The Apollo I Tragedy 

 Astronauts Grissom, White and Chaffee killed

1967-01-27   Port Washington, NY    VF-UA

This cover commemorates the Apollo I Tragedy on 01/27/1967 

 

The 3 man crew of astronauts: Gus Grissom; Edward White and Roger Chaffee were on board a Saturn 1-B rocket on the Cape Canaveral launch Complex 34, sealed inside the command module of the Apollo 1 spacecraft  preparing for a simulated lift-off to practice what would happen for real less than a month later when this rocket would take the first Americans to the moon.

At 6:31 p.m. one of the astronauts said, “… Got a fire in the cockpit", A split second later, the fire ‘that originated from inside the cabin’ penetrated to the outside of the spacecraft and surrounded the moonship in an instant. Emergency crews had the Apollo doors opened in 5 minutes but were confronted with intense heat and dense smoke. The three astronauts “apparently died instantly.”

This cover cancelled at Port Washington, NY and  prepared by Space pioneer cachet maker Sarzin.

This is a classy mourning cachet and a nice tribute to these 3 fine Americans