Chaffee, Roger Bruce (1935–1967)
American astronaut selected by NASA to fly on the first Apollo
manned mission but who died on Jan. 27, 1967, along with crewmates Gus Grissom
and Edward White during a launch pad test
at the Kennedy Space Center. Chaffee received a B.S. in aeronautical engineering
from Purdue University in 1957 and immediately joined the Navy. Photographs
taken while he piloted a U-2 spy plane in 1963 proved conclusively that
the Soviet Union had installed offensive missiles in Cuba and were displayed
by President Kennedy during a televised address. That same month, Chaffee
was selected by NASA as a member of its third group of astronauts. He was
assigned with Grissom and White to fly the first Apollo capsule on an 11-day
mission in Earth orbit. However, a month before their scheduled launch,
all three were killed aboard their capsule, during a countdown rehearsal,
when a flash fire raced through their cabin.
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