The crew of the Apollo One mission

Yesterday was the anniversary of the Apollo One tragedy.  On January 27, 1967, three astronauts: Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee perished on the launchpad in the capsule during a launch rehearsal.  A fire broke out and swept through the capsule.  At the 10-minute mark a cry of “Fire!” was heard and the capsule was already engulfed.  The astronauts didn’t have a chance.  The pure oxygen environment plus flammable materials (straps, foam, etc.) and a spark from a frayed wire were a deadly mix.  They tried to unbolt the inward swinging hatch, but that normally takes 90 seconds.  They didn’t have that amount of time.  This event shut down the American space program for a year and a half as it was reviewed and addressed.

Here is a short news clip video from shortly after the accident.

Today is the anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.  Many in my generation can remember where they were when they heard this news.  Personally, I was walking through my high school’s cafeteria on my way to class.  Suddenly, people rushed the school store which had a TV playing the news and covering the event.  73 seconds into flight, the shuttle exploded, killing all seven crewmembers aboard.  Maybe what drew the most attention was that it was the first flight where a teacher, Christa McAuliffe, was on board.  Many things happened as a result of the accident such as: civilian crewmembers were halted for 22 years, the programs flight rate was re-evaluated, and satellite launches were moved to expendable rockets.  Here is one video of the event.

GorT

GorT is an eight-foot-tall robot from the 51ˢᵗ Century who routinely time-travels to steal expensive technology from the future and return it to the past for retroinvention. The profits from this pay all the Gormogons’ bills, including subsidizing this website. Some of the products he has introduced from the future include oven mitts, the Guinness widget, Oxy-Clean, and Dr. Pepper. Due to his immense cybernetic brain, GorT is able to produce a post in 0.023 seconds and research it in even less time. Only ’Puter spends less time on research. GorT speaks entirely in zeros and ones, but occasionally throws in a ڭ to annoy the Volgi. He is a massive proponent of science, technology, and energy development, and enjoys nothing more than taking the Czar’s more interesting scientific theories, going into the past, publishing them as his own, and then returning to take credit for them. He is the only Gormogon who is capable of doing math. Possessed of incredible strength, he understands the awesome responsibility that follows and only uses it to hurt people.