Editing Space Race (section)

====Apollo 1====
{{Main|Apollo 1}}

[[File:Apollo 1 fire.jpg|thumb|Charred interior of the Apollo 1 spacecraft after the fire that killed the crew]]
On January 27, 1967, the same day the US and USSR signed the Outer Space Treaty, the crew of the first crewed Apollo mission, Command Pilot [[Gus Grissom|Virgil "Gus" Grissom]], Senior Pilot [[Ed White (astronaut)|Ed White]], and Pilot [[Roger Chaffee]], were killed in a fire that swept through their spacecraft cabin during a ground test, less than a month before the planned February 21 launch. An investigative board determined the fire was probably caused by an electrical spark and quickly grew out of control, fed by the spacecraft's atmosphere of pure oxygen at greater than one standard atmosphere. Crew escape was made impossible by inability to open the [[plug door]] hatch cover against the internal pressure.<ref name="sea5" /> The board also found design and construction flaws in the spacecraft, and procedural failings, including failure to appreciate the hazard of the pure-oxygen atmosphere, as well as inadequate safety procedures.<ref name="sea5" /> All these flaws had to be corrected over the next twenty-two months until the first piloted flight could be made.<ref name="sea5">{{cite book|first=Robert C. Jr.|last=Seamans|publisher=NASA History Office|title=Report of Apollo 204 Review Board|chapter=Findings, Determinations And Recommendations|chapter-url=http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/Apollo204/find.html|date=April 5, 1967|access-date=October 7, 2007|archive-date=November 5, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151105102355/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/Apollo204/find.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Mercury and Gemini veteran Grissom had been a favored choice of [[Deke Slayton]], NASA's Director of Flight Crew Operations, to make the first piloted landing.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Slayton|first1=Donald K.|title=Deke!: U.S. Manned Space from Mercury to the Shuttle|author-link1=Deke Slayton|last2=Cassutt|first2=Michael|author-link2=Michael Cassutt|year=1994|page=223|publisher=Forge: St. Martin's Press|location=New York City|isbn=0-312-85503-6|lccn=94-2463|oclc=29845663|url=https://archive.org/details/dekeusmannedspac00slay|quote=It wasn't just a cut-and-dried decision as to who should make the first steps on the Moon. If I had to select on that basis, my first choice would have been Gus, which both [[Christopher C. Kraft, Jr.|Chris Kraft]] and [[Robert R. Gilruth|Bob Gilruth]] seconded.}}</ref>