Today is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire that killed the
first Apollo crew — Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. 
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) held special tributes to the Apollo 1
crew yesterday and today as part of NASA’s annual Day of Remembrance
activities, which honor the Apollo 1, space shuttle Challenger and space
shuttle Columbia crews and other fallen astronauts.  On
Tuesday, NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot will lay a wreath at
Arlington Cemetery near memorials to the Challenger and Columbia crews,
but there is no memorial there for Apollo 1.  Rep. Eddie Bernice
Johnson (D-TX) is reintroducing legislation today to remedy that
situation.

On January 27, 1967, the United States suffered its
first space tragedy when Grissom, White, and Chaffee died of
asphyxiation after fire broke out in their Apollo Command Module during a
test prior to a planned February 21 launch.  The capsule
was filled with 100 percent oxygen at 16.7 pounds per square inch (psi)
pressure. The cause of the fire is thought to have been a spark from an
electrical wire although the investigation could not conclusively
identify the ignition source.   The capsule had been designed for the hatch to swing inward.  With
the pressure inside the capsule greater than that outside, it was
impossible for the crew to open it quickly and with fire spreading
explosively in 100 percent oxygen, there was little time.  Many changes were made to the design of the Apollo capsule and to test procedures afterwards.

Apollo 1 astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee.  Photo credit: NASA

Tributes were paid at the two KSC events to the Apollo 1 crew
and to the support personnel who were on the Launch Pad 34 gantry just outside the spacecraft
who tried to rescue them.  Among the speakers were legendary astronauts Mike Collins
(Gemini 10, Apollo 11) and Tom Stafford (Gemini 6, Gemini 9, Apollo 10, Apollo-Soyuz
Test Project) and Chaffee’s daughter, Sheryl Chaffee, who recently
retired after her own career at KSC.

Collins spoke at yesterday’s ceremony, which was dedicated to all the astronauts honored at the Astronaut Memorial Foundation’s Space Mirror, and Stafford spoke today at the opening of an exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex dedicated to the Apollo 1 crew.   Both men knew Grissom, White and Chaffee quite well from the astronaut corps and in some cases from much earlier friendships (Collins and White were students at West Point together, for example).  Stafford was selected in the second group of astronauts in 1962 and Collins in the third group in 1963.   Grissom was one of the original “Mercury 7 astronauts” selected in 1959.  White joined the astronaut corps in 1962 and Chaffee in 1963 along with Collins.

Collins and Stafford both stressed that although their friends and colleagues lost their lives, the lessons learned from the Apollo 1 tragedy made the Apollo spacecraft safer and led to the success of the Apollo program overall.  If the design deficiencies of the Apollo spacecraft had not been discovered on the ground, such a fire could have occurred while a crew was in space and NASA might never have learned why, leading to a greater disruption in the space program.  Collins said:  “Without Apollo 1 and the lessons learned from it in all probability such a fire would have taken place later, in flight, and not only the crew, but the entire spacecraft, would have been lost. NASA, with no machinery to examine could only guess at the causes and how to prevent still another occurrence. Yes, Apollo 1 did cause three deaths, but I believe it saved more than three later.”   Stafford echoed those sentiments.

Sheryl Chaffee movingly recounted what it was like as an 8-year old learning of her father’s death and how it impacted her life and led to having her own 33-year career at KSC.  But she also explained how she felt the sacrifices of the Apollo 1 crew were not adequately acknowledged by NASA for many years.  In the days before January 28,1987, the 1-year anniversary of the space shuttle Challenger tragedy, she said she noticed that someone had placed flowers in the lobby of the headquarters building in their memory, but there were none to honor the Apollo 1 crew who had lost their lives almost exactly 20 years earlier.  “I felt no one remembered.  So I took that into my own hands.  I ordered flowers in honor of Apollo 1 and had them placed in the headquarters lobby next to the Challenger flowers. At that moment it became my mission to make sure we never forget the Apollo 1 crew and all our other fallen astronauts.”

Sheryl Chaffee. daughter of Apollo 1 astronaut Roger Chaffee, speaking at NASA Kennedy Space Center Day of Remembrance event, January 26, 2017.  Screengrab from NASA TV.

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson is also trying to ensure that the Apollo 1 crew is not forgotten.  Today she is reintroducing a bill from the last Congress to create a memorial at Arlington National Cemetery for Apollo 1 similar to those for the Challenger and Columbia crews.  Grissom and Chaffee are buried at Arlington; White is buried at West Point.

In a press release, Johnson said that although they were posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, “it is surprising that we do not have a memorial to honor the lives of the crew of Apollo 1 as was done for the Space Shuttle Challenger and Columbia crews.  This bill would redress that unfortunate omission.”

The bill is identical to last year’s legislation, H.R. 6147, according to a Johnson spokeswoman.  It would direct the Secretary of the Army to construct a memorial marker to the Apollo 1 crew at an “appropriate place” in the cemetery and allocate $500,000 of money appropriated to the Army for operations and maintenance in FY2017 for that purpose.  It also would allow the Administrator of NASA to accept donations for the memorial and transfer the money to the Army.  The Army oversees Arlington Cemetery.

Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed 73 seconds after liftoff on January 28, 1986, killing all aboard:  NASA astronauts Dick Scobee, Mike Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, and Ron McNair; Payload Specialist Greg Jarvis from Hughes Space and Communications; and Teacher in Space Christa McAuliffe.  An O-ring in one of the shuttle’s two solid rocket boosters failed due to unusually low temperatures at the launch site.

Space Shuttle Challenger memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.  Photo credit:  Arlington National Cemetery website.

Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during its descent from orbit on February 1, 2003 after a 16-day science mission, killing all aboard: NASA astronauts Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown,  Kalpana Chawla, and Laurel Blair Salton Clark; and  Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon of the Israeli Air Force.  Foam falling from the shuttle’s External Tank during launch had punctured a hole in Columbia‘s wing, allowing the superheated gases encountered during atmospheric reentry to enter and deform the wing.  Aerodynamic forces tore the shuttle apart.

 
Space Shuttle Columbia memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.  Photo credit:  Arlington National Cemetery website.

NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot, who will become Acting Administrator on Friday at noon, expressed optimism today about NASA’s future under the incoming Trump Administration.  During a speech to the Maryland Space Business Roundtable, he also said that some of the Trump landing team members would be staying on at NASA — the so-called “beachhead team.”  He did not name names, but elsewhere rumors are circulating about who will end up where, temporarily at least. 

Lightfoot emphasized that NASA historically has bipartisan support and while he could not offer any details about the transition, he conveyed certainty that NASA’s “enduring purpose” to “discover, explore, develop, and enable” will prevail.  He recounted comments from Amazon.com and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos at the recent Arthur C. Clarke Foundation awards ceremony where, in response to a question about how did he know what needed to change, Bezos replied that it is just as important to know what needs to stay the same. 

In that vein, Lightfoot said that what NASA needs to keep doing is “fostering new discoveries, expanding human knowledge, and pushing humans deeper into space — I call that our day job.”  That involves NASA’s role in global engagement and diplomacy through international cooperation, in national security through a shared industrial base, in economic development and growth through investments in space technology, in responding to societal challenges with STEM education and assisting developing countries with water purification based on International Space Station systems as an example, and in leadership and inspiration, he said.

At a meeting last week, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden expressed optimism about NASA’s future.  Today, Lightfoot echoed that message, saying “the best is yet to come.”

Separately, rumors are floating about who among the Trump transition team’s eight members will remain at the agency.  One surprise is that the head of NASA’s landing team, Chris Shank, may be moving to DOD to work on national security space programs, rather than NASA.  Shank began his career in the Air Force and worked at the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and Air Force Space Command before joining the House Science Committee and becoming involved in NASA issues. He was a key member of Mike Griffin’s team when Griffin was NASA Administrator and many expected him to remain at NASA.

Three landing team members who are rumored to be staying on are Greg Autry (as White House liaison), Rod Liesveld and Jeff Waksman.  Two other names that have surfaced are Erik Noble, rumored to be the new White House advisor for NASA, and Brandon Eden.  Noble is an atmospheric scientist who worked at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York from 2007-2013.  According to his LinkedIn page, most recently he was a political data analyst for the Trump campaign’s data and voter outreach team.  Eden is legislative director for Rep. Steve Knight (R-CA) and has prior experience with other Republican House members, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and Republican National Committee according to his LinkedIn page, which also notes that he was a corporal in the Marine Corps from 2001-2007.

No official announcements have been made about any of these personnel appointments.  They are rumors only.

Benjamin Friedman, NOAA’s Deputy Under Secretary for Operations, will serve as Acting NOAA Administrator beginning on Friday at noon.  Administrator Kathy Sullivan is a presidential appointee and her tenure ends along with President Obama’s when Donald Trump is sworn in as the next President.  Until new presidential appointees are in place, Friedman and several others will serve in acting roles in addition to their current positions.  Among the others is Steve Volz, Assistant Administrator for NOAA Satellites, who will also serve as Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observations and Prediction, replacing Manson Brown.

Friedman is NOAA’s Chief Operating Officer and previously served as NOAA’s Deputy General Counsel, Chief of the Office of General Counsel Enforcement Section, Assistant General Counsel of the Department of Commerce (NOAA’s parent), and a federal prosecutor at the Department of Justice.

Benjamin Friedman.  Photo Credit:  NOAA website

Volz has been head of NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite and Information Service (NESDIS) since 2014. Prior to joining NOAA, he was associate director for flight programs in NASA’s Earth Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate. He was program executive for a number of NASA earth science missions including CloudSat, CALIPSO, and ICESat.  Before moving to NASA Headquarters, he worked at Goddard Space Flight Center as an instrument manager, systems engineer and cryogenic systems engineer on missions including the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE).  Prior to that he was a project manager and principal engineer at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.

Steve Volz.  Photo credit:  NOAA website.

In a January 9, 2017 memo announcing these acting appointments, Friedman listed six other NOAA positions that will have acting heads:  Paul Doremus will be acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Conservation and Management; Craig McLean will be Acting Chief Scientist; Sam Rauch will be Acting Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries and Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Fisheries; Rob Moller will be Acting Director of the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs; Scott Smullen will be Acting Director of the Office of Communications; and Jeff Dillen and Kristen Gustafson will serve as Acting General Counsel.

Friedman added that he and other members of NOAA’s leadership have met with President-elect Transition Team members, but no nominee has been announced to serve as NOAA Administrator.

Wilbur Ross is Trump’s choice for Secretary of Commerce and Todd Ricketts is to be nominated as Deputy Secretary.  Ross’s nomination hearing is scheduled for January 18.

Update, January 22, 2017:  Contrary to what was stated at the January 12 town hall meeting, Radzanowski did not, in fact, remain at NASA after the end of the Obama Administration.  He resigned on January 20, 2017.

Original story, January 12, 2017: In a farewell “town hall” meeting with employees today, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and Deputy Administrator Dava Newman said thanks and farewell to agency employees.  Both are political appointees and will end their tenures at noon on January 20 when President Obama leaves office.  Bolden announced that Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot will take over as Acting Administrator at that point.  He also said the Trump transition team has asked another political appointee, NASA Chief Financial Officer (CFO) David Radzanowski, to remain at least temporarily.

The town hall meeting was an internal agency event accessible over the Internet to employees at all of NASA’s facilities.  It was an emotional occasion for both Bolden and Newman.  Bolden has been Administrator since July 2009; Newman was confirmed as Deputy Administrator in April 2015.  Both choked back tears while thanking their colleagues and expressing optimism about NASA’s future.  Actor LeVar Burton appeared in a video tribute to Bolden.   Bolden presented Newman, as well as chief of staff Mike French, with NASA Distinguished Service Awards.  Bolden did not announce his plans for after January 20 (he is a retired Marine Major General), but Newman said she will be back teaching at MIT very soon.  She is the Apollo Professor of Astronautics there.

Lightfoot is a former Director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, having begun his NASA career there in 1989.   He transferred to NASA Headquarters in 2012 to serve as Associate Administrator, the highest ranking civil service position in the agency.  It is traditional for the highest ranking NASA civil servant to take over as acting administrator during changes in presidential administrations.  The Trump transition has not always followed traditional paths so today’s announcement provided some degree of reassurance.  Bolden said the Trump transition team officially told NASA yesterday that Lightfoot will serve in that job.  A mechanical engineer, he has served in many capacities at Marshall, Stennis Space Center and Headquarters, including assistant associate administrator for the space shuttle program (2003-2005) at headquarters and manager of the space shuttle propulsion office at MSFC (2005-2007).  He was named MSFC Deputy Director in 2007 and Director in 2009.

Robert Lightfoot.  Photo credit:  NASA

Lightfoot said today that he looked forward to leading the agency until a new administrator is in place.  He urged the NASA workforce to remain focused on executing NASA’s programs and promised to keep them informed as the transition unfolds.

Radzanowski was confirmed by the Senate as NASA CFO in September 2014.  He had previously served as Bolden’s chief of staff and before that was Deputy Associate Administrator for Program Integration for what was then called the Space Operations Mission Directorate.  Before joining NASA, he was branch chief for science and space at the White House Office of Management and Budget, and before that a space policy analyst at the Congressional Research Service. 

David Radzanowski. Photo credit:  NASA

No time limit was mentioned for how long he will remain as CFO.  Bolden said only that Radzanowski would stay “for some period of time.”