skinny.

Latest / Space Exploration Stories

The ninety-second hatch that cost them the cabin's only escape

At Cape Kennedy a sealed command module fills with fire; three astronauts race to open the hatch-can they escape?

The ninety-second hatch that cost them the cabin's only escape

In this episode, we follow the last eighty-four seconds inside a Command Module on the ground as a sudden electrical anomaly becomes an expanding fire. What did the crew do in those frantic seconds, and how did one small specification - a ninety-second hatch - shape everything that followed?

Date: January 27, 1967

Location: Launch Complex 34, Cape Kennedy

Event: Plugs-out countdown demonstration

Person: Roger Chaffee…

The skinny

The skinny isn't ready yet — notes appear once the transcript is processed.