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Chaffee, Roger Bruce
Chaffee
Chaffee
Credit: www.spacefacts.de
American pilot astronaut, 1963-1967. Killed in Apollo 1 fire on launch pad.

Status: Deceased; Active 1963-1967. Born: 1935-02-15. Died: 1967-01-27. Birth Place: Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Educated Purdue; AFIT.

Official NASA Biography as of June 2016:ROGER B. CHAFFEE (LIEUTENANT COMMANDER, USN)
NASA ASTRONAUT (DECEASED)

PERSONAL DATA: Born February 15, 1935 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Died January 27, 1967, at NASA Kennedy Space Center, Florida, in the Apollo spacecraft fire. He is survived by his wife Martha and two children.

EDUCATION: Chaffee graduated from Central High School, Grand Rapids, Michigan. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering, Purdue University in 1957.

ORGANIZATIONS: Member, Tau Beta Pi, National Engineering Society, Sigma Gamma Tau, and Phi Kappa Sigma.

AWARDS: Posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

SPECIAL HONORS: Awarded the United States Navy Air Medal.

EXPERIENCE: Chaffee, a United States Navy Lieutenant Commander, entered the Navy in 1957.

He served as safety officer and quality control officer for Heavy Photographic Squadron 62 at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida.

In January 1963, he entered the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, to work on a Master of Science Degree in Reliability Engineering.

He logged more than 2,300 hours flying time, including more than 2,000 hours in jet aircraft.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Chaffee was one of the third group of astronauts selected by NASA in October 1963. In addition to participating in the overall training program, he was also tasked with working on flight control communications systems, instrumentation systems, and attitude and translation control systems in the Apollo Branch of the Astronaut office. On March 21, 1966, he was selected as one of the pilots for the AS-204 mission, the first 3-man Apollo flight.

Lieutenant Commander Chaffee died on January 27, 1967, in the Apollo spacecraft flash fire during a launch pad test at Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

DECEMBER 1997


Official NASA Biography

NAME: Roger B. Chaffee, Lieutenant Commander USN

NASA Astronaut

BIRTHPLACE AND DATE: Born February 15, 1935, in Grand Rapids, Michigan

EDUCATION: Chaffee graduated High School from Central High in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1953. He attended Purdue University and received a BS in aeronautical engineering in 1957. In January, 1963, he entered the Air Force Institute of Technology to work on an MS in engineering.

MARITAL STATUS: Survived by his wife, Martha and two children, Sheryl and Stephen.

EXPERIENCE: A Navy ROTC student, Chaffee went on active duty in 1957 and after training in Florida and Texas became a pilot. In March 1960, he was assigned to the Heavy Photographic Squadron 62 at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida, and flew many photo-reconaissance missions over Cuba during the October 1962 missile crisis.

NASA BACKGROUND: Chaffee was one of the 14 astronauts selected in October 1963. After completing basic astronaut training, he worked on deep space communications and the Apollo spacescraft development. He was named to the Apollo 1 crew in March 1966.

Lieutenant Commander Roger Bruce Chaffee was killed in a flash fire aboard the Apollo 1 spacecraft on January 27, 1967 at Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 34.

Chaffee, Virgial "Gus" Grissom and Edward White were training for a planned 16-day Apollo mission scheduled for launch on February 14, 1967. It would have been his first spaceflight. At the time of his death, Chaffee had logged approximately 2300 hours of flying time, 2000 of those hours in jets.


More at: Chaffee.

Family: Astronaut. Country: USA. Flights: Apollo 204. Agency: USN. Bibliography: 12, 5249.

1935 February 15 - .
1963 June 5 - .
1963 October 17 - .
1963 October 18 - .
1964 February 3 - .
1965 February 16 - .
1965 June 14-15 - .
1966 October 19 - . Launch Vehicle: Saturn I.
1967 January 27 - .
1967 January 27 - . Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Complex: Cape Canaveral. LV Family: Saturn I. Launch Vehicle: Saturn IB.
1967 January 31 - .

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