Roger B. Chaffee

Roger Bruce Chaffee (* February 15, 1935 in Grand Rapids, Michigan; † January 27, 1967 in Cape Canaveral, Florida) was an American astronaut. He died in the Apollo 1 disaster.

Biography

The first seven years of life grew Roger Chaffee in Greenville, Michigan, with his parents Don and Blanche Chaffee on. Don Chaffee was a biplane pilot who earned with passenger and parachute flights, and from 1942 as a staff pilot of the U.S. artillery his money. When he took his son at the age of seven years on a flight over Lake Michigan, it was clear to those immediately that he wanted to be a pilot.

Roger Chaffees interests lay at a young age with the model airplane and the music for which he was interested in from his school days. He learned instruments and founded with others in the high school dance combo.

At thirteen Chaffee joined the local Boy Scouts, where he quickly earned his first badge. At school, his interests lay in science subjects, such as mathematics and chemistry. His particular interest was the electronics.

From high school to Marine pilots

After finishing school in 1953, Roger Chaffee applied to several universities, and finally began in the fall semester his studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, for which he received a scholarship from the U.S. Navy for the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps ( NROTC ) program. In 1954 he decided to dedicate his passion for flying and the technique in the study to unite and to become an aeronautical engineer. This could be best realized at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana.

In September 1955, he met his wife of Oklahoma City know, both were married in August 1957.

On June 2, 1957 Roger Chaffee got his bachelor's degree at the University, where he also recently completed the exam for his pilot's license. His military flight training was in Pensacola, Florida, continued where he flew the Beechcraft T- 34 Mentor and the North American T - 28 Trojan. Later he trained in Kingsville, Texas, Grumman F9F Cougar on the jet.

In 1958, he became the father of a daughter and a son in 1961.

After finishing his flying training he went through various flight jobs in the Navy until he was 62 in Jacksonville, Florida, stationed quality officer in the Heavy Photographic Squadron, was. One of the tasks was photographing the newly built Cape Canaveral.

From the Navy to NASA

After the first Mercury astronauts were named Roger Chaffees interest steered in this direction. He turned his further education and training on the objective to be selected as an astronaut.

In 1963, the third astronaut group was recruited by NASA; Chaffee was among a group of 1,800 applicants.

In 1962, Chaffee was a continuation of studies for Master as a production engineer in Dayton, Ohio offered. He moved with his family, but without neglecting the selection tests for astronauts. NASA informed his family of his choice, as he was on a hunting trip. On October 18, 1963 Chaffee flew to Houston and was officially received there in the astronaut corps.

1964, after the family had moved to Houston, Roger Chaffees began astronaut training. This included not only further flight training but also survival training for defective land or water landings, as well as the study of the lunar surface, since the third astronaut group had to prepare for the moon landing. The training sessions included the EVA training ( spacewalk ) in a large pool of water.

As at October 31, 1964 came the astronaut Theodore Freeman in a training flight killed Roger Chaffee, fell the honor to wear at the funeral with other colleagues the coffin. This was repeated with astronaut Elliott See, who with his colleague Charles Bassett crashed two years later together.

One of the first major tasks Chaffees was to act in the Gemini 4 mission in June 1965 as a communications assistant. Together with Gus Grissom flew a mission as also accompanying flyer at an unmanned Saturn 1B mission to photograph their start.

AS -204 (Apollo 1)

Shortly after the flight of Gemini 8 with Neil Armstrong and David Scott in March 1966, the crew for the first manned Apollo mission were announced by NASA. As commander Gus Grissom was named, along with Ed White and Roger Chaffee as chief pilot as a pilot. The mission should start in spring 1967.

During the next months the crew in Downey, California learned their Apollo spacecraft CSM -012, which was assembled at the local factory, in - and out.

Since the Apollo spacecraft had not yet reached the mature status as the Gemini predecessors, the launch was postponed and scheduled further testing.

A crucial test took place on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral on 27 January 1967. The entire crew, including Grissom, White and Chaffee took place in the command module to perform a plugs -out test. During the test, but began (probably due to a short circuit or arc ) the interior of the capsule fire. All three astronauts were killed.

Chaffee has been buried in Section 3 next to Gus Grissom in the U.S. Arlington National Cemetery in Washington with a state funeral.

Special

• Together with Virgil Grissom and Edward White first casualties in a spacecraft (Apollo 1)