Rene-NASA-Mooned-America

Mass Murder or Utter Stupidity / Chap. 6 p. 47
Apollo 1, Grissom's mission, into space even though neither the Saturn V (actual moon
rocket) nor the Apollo capsule had ever actually been tested in space.
Wouldn't you have smelled a rat Perhaps Grissom was a bit worried. He got Wally
Schirra to ask Joe Shea, NASA's chief administrator, to go through the test with him.
"Grissom still wanted Shea to be with him in the spacecraft." 16 Shea refused because NASA
couldn't patch in a fourth headset in time for the test. Is that likely It is difficult to believe
that this couldn't have been done in the 24-hour timeframe available. If I had a crew of
technicians who couldn't install another headset jack in that amount of time I 'd fire the
whole damn crew.
The original Apollo capsule had different hatches, but by 1300 hours all three astronauts
were strapped in their acceleration couches with the new hatches sealed behind them. It was
later revealed that these hatches were so poorly designed that even with outside help and in a
non-emergency situation, it took seven or eight minutes to open them. They were originally
supposed to spend a few hours practicing throwing the proper switches at the right time in
sequential response to computer simulations. However, with delay piled upon delay and
everyone in a hurry, each time a switch was thrown, unnoticed, tiny sparks jumped.
During the test of the Apollo capsule on Pad 34, Grissom and his crew were in 100
percent oxygen simulating the real thing. In fact they reported a burning smell a few times
earlier that day. When that happened technicians would come with "sniffers", open the
hatches, but find nothing. One wonders if the review board considered that these hatch
openings flushed out the smell with the fresh air admitted by opening the hatch. These
incidents delayed the test, and time was running out. 17 The extraneous combustible materials
may have been combining with the pressurized oxygen each time pure oxygen refilled
the cabin. Oxidation makes heat, and if you stop the process that heat remains in the material.
Each time you repressurize the craft the combustible material will be at a slightly higher
temperature. I sense that Borman's "board of review" missed this angle.
I also feel that spontaneous combustion would have been much too subtle for the CIA. If
it was a CIA hit they would have done it with an electric squib or incendiary device wired to
a switch, programmed to be thrown toward the end of the test.
While the testing was going on, some mastermind in Mission Control decided to save
some time. In his wisdom that unknown leader made the decision to speed up the testing. As
the board of inquiry later noted, "To save time, the space agency took a short cut." What he
did was simply order the capsule to be pressurized with 100 percent oxygen at either 16.7 or
20.2 psi. Notice that no name was used. The entire agency takes the blame. Such
compassion by a major player!
I have great difficulty believing that apparently not one of these rocket scientists in
Control, nor the astronauts themselves, knew that a Calorimeter Bomb consists of a combustible
material, pressurized oxygen, and a spark. These were highly educated men who
had technical degrees, who had taken chemistry courses, and who must have spent some
time around welding and cutting torches that used oxygen.
I cannot understand why Grissom et al entered that capsule in the first place if they
knew it was to be pressurized with oxygen over 14.7 psi. In a hospital no one is allowed to
NASA MOONED AMERICA! / Rene