LISA JAMES/ PressRetired engineer and technical writer Vern Westgate holds the Apollo manual which he wrote, as he talks about his experience working for North American Aviation. January 27 is the 50th anniversary of the cabin fire that killed three American astronauts during a pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission. As the Apollo was being developed, Westgate was the liaison between the astronauts and the engineers, and got to know them intimately.
January 24, 2017
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January 24, 2017 midnight
50 YEARS LATER
COEUR d’ALENE — Gazing into an operations manual, its edges beginning to yellow with age, Vern Westgate remembered his astronaut friends Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee.