Roger B. Chaffee

Roger Bruce Chaffee (February 15, 1935 – January 27, 1967), (Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy), was an American naval officer and aviator, aeronautical engineer, and NASA astronaut in the Apollo program.
He was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he became an Eagle Scout. Chaffee graduated from Central High School in 1953 and accepted a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) scholarship. He began his college education at Illinois Institute of Technology, where he was also involved in the fraternity Phi Kappa Sigma. He transferred to Purdue University in the fall of 1954, where he continued his involvement in Phi Kappa Sigma and also obtained his private pilot's license.
After graduating in 1957 from Purdue, Chaffee completed his Navy training and was commissioned as an ensign. He soon began fighter pilot training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, flying a variety of planes including the T-28, T-34, and A3D. Chaffee continued his career by earning the role of quality and safety control office for Heavy Photographic Squadron 62. His time in this unit included taking crucial photos of Cuba at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, for which he was awarded the Air Medal.
He was selected to be an astronaut along with 13 other pilots as a part of NASA Astronaut Group 3. He served as CAPCOM for both the Gemini 3 and Gemini 4 missions. Chaffee received his first official spaceflight assignment in 1966. In 1967, Chaffee died in a fire along with fellow astronauts Virgil (Gus) Grissom and Edward H. White II during a pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission at the then-Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, Florida. Chaffee was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and a second Air Medal.

Roger Bruce Chaffee was born on February 15, 1935, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the second child of Donald Lynn Chaffee and Blanche May (Mike) Chaffee née Mosher.:136 He had an older sister, Donna, born two years before.:17 In January 1935, in their hometown of Greenville, Michigan, his father was diagnosed with scarlet fever, and Mike moved in with her parents in Grand Rapids, where Roger was born. The family spent the next seven years in Greenville before moving to Grand Rapids, where his father took a job as the chief Army Ordnance inspector at the Doehler-Jarvis plant.:136

Chaffee excelled as a Boy Scout, earning his first merit badge at the age of thirteen. He earned ten more badges that year. In 1948, he earned badges for home repairs, firemanship, personal health, safety, athletic, public health, swimming, first aid, cooking, and the order of the arrow. Many of these awards were typically won by the older scouts, but he performed exceptionally well.:32-33 He continued his success by obtaining four additional badges at the age of fourteen, for scholarship, rowing, life-saving, and canoeing.:33 The following year, he got four additional badges, which were pathfinder, pioneering, music, and seamanship. The next year, Chaffee earned four additional badges, and had almost all of the badges available at the time. He earned camping, civics, bird study, and bugling that year. After becoming an Eagle Scout, he managed to earn another ten merit badges, for which he was awarded the bronze and gold palms.:33

Chaffee attended the Dickinson School in Grand Rapids.:136 He graduated in the top fifth of his class from Central High School in 1953 and had a grade average of over 92%.:43 Turning down a possible appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, Chaffee accepted a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) scholarship, and in September 1953 enrolled at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Chaffee performed well there, making the Dean's list and finishing with a B+ average. While enrolled, Chaffee also joined Phi Kappa Sigma.

Purdue

Chaffee was passionate about flying and had a high aptitude for science and engineering. To apply those talents, Chaffee transferred to Purdue University in the fall of 1954 to attend the school's well-known aeronautical engineering program. Prior to his arrival in West Lafayette, Chaffee reported for a 8-week tour on the USS Wisconsin as a part of the NROTC program. To qualify, he had to take complete training and pass additional tests. He initially failed the eye exam, but the physician allowed him to retake the test the next morning, and he passed. Chaffee was then allowed to tour on the Wisconsin to England, Scotland, France, and Cuba. Upon his return to American soil, Chaffee still had some time before his first fall semester at Purdue. To fill the gap, he worked as a gear cutter.

Upon starting classes at Purdue in the fall of 1954, Chaffee sought out a job to complement his coursework and involvement in the Phi Kappa Sigma social fraternity. His first job during his sophomore year was working as a server at one of the women's residences. Chaffee disliked the feminine environment and sought new employment. He was hired as a draftsman at a local company for a small business near Purdue. As a junior, his résumé continued to grow as he was hired as a teaching assistant in the Mathematics Department to teach classes to freshman students.

Chaffee earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering at Purdue in 1957. There he maintained his membership to the Phi Kappa Sigma, and also joined the Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Gamma Tau engineering honor societies. While at Purdue, Chaffee took flight training as part of the Naval ROTC program in order to prepare him for a career as a naval aviator, soloing on March 29, 1957, and obtaining his private pilot's license on 24 May 1957.

Chaffee married Martha Louise Horn in Oklahoma City on August 24, 1957; they had met on a blind date in September 1955. The couple had two children, Sheryl Lyn (born November 17, 1958) and Stephen (born July 3, 1961).

Chaffee's Navy portrait

Following graduation, Chaffee completed his Navy training on August 22, 1957 and was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Navy. Following his honeymoon, he reported to the USS Lake Champlain for a six week assignment in Norfolk with the Naval Air Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet.:70 In October 1957, Chaffee attended flight school at the Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. He started his training by flying the T-28, moving onto the T-34 soon after.:70 He was then posted to the Naval Air Station Kingsville, Texas, from August 1958 to February 1959 as a part of Advanced Training Unit 212. In Kingsville, he trained on the F9F Cougar jet fighter.:70 His daughter Cheryl was born the day that he left for his first aircraft carrier training.:71 Chaffee was awarded his aviator wings in early 1959.

He then transferred to Naval Air Station (NAS) Jacksonville, Florida, to continue his training. His first project was not flying, but instead repairing a A3D twin-engined jet photo reconnaissance plane.:72 This plane was typically flown by pilots with the rank of lieutenant commander or above, but since Chaffee became so familiar with the plane due to repairing it, he became one of the youngest pilots to ever fly it.:72 He joined Attack Squadron 44 in September 1959, and from October 1959 to March 1960 he trained with Heavy Attack Squadron 3.

Chaffee was given a variety of assignments and participated in numerous training duties over the next few years, spending the majority of his time in photo reconnaissance squadrons. He was stationed at NAS Jacksonville as safety officer and quality control officer for Heavy Photographic Squadron 62 (VAP-62) flying the A3D-2P (later RA-3B) Skywarrior. He wrote a quality control manual for the squadron, although some of his peers saw this as too demanding of perfection.:74 By coincidence, Chaffee was assigned to a mission where he flew over Cape Canaveral, in which aerial photographs of future launch sites were taken.:74

Between April 4, 1960 and October 25, 1962, including during the critical time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, he flew 82 missions over Cuba, sometimes up to three flights per day, and achieved over 100 flight hours each month. Some of these trips included shuttling three men per plane back and forth to Guantanamo Bay, which were the pilot, co-pilot, and the photographer. Chaffee was awarded the Air Medal. :75

After this, Chaffee spent time doing flattop or aircraft carrier flight training, including time spent on the USS Saratoga performing both day and night flights.:75 Chaffee said of day flying, "Setting that big bird down on the flight deck was like landing on a postage stamp," and said of night flying, "Getting catapulted off that flight deck at night is like getting shot into a bottle of ink!":75 While working in Jacksonville, he concurrently was working on a Master's degree.:75 Chaffee was on a cruise to Africa when his son Stephen was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.:76

During his Navy service he logged more than 2,300 hours flying time, including more than 2,000 hours in jet aircraft. On February 1, 1966, Chaffee was promoted to lieutenant commander.

Selection

In August 1962, Chaffee confided in his family that he had submitted an application for the astronaut training program, and informed his superiors he wanted to train as a test pilot for astronaut status.:78 In mid-1962, Chaffee was accepted in the initial pool of 1,800 applicants for the third group of NASA astronauts.:79 After his naval tour was over and he had racked up over 1800 hours of flying time, the Navy offered an opportunity to work on his Master's degree.:79 In January 1963, he entered the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, to work on his Master of Science degree in Reliability Engineering.

While at AFIT, Chafee would continue to participate in astronaut candidate testing as the pool of candidates dropped to 271 in mid-1963. It was noted during testing that Chaffee had a very small lung capacity, but that he used it better than most people with a large lung capacity.:82 Chaffee returned from a hunting trip to Fairborn, Ohio on October 14, 1963, when he found a message from NASA in Houston, Texas.:82 He called them back, and discovered he had been chosen as an astronaut. On October 18, 1963, he was officially announced as one of 14 chosen for Astronaut Group 3. Upon appointment, Chaffee said, "I was very pleased with the appointment. I've always wanted to fly and perform adventurous flying tasks all my life. Ever since the first seven Mercury astronauts were named, I've been keeping my studies up.":85

Training

Chaffee (sitting on hatch sill) during water egress training for Apollo 1

Phase one of training for the third group of astronauts began in 1964. The training began in lecture halls, where astronauts learned about several professional fields. Lectures were supplemented with trips to locations with geological significance so the astronauts could gain hands-on experience. The astronauts traveled from the Grand Canyon to learn about geography all the way to Alaska, Iceland, and Hawaii to learn about rock formations and lava flows.

The second phase was contingency training. This survival training focused on astronauts learning the skills required to survive if the landing did not occur where planned. The group started their training by being dropped off in the middle of the jungle in Panama. The astronauts performed the survival training in pairs, carrying only their parachutes and survival kits. Chaffee, with help from his Boy Scout training, foraged for enough food to survive during the three day training mission. Following the jungle training, the astronauts traveled to an entirely different environment: the desert of Reno, Nevada. For clothing, the astronauts only had long underwear, shoes, and robes they manufactured from their parachutes. Lizards and snakes were the main source of food, and the astronauts used their parachutes as makeshift tents for shelter for the two days of desert training.

The third and final phase was operational training for the astronauts. This training focused on giving the astronauts hands-on experience using the instruments and equipment required during their spaceflight. The training also focused on the sensations the astronauts would experience during spaceflight, such as the effects of microgravity and high acceleration. The astronauts spent time in simulators, flying aboard cargo planes to simulate weightlessness, underwater training to practice extravehicular activities (EVAs), and visits to manufacturing plants to check on the progress of the hardware.

Project Gemini

Chaffee at the consoles in Mission Control during the Gemini 3 mission

At the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Chaffee served as capsule communicator (CAPCOM) in March 1965 for Gemini 3. Later that year, he served as CAPCOM again, along with Virgil "Gus" Grissom and Eugene Cernan, for the Gemini 4 mission, in which Edward H. White II performed the first spacewalk by an American. As CAPCOM, Chaffee relayed information between the crew members and the Director of Flight Operations, Christopher Kraft. He never got a seat on a Gemini mission, but was assigned to work on flight control, communications, instrumentation, and attitude and translation control systems in the Apollo program. During this time, he was also flew chase planes between 30,000 and 50,000 feet with Grissom to take motion pictures of the launch of an unmanned Saturn 1B rocket.:108

Apollo program

Apollo 1 crew, Grissom, White, and Chaffee

Chaffee received his first spaceflight assignment when he was selected in January 1966 for the first manned Apollo-Saturn flight, AS-204. Joining Command Pilot Grissom and Senior Pilot White, he replaced injured Donn F. Eisele in the third-ranked Pilot position. Eisele required surgery for a dislocated shoulder which he sustained aboard the KC135 weightlessness training aircraft, and was subsequently reassigned to a second Apollo crew, to be commanded by Mercury veteran Wally Schirra.

The crew announcement was made public on March 21, 1966. Grissom, White, and Chaffee got permission to name their flight Apollo 1, as it was going to be the first manned orbital flight of the Apollo spacecraft. The two-week flight was not only to test the spacecraft systems, but also the ground tracking and control facilities. While Chaffee had monitored the manufacture of the Gemini spacecraft, he had not witnessed the building of the Apollo spacecraft. Three days after being selected for the Apollo 1 crew, he flew out to the North American Aviation Plant in Downey, California, to witness spacecraft production.

Accident

Charred remains of the Apollo 1 Command Module, in which Chaffee was killed along with Gus Grissom and Ed White

On January 27, 1967, Grissom, White and Chaffee were participating in a "plugs-out" countdown demonstration test at Cape Kennedy in preparation for the planned February 21 launch. Chaffee was sitting at the right side of the cabin. His main role was to maintain communications with the Blockhouse. A momentary power surge was detected at 23:30:55 GMT, which was believed to accompany an electrical short in equipment located on the lower left side of the cabin, the presumed ignition source for the fire.:5–10 At 23:31:04 GMT, Chaffee's voice is believed by most investigative listeners to be the one declaring, "[We]'ve got a fire in the cockpit.":5-8

Assigned emergency roles called for Grissom, in the left-hand seat, to open the cabin pressure vent valve, after which White in the center seat was to open the plug door hatch, while Chaffee in the right-hand seat was to maintain communications. Grissom was prevented from opening the valve by the intensity of the fire, which started in that region and spread from left to right. Despite this, White removed his restraints and apparently tried in vain to open the hatch, which was held closed by the cabin pressure. The increasing pressure finally burst the inner cabin wall on the right-hand side at 23:31:19 GMT. After approximately thirty seconds of being fed by a cabin atmosphere of pure oxygen at pressures of 16.7 to 29 psi (115 to 200 kPa), and now fed by nitrogen-buffered ambient air, the primary fire decreased in intensity and started producing large amounts of smoke,:5-3–5-4 which killed the astronauts.:6-1

Failed oxygen and ethylene glycol pipes near the fire's origin point continued burning an intense secondary fire which melted through the cabin floor.:5–4 By the time firefighters were able to open the hatch, the fire had extinguished itself. The back of Chaffee's couch was found in the horizontal position, with the lower portion angled towards the floor. His helmet was closed and locked, his restraints were undone, and the hoses and electrical connections to the suit remained connected.:4-7 As he was farthest from the origin of the fire, he suffered the least amount of burns and suit damage.:5-3

Aftermath

Chaffee's name, along with Grissom's and White's, on the Space Mirror Memorial

Shortly after the AS-204 fire in 1967, NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Spaceflight Dr. George Mueller announced the mission would be officially designated as Apollo 1. Chaffee and Grissom are both buried in Section 3 of Arlington National Cemetery, while White is buried at West Point Cemetery.

Chaffee was memorialized in many ways, from Chaffee Crater on the far side of the Moon,:66 to Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium located in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Roger B. Chaffee scholarship named for Chaffee has been awarded annually since 1967 to exceptional students in the Kent Intermediate School District for high school seniors who will be pursuing a career in math and science. Chaffee Hall, an engineering building, was dedicated to him at his alma mater, Purdue University. Another memorial is a hill on Mars, Chaffee Hill, 14.3 kilometres (8.9 mi) south-southwest of Columbia Memorial Station, part of the Apollo 1 Hills. The dismantled Launch Pad 34 at Cape Canaveral bears two memorial plaques: One says, They gave their lives in service to their country in the ongoing exploration of humankind's final frontier. Remember them not for how they died but for those ideals for which they lived. and the other, In memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice so others could reach for the stars. Ad astra per aspera, (a rough road leads to the stars). God speed to the crew of Apollo 1.

Launch Complex 34 Plaques
Plaque inside of structure.  Plaque on right rear column.

• Navy Air Medal, for his involvement in Heavy Photographic Squadron 62.
• Inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame, in 1983.
• Inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, on October 4, 1997.
• NASA Ambassador of Exploration Award for involvement in the U.S. space program, 2007 (posthumous).
• Navy Air Medal (posthumous, his second).
• Congressional Space Medal of Honor, 1997 (posthumous).

• ^
• "Roger B. Chaffee". Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. Retrieved June 16, 2016. 
• Smith, Yvette (October 4, 2007). "NASA Honors Roger Chaffee With Exploration Award". NASA. Retrieved June 16, 2016. 
• "Congressional Space Medal of Honor". C-SPAN. December 17, 1997. Retrieved June 16, 2016.