SUNDAY,'' JANUARY 29, 1967
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
PAGE THR'EE
S ..AJAURY., 1967 TH eaMICH aiGAN a1AI.VP(W'tU'
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a
Apollo
Program
Director
Explains Accident, In
Explosion's
Causes Not
Determihed
All Data Impounded;
To Be Turned Over
To Board of Inquiry
CAPE KENNEDY, Fla. (A)- An
Apollo 1 astronaut cried "Fire in
the spacecraft!" and n an instant
the entire moonship was engulfed
in a sudden fatal flash of fire,
the Apollo program director said
yesterday.
Grimly, Maj. Gen. Samuel Phil-
lips told of the tragedy that killed
the Apollo 1 pilots and set back
America's man to the moon pro-
gram perhaps months.
Phillips - who as program di-
rector headed up a preliminary
investigation team probing the
blackened wreckage of Apollo 1--
said astronauts Virgil I. Grissom,
Edward H. White II and Roger
B. Chaffee were waiting to pick
up the count in a rehearsal of
their planned Feb. 21 launch date.
"The test started in the early
morning, and the crew went in-
,ide at 1 p.m.," he said. "The
hatch was closed at 2:50 p.m."
Report Blaze
The spacecraft was closed and
was pressurized with oxygen. At
6:41 p.m., observers in the pad
area and on the TV monitor in
the blockhouse . heard a report
originating from one of the as-
tronauts-who has not yet been
identified - that there was a
blaze.,
Blockhouse crewmen said they
heard the words: "Fire in the
spacecraft!" from inside Apollo 1
at the instant of death. They
hoped to identify the astronaut
who said it by listening to tape
recordings m a d e during the
countdown.
A split second later, fire "that
originated from inside the cabin"
penetrated to the outside of the
spacecraft and surrounded the
moonship in an instant - "split
seconds," Phillips said.
Felled by Smoke
Emergency crews had the Apollo
1 doors opened in five minutes, he
said, but were confronted with
intense heat and very dense smoke.
Twenty-seven rescue workers were
felled by smoke inhalation, drop-
ping like dominoes as each rushed
to help.
Their efforts were in vain. Gris-
som, White and Chaffee appar-
ently died instantly. The only es-
cape available to them was to
open the hatch doors from inside
the spacecraft, the program direc-
tor said, and scramble to safety.
The spacecraft doors "can be
opened quickly with a crank-type
tool," he said. Apparently they
did not live long enough to try.
Yesterday, the badly charred
bodies of Air Force Lt. Cols. Gris-
som and White and Navy Lt.
Cmdr. Chaffee were in an infirm-
ary 11/2 miles from the launch pad
where they were to blast off Feb.
21 to spend up to 14 days orbiting
the earth to test spacecraft oper-
ations. The bodies were expected
to be transported to Houston,
Tex., for services, but arrange-
ments were not complete.
Grissom, 40, flew the second
Mercury spaceship and first man-
ned two-man craft; White, 36, was
the first U.S. astronaut to leave
his ship and become a human
satellite. Chaffee, 31, was a
fledgling spaceman looking for-
ward to his first mission.
The program director said the
exact cause of the blaze had not
yet been determined.
He also refused to speculate on
the accident's impact on America's
lunar landing program, saying
only that "I'm not prepared to
discuss our plans for the flight
events to come."
Phillips said all data had been
impounded and would be turned
over to a board of inquiry named
yesterday by Dr. George B. Muel-
ler, NASA associate administrator
for manned space flight.
Phillips said the spacecraft was
pressurized with pure oxygen at
the time of the accident and ox-
ygen "acts as an ignition source
which has a flash fire potential."
Soviet manned spaceships are
believed to use a gas mixture sim-
ilar to earth's actual environment
-a mixture of oxygen, and nitro-
gen-which is not as much a
burning agent as pure oxygen.
President Johnson and officials
of the space agency said the moon
program would push forward with'
renewed dedication and purpose,
-Daily-Ron Holcomb
ANN ARBOR, LIKE THE REST of the nation, is attempting to return to normal after the record
storm of the past few days. Snow, blocking streets and driveways, caused massive traffic tie-ups
across the Midwest and left hundreds of motorists stranded on snow-drifted highways.-
Nation Digs Out of Snow;
Transportation Still Disrupted
By The Associated Press
The snowstorm whichsdumped
most of its load on the Midwest-
23 inches at Chicago, 28 at Kala-
mazoo-moved into northern New
England and eastern Canada yes-
terday showing reduced intensity.
Chicago and other cities paral-
yzed by drifts of five to 15- feet
succeeded in reopening their traf-
fic arteries by dint of round-the-
clock work by thousands of dig-
gers, but most neighborhoods still
were snowbound.
Sixty-eight deaths were attri-
buted to the record storm in five
states-42 in Illinois, 17 in Mich-
igan, 5 in Wisconsin, 3 in Indiana
and 1 in Ohio.
Food Distribution
. Snow-buried streets, many of
them blocked by abandoned ve-
hicles, disrupted distribution of
food to neighborhood stores. Thou-
sands of emergency missions were
flown by helicopters or carried out
by drift-bucking tractor-plows
and trucks to supply isolated com-
munities or stranded groups of
motorists.
Also, bands of looters broke into
more than 100 unttended taverns,1
groceries, pawn shops and de-
serted delivery trucks on Chicago's.
West and South sides. Most of the
looting stopped after 100 arrests
and deployment of more than 600
policemen.
Despite a turn to colder weather
which dropped temperatures into
the teens during the early hours
Saturday, the progress in restoring
traffic and communications was
notable.
Bus service still was erratic in
Chicago, and many buses were
stalled, but the city's rail transit
system came back to almost nor-
mal. Traffic was light, but truck
deliveries of groceries, milk and
bakery goods were being made
along many streets where plowing
was done. Most hospitals were
being resupplied with food.
Gary, Ind., was still largely im-
mobilized, but hundreds of strand-
ed persons were moved from steel
plants by equipment organized by
the New York Central Railroad.
In the work of restoring elec-
trical service to thousands of
homes in a stretch of ice-locked
territory through central Illinois
and Indiana and northwestern
Ohio, where sleet and freezing rain
paralleled just south of the snow-
.storm's course, there was much
still to be done by overworked line
crews of utility companies.
Hundreds of homes were with-
out service Saturday. Most primary
lines, a spokesman for one com--
pany said, were expected to be
back in service during the night.
But many homes and businesses
on secondary lines faced a week-
end without electricity.
Program May
Be Delayed
For Months
Senate Investigation
Will Follow Up Probe
By NASA Officials
By The Associated Press
MANNED SPACE C E N T E R,
Houston, Tex. - The catastrophe
that killed three astronauts inside
a flaming Apollo spaceship cast a
giant shadow on the U.S. man-to-
the-moon project, stalling the $23-
billion _program for perhaps sev-
era] months.
Top project officials would not
predict how long the delay might
be. They said only that the maid-
en manned voyage of the three-
man spaceship had been postpon-
ed indefinitely.
"I am not prepared to discuss
our plans for the flight events to
come," said Maj. Gen. Samuel
Phillips, Apollo program director,
at a Cape Kennedy news confer-
ence.
Several Months
No doubt it will be several
months before a spaceship can be
readied for the Apollo 1 mission.
An investigating board must first
complete its report, and space-
ships must be redesigned, if nec-
essary. Officials then must start
over with weeks- of vehicle tests
and astronaut training.
The National Aeronautics and
Space Administration named a
seven-man investigating board to
probe the accident. Also, Sen.
Clinton P. Anderson (D-NM),
chairman of the Senate Space
Committee, said a Senate inquiry
would follow the NASA probe.
Full Review
Anderson described the Senate
investigation as a full review of
the fatal fire.
Should NASA decide to discard
the fatal vehicle, described offi-
cially as "heavily damaged," it
has other spaceships. However,
any redesign would take weeks,
even months, to work out and test.
Also, NASA could choose to
scrub the Apollo 1 mission com-
pletely and move directly onto
Apollo 2, a more complex ren-
dezvous flight. Planning before
the accident called for three man-
ned Apollo missions in earth orbit,
followed by a fourth with the
capability of landing men on the
moon.
'Success Scheduled'
It was known that NASA had
been hoping for a lunar landing
sometime in 1968, more than a
year ahead of the nation's goal of
placing men on the moon by 1970.
But, officials said all along, any
1968 try depended on a "success
schedule."
Anderson said he reached his
decision to hold an inquiry after
conferring with Sen. Margaret
Chase Smith of Maine, ranking
Republican member of the space
committee. He said she agreed
that such a review is essential.
Indicating that the committee
may look beyond the NASA find-
ings, Anderson said:
"We would, as we see it now,
examine the proceedings of the
board of inquiry-without imped-
ing its work-and gather any ad-
ditional information necessary to
fulfilling the committee's respon-
sibilities."
House Investigation
Prior to Anderson's announce-
ment, a Republican member of
the House Space Committee called1
for an investigation by that body
but received no encouragement for
early action from the group's
chairman.
Rep. James G. Fulton, senior
Republican member of the House
Science and Astronautics Com-
mittee, said at his home in Pitts-
burgh, Pa.:
"I want to investigate to see
how this thing happened. If we
are careful now it may save some
lives in the future."
But Rep. George P. Miller (D-
Calif), the committee chairman,
made it clear he has no intention
of stepping into the investigation
before the NASA has completed
Lower Michigan Recovers
From Grip of Violent Storm
By The Associated Press
Southern Michigan residents
slowly began to free themselves
yesterday from the icy grip of a
withering snow storm which
dumped more than 20 inches of
snow within 24 hours.
Gov. George Romney called
upon neighbors to help dig each
other out.
Appealing for neighborhoods to
organize and dig in where people
need help, George Romney said:
"Otherwise emergency situations
will overwhelm us and many will
not only suffer, but some will die."
At least 15 persons died of heart
attacks caused by over exertion or
other storm-related causes. Three
men were injured when a factory
roof collapsed under the weight
of the snow in St. Joseph.
The U.S. Weather Bureau at De-
troit said the worst of the storm
was over but more snow was fore-
cast for tomorrow.
More than a feet of snow fell
on much of southern Michigan,
with 24 inches at Lansing, 17 at
BACKED BY TROOPS:
Red Guard Protests Russian
Attacks on Chinese Students
By The Associated Press bassy called an unprecedented behavior "treachery to the course
TOKYO-Army troops loyal to news conference to release a mes- of Lenin."
Mao Tse-tung backed thousands sage from Premier Chou En-lai The embassy charged that all
of demonstrators outside the and Foreign Minister Chen Yi. It 69 students at Red Square were
Soviet Embassy in Peking yester- accused the Soviets of "bloody re- hit and 30 of them injured, of
day to protest what Communist pression" of students trying to whom 10 left with bloody faces. It
China claims were unprovoked at- place a wreath on the grave of said four were seriously hurt.
tacks on Chinese students in Mos- Joseph V. Stalin last Wednesday. 'Undisguised Provocation'
cow, Japanese correspondents re- The Soviet Foreign Ministry At its news conference the
ported. staged a rival news conference to Soviet Foreign Ministry charged
The dispatches from Peking respond to the Chinese charges. that Mao Tsyun directed the in-
said the Chinese troops joined the It said the Red Square incident cident. The Soviets dismissed It
demonstrators after attending a was a provocation planned by a as "nothing but an indisguised
rally in the Workers Stadium to Chinese Embassy official. provocation planned in advance."
pledge full support for Mao's purge The governments of the two Boris Pyadyshev, deputy chief
of followers of President Liu great Communist powers have ex- of the Foreign Ministry's press de-
Shao-chi. changed a series of recriminations partment, said the Chinese had
A broadcast dispatch of the of- and protests over the Red Square committed "outrages."
ficial New China News Agency incident, pointing up the extent Japanese dispatches from Pe-
said Red Guards, workers and stu- of the deteriorating in their :e- king said 100,000 Chinese took part
dents marched around the Soviet lations. in the anti-Soviet demonstration
Embassy in chilling weather Beat Up Students yesterday. It was the third straight
shouting, "Down with Brezhnev! The Chinese contend that Soviet day of anti-Soviet demonstrations
Down with Kosygin!" police beat up the students. The in the midst of a power struggle
Leonid I. Brezhnev is the chief Russians say the Chinese made a between Chinese Communist lead-
of the Soviet Communist party 'nuisance of themselves and that er Mao Tse-tung and president
and Alexei N. Kosygin is premier. Soviet citizens linked arms and Liu Shao-chi.
Jackson, 13 at Grand Rapids and
waist-high drifts in many areas.
High winds hampered road clear-
ing in much of the stricken area.
For the first time in its 135
years of publication, yesterday's
Detroit Free Press was not de-
livered beyond the Metropolitan
Detroit Area. The Detroit News
said Friday it had to cutback de-
liveries to many suburban and out-
state areas because of risky driving
conditions.
For the first time in its 112
years, Michigan State University
in East Lansing was closed Fri-
day.
Babies were born at home be-
cause there was no way to get to
hospitals; travelers crowled into
motels and hotels, with rooms at
premium, because impassable snow
blocked their route.
Homes burned because firemen
couldn't get to the scene to battle
the blaze. Sports events were can-
celeld, schools closed, roads were
blocked off, snowladen roofs caved
in at two points.
The Weather Bureau at Detroit
said that while the city got only
four inches on the ground, the
snow weighed as much at 16
inches of normal snow.
"Instead of running off as
usual," the bureau said, "the rain
that followed soaked into and
froze onto the snow, greatly in-
creasing its weight.
"This snow cover weighs 81/2
pounids per square foot," the
bureau said.
The wheels of state government
almost ground to a halt because
of storm troubles. Gov. George
Romney made it to the Capitol
building-with the help of an
armored personnel carrier used by
the National Guard to plow
through drifts.
Rep. Robert Waldron (R-Grosse
Pointe), newly-elected speaker of
the state House of Representatives,
said that he is postponing the
opening of the House until Wed-
nesday.
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The Chinese accuse them of fol- herded the Chinese back to their The Japanese accounts said that
lowing in the footsteps of former bus. The incident occurred near the army troops appeared on the
Premier Nikita Khrushchev in re- Lenin's tomb. Visitors to Stalin's scene for the first time yesterday.
vising the original tenets of Marx grave now must pass through Situation Tense
and Lenin and taking a capitalist Lenin's tomb, At the same time, the Japanese
road. Mao Tsyun, press attache of the correspondents said all posters in
In Moscow, the Chinese Em- Chinese Embassy, called the Soviet Peking said the situation in Sin-
~~~ ~kiang remained tense although no
" e military activity was reported
French Continue Opposition from Shihhotze and nearby Tus-
hantze where more than 100 per-
ons uwere reported killed and
T o ritsh T adeMartEntybteencores injured in armed clashes
To British Trade Mart Entr between followers of Mao andL..
Army troops in full battle garb
By ARTHUR L. GAVSHON son. He asked a few pointed ques- paraded through the streets of six
Associated Press News Analyst tions, then set the issue aside for Chinese cities, Radio Peking said.
PARIS - F r e n c h President three months, until leaders of the Peking dispatches from Kyodo
Charles de Gaulle is shutting the Common Market states hold a news service and Japan Broad-
gates of the European Common summit meeting in Rome. casting Corp. correspondents said
Market on Britain again for an Wilson characteristically took the troops rode into Peking's
Markethrateisicon tokWorkers Stadium in trucks to
indefinite time to come. the issue to the people of France howker tary iht an
This seems the only conclusion and of Europe over the head of show their miiltary might and
to draw for his - treatment of the French government. Addres- pledge full support to the Maoists.
Prime Minister Harold Wilson's sing the Council of Europe in Parades
Parades were also held in Shan-
mission arguing the case for Brit- Strasbourg, he said if his bid to ghai, Fukien, Pacting, Taiyuan,
ish entry. enter the Common Market fails, cai, f khn, Prvin, an
Wilson flew home last week "the fault will not lie at Britain's capital of Shansi Province, and
with no more than an under- i door." It was a challenge to De Kyodo, quoting fresh wall post-
taking from De Gaulle to consult Gaulle to say no as he did four ers put up by pro-Mao Red Guards
France's five Common Market .years ago. from Urumchi, said the pitched
partners but. not before April, a y At lunch Tuesday De Gaulle ,battle between the pro and anti-
month after the French parlia- found himself a captive audience, Maoists occurred in Shhhotze
mentary elections. flanked by Wilson and Brown. Jan. 26.
Political Battle? For 90 minutes, listeners later re- It said an argument between
The encounter between the ported, the Britons cut and thrust two opposing groups of soldiers
French and British leaders has at the president over his Euro- the day before brought on the
been, behind the formalities, a pean policies, his big freeze with armed clash when a company of
battle for the high ground of the Americans, his flirtations with anti-Maoist troops riding 10
European politics. the Communist states. trucks encircled a pro-MaoIst
A French-led Europe would High French officials expect textile mill.
tend to look inward, toward the De Gaulle to go no further than The anti - Maoists, including
Ural Mountains on the east. It to propose in due course that members from the newly organized
probably would resist the capture Britain accept associate member- field army, the report said, raided
of industry after industry by the ship in the Common Market be- the mill, killed 15 persons who
Americans. cause it is not yet ready for full resisted and injured seven others.
A British-led Europe almost membership. Wilson has rejected It said by late afternoon Jan. 26
certainly would gaze across the this as "half-hearted and de- casualties totaled more than 100
western and southern oceans, see- featist." persons killed.
ing the world as one, cherishing
its links with the New World.
Backing
The British are fairly sure they
can count on the other five na-
tions of the Common Market-
West Germany, Italy, the Neth-
erlands, Belgium and Luxembourg
-to back any formal application
they make to join their thriving
customs union.
But the French hold a trump
in the reality that the Common
Market is a going concern in
which all members are prosper-
ing and anxious to preserve that
prosperity, while Britain is de-
cidedly not prospering.
As usual, De Gaulle played the
perfect host. He received Wilson
and foreign Secretary George
Brown graciously at the Elysee
Palace, invited Wilson to talk
first and listened courteously
while Wilson made Britain's case
for a' European destiny.
Then the frost began to de-
scend.
De Gaulle declined to comment
on the broad temes made by Wil-
World News Roundup
By The Associated Press
SAIGON - U.S. air operations
picked up on both sides of the
border, and B52 jets staged an-
other fire raid on jungle holdings
of the Viet Cong yesterday. Pilots
claimed the lion's share of 217 of
th enemy reported killed in South
Vietnam.
Stormy weather saved the upper
reaches of North Vietnam from
attack Friday, but American
squadrons flew 85 missions-the
high of the week-against high-
ways, bridges, coastal vessels and
staging areas in the southern sec-
tion.
** *
BIMINI, Bahamas-Adam Clay-
ton Powell said yesterday he
would make a partial payment of
the $164,000 court judgment he
owes and warned congressmen de-
termining his right to be seated
to be prepared for a counterat-
tack.
Meeting newsmen for the first
time since the House refused to
seat him until it looks at his qual-
ifications, Powell said he would
pay $33,000 next Tuesday to
Esther James, 70, the Harlem
widow who won a slander judg-
ment against him.
Any effort to pay off the judg-
ment would probably help Powell's
case before the House committee
investigating him, but the Harlem
Democrat promptly showed he is
not going to make it easy for his
colleagues to recommend he be
seated.
He said he would go before the
committee, "when my counsel ad-
vises me to," then added: "I'm
ready. I'm ready with a lot of in-
formation on my colleagues."
Viet Nam Party Politics
Stir as Elections Near
Inf.
SAIGON (4P-Party politics are
stirring anew in Vietnam in prep-
aration for civilian elections
promised for later this year.
A new constitution is scheduled
to be completed by March 27. Vil-
lage and hamlet elections are ex-
pected in May or June. National
elections are supposed to take
place within six months after the
constitutions goes into effect,
probably in November or Decem-
ber.
There is political ferment at
the top in Saigon in Premier
Nguyen Cao Ky's war cabinet, in
the Constituent Assembly which
is writing the constitution, in the
Army-People's Council, an ad-
visory body, and among old-line
politicians who hold no office.
Politicking is also reported at
the grass roots, especially in the
five northernmost provinces which
include the cities of Hue and Da
Nang.
Political observers are already
"ticket balancing" - speculating
over possible candidates for pres-
ident and vice president. Some
The draft constitution blends
American presidential government
with the British parliamentary
system. In practice it will most
closely resemble the Korean or
French forms of government.
The president and vice presi-
dent are to be elected. An esti-
mated six million persons over 18
are eligible to vote. A National
Assembly is to be elected several
weeks after the president and vice
president.
The Cabinet is to be selected
by the president, but individual
ministers can be unseated by a
simple majority vote in the lower
house of the assembly. The Cab-
inet could be turned out by a
two-thirds majority.
TONIGHT
its inquiry.
The idea, according to Vietnam- '"m mmm inm """in " - ""mm m" m minmmmmm m mmm mm m
ese officials, is to provide the u E
continuity of a president elected,
for a fixed term with the right te THOMPS0N'S PIZZAr
of a parliament to censure the r r
government. a
The switch from a military re- 761-0001
gime to civilian government will CG
be a touchy business. There is a i This COUPON Good Toward"
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MICHAEL COONEY