This cache is located on Roger B Chaffee Memorial
Boulveard. This was named in honor of a Grand Rapids native who
gave his life in 1967 for the U.S. Space Program. This road is the
former main runway of the Grand Rapids Airport which had been
closed to air-traffic 4 years prior to his death. As part of the
development of the Kent Industrial Center, it was fitting to name
the street after him.
Roger Bruce Chaffee, Lieutenant Commander USN, was a U.S. astronaut
and a member of the three-man Apollo 1 crew that was killed when a
flash fire burned the inside of their Apollo 1 space capsule during
a simulated launch.
Chaffee died along with the veteran space travelers Virgil "Gus"
Grissom (America's 2nd man in space) and Edward H. White II
(America's first spacewalk). They were the first casualties of the
U.S. space program.
Chaffee was a pilot and flew out of the Naval Air Station in
Jacksonville, Florida. This included , among other accomplishments,
many photo-reconaissance missions over Cuba during the October 1962
missile crisis. In all, he logged over 2300 total hours of flying
time.
Out of over 1800 applicants, he was selected as one of the 14
Apollo astronauts in 1963, and was later selected to fly the first
manned flight of the Apollo Program. The flight was initially
planned for the last quarter of 1966, but numerous problems with
the Apollo Block I spacecraft resulted in flight delays into
February 1967. It was during the training "plugs out" test, to see
if the spacecraft could function on it's own, on January 27th when
it all went bad.
Due to many faults ranging from poor design to shoddy construction,
the space capsule proved to be inescapable in an emergency. A short
circuit in the capsule's electrical system, and the 100% oxygen
environment, caused an instant fire. Because the capsule door
opened inward, the extra pressure inside made it impossible to open
and trapped the astronauts for over 5 minutes while the ground crew
did everything possible to get them out.
As a result of the tragedy, the manned Apollo program was delayed
21 months while NASA engineers completely redesigned the capsule.
The manned Apollo program resumed with the successful flight of
Apollo 7.
His sacrifice remembered:
- The Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium is in the Grand Rapids Public
Museum.
- The Roger B. Chaffee Scholarship, is awarded annually to
exceptional students in math and science in the Grand Rapids
metropolitan area.
- The Chaffee crater, is on the far side of the Moon
- Chaffee Hill, on Mars, is named after him as part of the Apollo 1
Hills.
- Roger B. Chaffee Elementary is in Huntsville, Alabama.
- Posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in
1997.
- Posthumous recipient of the Purple Heart medal.
- The Roger B. Chaffee Lodge at Gerber Scout Camp in Twin Lake,
Michigan is named for him. He was an Eagle Scout. There is a plaque
in the dining area dedicating the lodge to him and his service in
the Boy Scouts of America and his sacrifice for the American Space
Program.
Please use caution
crossing the street to retrieve the cache.