexpected blow to the space program. Much of the story is covered in great detail in the motion picture “The Right Stuff” so this episode focuses more on the investigation and the political fall-out.
Dave Andrews playing Frank Borman does an excellent job helping us follow the investigation while keeping an Astronaut as the main focus of the story.
We see how the series really works together as a whole, because they are allowed to skip getting to know the Apollo 1 astronauts due to the fact that Gus Grissom was featured in Episode one, having been involved in both Mercury and Gemini programs. Ed White is remembered as the first American to do a spacewalk. He is played by Chris Isaak, who really does a great job with very little screen time. Their previous introduction makes the story telling thin this episode more concise, as we can feel the loss of the men we got to know in the previous episode.moreless
AIRED:
January 27, 1967. In preparation for the flight of Apollo 1, astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee undergo a routine "plug-out" test in their space capsule. But their routine test turns to disaster when a small electrical fire explodes into a raging inferno, taking the lives of three men before their ship can even leave the ground. A nation mourns, but a watchful Senate Committee - anxious over the extreme haste and massive expenditure involved in fulfilling the late President Kennedy's dream - may pull their own plug from the entire Apollo project.moreless
 Chris Isaak |
Astronaut Edward White II |
 George Newbern |
Astronaut Stu Roosa |
 Joe Spano |
NASA Deputy Administrator George Mueller |
 Mark Rolston |
Astronaut Gus Grissom |
Ben Marley |
Astronaut Roger Chaffee |
 David Andrews |
Frank Borman |
 Ronny Cox |
Lee Atwood |
Guest Star |
Mason Adams |
Sen. Clinton Anderson |
Guest Star |
 John Slattery |
Walter Mondale |
Guest Star |
Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions
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TRIVIA (0)
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QUOTES (7)
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Gus Grissom: I read you fine, the problem is you're not reading me.
Deke Slayton: We're gonna get a new backup system, Gus. I sent a guy out for a couple of empty soup cans and some string. A lot of string.
Gus Grissom: Really getting ridiculous. -
Frank Borman: How are you handling it?
Deke Slayton: (shrugs) I'm drunk. -
Deke Slayton: You and I, we both know that people die testing unproved aircraft. It's not nice, we don't like it, but we all knew it'd happen some day.
Frank Borman: No, Deke. We all knew it'd happen someday in space. It's one thing to die on a mission. It's another to die on the pad during a routine goddamn test. -
Joe Shea: North American was given mission requirements. One of the requirements was a spacecraft designed to operate while filled with oxygen. And to do so without exploding!
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Senator Anderson: What do you think we should do, Colonel?
Frank Borman: I think you should stop this witch hunt, and let us go to the moon. -
Senator Anderson: (During the Apollo 1 hearings) Now, before we all go home, is there any statement you personally would like to make?
Frank Borman: I think I'm safe in speaking for all the astronauts when I say that we're confident in our management, we're confident in our training, in our engineering, and in ourselves. The real question is, are you confident in us? -
Gus Grissom: How are we going to get to the moon if we can't talk between two or three buildings?
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NOTES (1)
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Grissom, White, and Chaffee's wives give Deke Slayton an astronaut pin the men had planned on giving him when they returned. (because they believed he would never go into space) A few years later Deke Slayton was cleared for flight duty in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project and piloted the docking module during the first meeting of Americans and Soviets in outer space.
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ALLUSIONS (1)
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James Webb: The only reason he didn't throw it down in front of me like Perry Mason…
Webb compares Sen. Mondale's testimony in the committee hearing to TV lawyer Perry Mason, who produced surprise evidence in a theatrical method on a regular basis.
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Does Anyone Know . . .?
06/28/084
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Being shown in the USA
05/14/071
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Being shown in the UK
01/03/071
Season 1 Episodes
See AllEp 12
Le Voyage Dans La Lune
Ep 11
The Original Wives' Club
Ep 10
Galileo Was Right
Ep 9
For Miles And Miles
Ep 8
We Interrupt This Program
Ep 7
That's All There Is
Ep 6
Mare Tranquilitatis
Ep 5
Spider
Ep 4
1968
Ep 3
We Have Cleared The Tower
Ep 2
Apollo 1
Ep 1
Can We Do This?
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