A flash fire swept through the capsule so quickly ... This article originally appeared on Florida Today: On this date: Apollo 1 tragedy claims the lives of crew ...

Seventeen astronauts were lost in the Apollo 1 ... spacecraft never made it off the launch pad. An investigator looks at the charred interior of the Apollo I command module after the flash fire ...

Because of the pressure of the fire, and the fact that the spacecraft's hatch opened ... that the fire had been a tragedy waiting to happen. After Apollo 1, the space program continued with ...

Space exploration has been marked by tragic disasters, such as the Apollo 1 fire ... Chaffee were on board the spacecraft when an electrical spark caused a fire in the pure oxygen environment.