Launch Complex 34

Moon rising, seen through gaps in a concrete structure
Doug Ellison
CreditDoug Ellison
Historical DateSeptember 16, 2016
Language
  • english

A full moon rising over Launch Complex 34 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on September 16th 2016. Launch Complex 34 was first used for Saturn 1 rockets in 1961. It was later modified to support Saturn 1B launches beginning in 1966. It was here on Friday, 27th of January 1967 that the crew of Apollo 1 died in an accident during a countdown rehearsal. Only the launch platform remains standing today, at the base of which is a plaque which reads:

Dedicated to the living memory of the crew of the Apollo 1

U.S.A.F. Lt. Colonel Virgil I. Grissom
U.S.A.F. Lt. Colonel Edward H. White, II
U.S.N. Lt. Commander Roger B. Chaffee

They gave their lives in service to their country in the ongoing exploration of humankind's final frontier. Remember them not for how they died but for those ideals for which they lived.