The January 27, 1967, Apollo I mission was a simulated launch in preparation for an actual lunar flight.
NASA concluded the Apollo I deaths of Grissom, as well as astronauts Edward H. White and Roger Chafee, were the result of an explosive fire that enveloped the pure oxygen atmosphere of the space capsule. NASA investigators could not identify what caused the spark, but wrote the catastrophe off as an accident.
“My father’s death was no accident, he was murdered,” Grissom, a commercial pilot, told STAR.
Grissom said he recently was granted access to the charred capsule and discovered a “fabricated” metal plate located behind a control panel switch. The switch controlled the capsules’ electrical power source from an outside source to the ship’s batteries. Grissom argues that the placement of the metal plate was an act of sabotage. When the one of the astronauts toggled the switch to transfer power to the ship’s batteries, a spark was created igniting a fireball.
Clark Mac Donald, a McDonnell-Douglas engineer hired by NASA to investigate the fire, offered corroborating evidence. Breaking more than three decades of silence, Mac Donald alleges that he determined an electrical short caused by the change over to battery power had caused the fire.
He says that NASA destroyed his report and interview tapes in an effort to stem public criticism of the space program.
“I have agonized for 31 years about revealing the truth but I didn’t want to hurt NASA’s image or cause trouble,” Mac Donald told the paper. “But I can’t let one more day go by without the truth being known.”