Disturbing audio from inside space capsule during the Apollo 1 disaster
**Warning: Contains audio of three people trapped inside a capsule on fire**
Devastating audio from the disastrous first crewed mission of the Apollo program has been released.
On 21 February, 1967, the first low Earth orbital test using the Apollo 1 space vehicle, was set to launch from Cape Kennedy, Florida.
However, the mission never took off after a devastating cabin fire occurred on 27 January during a pre-flight test.
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Three crew members were inside the capsule and devastating audio has since been released of some of their final moments.
Command Pilot Gus Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee were inside Apollo 1 during the 'plugs-out' test.
The test mimicked what would happen when the flight was launched, the 'Command Module mounted on the Saturn 1B on the launch pad,' the NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive states.
However, Saturn 1B was not fueled.
The team encountered problems almost as soon as they stepped into the capsule.
Not only was the test delayed as a result of some minor issues, but at 6:30pm - after the astronauts had been in the capsule for around five hours - a surge was recorded 'in the AC bus 2 voltage readings'.
The recording is from a microphone worn by one of the astronauts and you can hear the astronauts realising there's a fire.
In a clip of the audio posted to X - formerly known as Twitter - by @Morbidful, one can be heard saying: "Hey! There's a fire in the cockpit."
"We have a bad fire," another voice can be heard saying a few seconds later.
The astronauts can then be heard shouting, before the audio eventually cuts out, with the NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive reporting that the last crew communication with those on the outside ended '17 seconds after the first indication of the start of the fire'.
As a result of the cabin being filled with pure oxygen, the fire spread quickly through the capsule and the hatch - which would have reportedly taken 90 seconds to get open and under 'ideal conditions' - was unable to be opened in time.
The three astronauts lost their lives as a result of the fire blazing through the command module, the hatch eventually opened five minutes after the fire started - but it sadly proving too late to save them.
Investigations into the tragedy revealed the fire was most likely caused by 'a spark from a short circuit in a bundle of wires'.
Multiple changes were subsequently made in the Apollo program, such as a using a nitrogen-oxygen mixture instead of pure oxygen and a new hatch which could be opened by those inside, not just from the outside.
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Poppy Bilderbeck