Episode 58: The Aftermath of Apollo 1 (The Apollo Program, Part III)

Did you know that NASA's iconic second administrator, James E. Webb was a Marine pilot and lieutenant colonel? After World War II, he held a few government positions, including Undersecretary of State before his gig leading NASA through some of its most pivital moments including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, and the aftermath of the Apollo 1 fire. He left NASA in 1968 and in 2002, NASA announced its next space telescope would be named in honor of Webb, who died in 1992.

Lieutenant Colonel James Edwin Webb is interred in Section 2, Grave 961 with a simple headstone that simply identifies him as a Marine and a public servant.

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on December 25, 2021 and since then, many of its amazing images have flooded my social media feeds.

The Carina neblua and the birth of stars

A dying star's final performance

The Pillars of Creation in the Eagle nebula

The deepest infrared image of the universe yet

Apollo 7 was the NASA's first manned space mission after the disastrous Apollo 1 fire. There was a lot riding on the mission and much to NASA's relief, it was a technical success, though there was a lot of tension between mission control in Houston and the three astronaut's in space (left to right: Don Eisele, Wally Schirra, and Walt Cunningham). The tension was such that it effectively ended the three men's careers as astronauts.

Apollo 7 was the first time American's held live television broadcasts from space - something that would become a staple of the US space program in the years to come - and despite the poor visual quality, the American and international publics loved them. In the end, Apollo 7 was a great success and showed that the many faults in the first block of Apollo capsules had been corrected after the Apollo 1 fire. Amazingly, after just 18 months, it looked like NASA was back on track to reach the moon before the end of 1969, just as President Kennedy had challenged. 

This is the best digital rendering of the Apollo 1 crew patch that I could find. The design's center depicts a command and service module flying over the southeastern United States  with Florida (the launch point) prominent. The moon is seen in the distance, symbolic of the eventual program goal. A yellow boarder carries the mission and astronauts names with another boarder set with stars and stripes, trimmed in gold. The insignia was designed by the crew with artwork done by North American Aviation employee Allen Stevens.

The insignia for the Apollo 7 flight shows a command and service module with its engine firing, the trail from that fire encircling a globe and extending past the edge of the patch symbolixing the Earth-orbital nature of the mission. The Roman numberal 7 (VII) appears in the south Pacific Ocean and the crew's names appear on a whide arc at the bottom. The atwork was also designed by Allen Stevens, now with Rockwell International.