^Lot 250 Apollo 1

During a training exercise in the Apollo 1 command module on January 27, 1967, a flash fire, later determined to be caused by exposed wiring in the highly pressurized, oxygen-saturated environment, engulfed the capsule. Within minutes, all three crew members, unable to escape from the tightly sealed capsule, had perished in the most deadly American space-related accident until the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger nearly two decades later. Extremely rare color semi-glossy 10 x 8 ‘red-numbered’ NASA photo of the Apollo 1 crew posing in their blue flightsuits with a module of their capsule on a table before them, signed in black felt tip, “Ed White,” “Gus Grissom,” and “Roger Chaffee.” Some scattered light surface marks and dings, a few trivial spots, and a bit of adhesive remnant and surface loss to top edge, otherwise fine condition. Easily considered the rarest of all Apollo crew signed portraits, as only a scant number are known to exist.