Disaster Strikes.

The Soviets and Americans both started new projects in 1967 in the race to be first on the Moon. The Americans initiated Project Apollo; the Soviets, Project Soyuz. Both began with horrible disasters that set each country's space program back a year and a half. The U.S. crew of Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee were testing the new Apollo systems on the ground in January 1967. On 27 January the three were inside the spacecraft that was going to be Apollo 1 breathing pure oxygen. Suddenly ground control noticed they had elevated heart rates. They were heard to say, "fire in the spacecraft" and "get us out of here." Then there was a burst of flame seen from outside. It took six minutes for technicians and workers to open the hatch. By that time the three astronauts were dead. The interior...