NASA’s Apollo program trekked carefully along the dangerous line separating risk from reward, and as it would seem, the American space agency may have been a bit too ambitious at first.
Following the tragic event that claimed three astronauts’ lives during the attempted Apollo 1 mission, NASA had no other option but to return to the drawing board and re-think safety protocol for future generations of spaceflight.
NASA identified three things that needed to change for future spaceflight missions, and they involved the pure oxygen environment inside of the spacecraft, the amount of combustible material inside the crew cabin, and the inward-opening escape hatch.
The loss of life experienced upon the failed launch attempt drove NASA even harder to work toward success. After some time and reengineering for safety, the Apollo program went on, and space exploration continued.
