Why Did the Review Panel Think About Grissoms Story
'The Astronaut Wives Social club': Space history vs. Hollywood in Episode 8 'Abort'
– The eighth episode of ABC'southward 10-office serial "The Astronaut Wives Club" dove into the aftermath of the Apollo 1 accident.
On Jan. 27, 1967, astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee were tragically killed in a fire that broke out in their spacecraft during a routine test on the launch pad. Thursday's (Aug. 6) installment of "Astronaut Wives Lodge" primarily followed one of the wives in her attempt to come up to terms with her married man's decease.
"Betty Grissom faces the grim reality that her hubby, Gus, is gone," ABC wrote in its synopsis for the episode. "With Gus having died while preparing for a mission, Betty must move forward planning his funeral and a life without him. After receiving word that Gus' decease may have been preventable, Betty is adamant to go answers in Gus' death and embarks on a battle for justice."
Equally readers who have been following these "space history vs. Hollywood reviews" know, "abort" is the label assigned to the "Astronaut Wives Club" scenes that divert from the events as they happened in real life.
This episode was aptly titled "Abort."
Post-mission debriefing: Here's a wait at where Episode 8 stayed true to infinite history ("
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"Better if it wasn't black" Imagining her Gus (Joel Johnstone) is nevertheless alive and preparing breakfast the morning of his funeral, Betty (portrayed by JoAnna Garcia Swisher) considers her dress choice.
A-OK! "You know I hate black," Gus – as imagined by Betty – says. The real Betty Grissom recounted the aforementioned matter to writer Lily Koppel, whose volume "The Astronaut Wives Club" served as the ground for the serial.
Grissom's funeral was held on Jan xxx, 1967 at Arlington National Cemetery outside of Washington, D.C. Betty (as correctly shown in the episode) wore a white-striped navy blue coat.
Underneath her glaze, according to astronaut Scott Carpenter'south memoirs "For Spacious Skies," was an orangish bouclé accommodate. "The color of fire."
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"Urelane 577-1." Betty is approached at the funeral past a man (Blake Lee) who only identifies himself as having worked with Gus. "There's something they're not telling you lot about your husband," he warns. The 2 later meet at a eating house, where he tells her of a memo he wrote advising nearly the flammability of a foam used throughout the capsule.
ABORT! These scenes begin a serial of bug with the episode.
The mysterious man is evidently based on John Dietz, an engineer who worked on the development of the Apollo control module and who simply days prior to the fire drafted a memo warning about the combustible nature of the Urelane 577-1 cream used throughout the sheathing.
That memo however, went unsent and wasn't fifty-fifty known near until Dietz came forward in 1971, iv years after the fire, in support of Betty filing a $x million lawsuit against North American Aviation, the prime contractor of the Apollo command module.
(The case was eventually settled for $350,000.)
That's non to say that NAA was not aware of Dietz's and NASA's concerns near flammable materials in the crew cabin. Dietz wrote his memo in support of an upcoming inspection of the spacecraft that had been scheduled for January. 31, but four days later the plugs out test that ultimately concluded in tragedy.
The Apollo 204 Review Lath, which investigated the causes of the accident, found "many types and classes of combustible material" had been installed in the capsule, including 34 square feet (3.2 square meters) of Velcro. (The board'southward concluding report did not cite Urelane specifically, just mentioned nylon and polyurethane foams.)
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"They're not slowing downward." Betty and Jo Schirra (Zoe Boyle) express repeated concerns that NASA is pushing forward on its schedule to launch to the moon instead of taking time to set what went incorrect.
ABORT! Information technology wasn't the wives (or the astronauts) who had to remind NASA to "tiresome the hell down," as the episode depicted.
The burn down took place on a Friday evening. Simply three days later, flight director Factor Kranz addressed his team in Houston. "We were likewise gung ho about the schedule," said Kranz. "Not one of united states stood upward and said, 'Damnit, stop!"
Kranz then set up the arroyo for mission managers and flying controllers going forward, demanding that Flight Control be forever "tough" and "competent."
"These words volition remind you of the price paid by Grissom, White and Chaffee," he said.
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"She's actually my aunt" Alice (Abbie Gayle) tries to befriend Ed White, Jr. (Matt Lanter) by sharing that her mother died when she was v, and in doing so, reveals that her name was originally Judy.
A-OK! ...and
Abort! Alice Shepard was indeed the daughter of Louise'due south sister Adele, who died of flu-similar symptoms in 1956. Every bit Alice's begetter and her grandparents were unable to care for her and her two older siblings, Louise and Alan Shepard raised Alice with their two daughters.
The Shepards did change Judy'due south name to Alice to avoid any confusion with Julie, their girl of the same age.
But it wasn't the secret the show presented it to be. Louise, in her 1961 LIFE article, described Alice every bit "our niece...who lives with us." And to this day, she goes by the proper name Alice.
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"A diamond pin?" While helping Betty review her budget, Deke Slayton (Kenneth Mitchell) discovers a receipt for a $75 jewelry purchase. It turns out to be a diamond-studded version of the gold pin worn past the astronauts. Betty initially assumes it was for her.
Abort! The story of this pin is well-documented.
Its purpose wasn't a mystery, every bit the episode made information technology out to be. The Apollo 1 coiffure (not Gus alone) had the special version of the gilded astronaut pivot fabricated to accolade Deke, who had earlier been grounded by a heart condition. The crew was going to take the pin on their mission and so present it to him.
The diamond was added because they knew Deke would decline to wear a gilded pin lonely, as that was the symbol of astronauts who had flown in space.
"The wives... nowadays[ed] that pin to me," recounted Slayton. "Information technology was a gesture I'll never forget."
Slayton's pivot would subsequently be flown to the moon with the start astronauts to land at that place in 1969.
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"Mom, please wake up!" Ed Jr. comes domicile and finds his grief-stricken female parent unconscious.
A-OK! (Sadly.) Though it was a neighbor instead of her son that discovered Pat, Koppel describes the near-tragedy in similar detail in her book.
"Pat was found clutching a canteen of pills, which had to be wrestled from her hands."
(Tragically, this result foreshadows Pat'southward suicide in September 1983, after she was also diagnosed with cancer.)
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"They're blaming Gus for the fire." Betty flies to Washington for the Congressional hearings into the fire. She arrives to hear testimony suggesting Gus "kicked a wire attached to the gas chromatograph," causing the fire.
ABORT! While it's true that an NAA engineer, John McCarthy, had hypothesized Grissom could have accidentally scuffed insulation on a wire in moving nearly the spacecraft, the 204 review board and the congressional committee rejected that notion.
Frank Borman, the first astronaut to enter the burnt-
out capsule, testified that they "found no bear witness to support the thesis that Gus, or any of the crew kicked the wire that ignited the flammables." -
"Get them excited nearly the moon again" NASA holds a party for the sixth anniversary of Shepard condign the first American to fly into space.
A-OK! ...and
ABORT! NASA, in an endeavour to rebuild morale – both internally and externally – did in fact concord a political party on May 6, 1967 to celebrate half dozen years of Americans in space. The event also served every bit a fundraiser for the Ed White Memorial Scholarship Fund.
Shepard did take to the podium at that party and, in a speech like to the one given by Deke on the show, said that "all of the states here tonight jointly share the responsibilities" for the tragedy. Merely his parting words was not "slow the hell down," as depicted on the prove, but rather, "Permit'due south go on with the job."
Besides, non to nitpick, but the episode'due south depiction of the party includes a display of the first-ever photo of the Earth rising over the moon, as was taken by NASA's Lunar Orbiter one robotic probe. That image was captured on Aug. 23, 1966, so it would take existed to exist at the commemoration, merely the remarkably clear version of the photo that the evidence uses was not available until 2008.
The original version of the Lunar Orbiter "Earthrise" was grainy and night. It was only through the efforts of the public-private Lunar Orbiter Epitome Recovery Projection that the original information tapes were processed, producing the much better quality photograph.
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"Vladimir Komarov" Deke Slayton appears on TV to convey the country's sympathies on the death of a Russian cosmonaut "whose parachute failed to deploy upon re-entry."
Arrest! The show reports Komarov's tragic death after the party for Shepard, only in reality the Soyuz 1 mission commander died on Apr 24, 1967.
And it was a telegram, rather than a TV circulate, that sent the condolences of the astronaut corps.NASA was ready to transport 2 astronauts, Gordon Cooper and Frank Borman, to attend the funeral in the Soviet Union, but Russian federation responded that it was a private thing.
Update: A reader pointed out footage showing Deke Slayton delivering the condolences of the astronaut corps on Idiot box, every bit depicted on the show. (so,
A-OK! )
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"A proper send-off." The wives wish Betty a bon voyage on her trip to Europe.
A-OK! After losing her husband in Feb 1966, Marilyn See took her iii children and a niece on a trip to Mexico in April 1967. She followed that upwards half dozen months later by touring Europe, inviting Betty Grissom to accompany her.
According to Koppel, the two visited Greece, Italia and Spain (but not France, every bit the evidence implied).
"The Astronaut Wives Club" collectSPACE reviews:
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Episode 8 - "Abort" (Aug. 6)
Source: http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-080715a-astronaut-wives-club-abort.html
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