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Author
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Topic: Donn Eisele, Roger Chaffee and Apollo 1
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Henry Heatherbank
Member Posts: 336
From: Adelaide, South Australia
Registered: Apr 2005
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posted 08-21-2026 07:28 AM
  
If the original Apollo 1 crew was Gus Grissom, Ed White and Donn Eisele, with Roger Chaffee later replacing Eisele because of his shoulder injury from zero-G training, what were the original plans for Chaffee and how much further down the line would he have flown in Apollo? He was not Eisele’s backup when the switch was made. |
Delta7
Member Posts: 1812
From: Bluffton IN USA
Registered: Oct 2007
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posted 08-21-2026 07:59 AM
I read somewhere that the original planned AS-205 (Apollo 2) crew was Wally Schirra, Walt Cunningham and Roger Chaffee. |
dtemple
Member Posts: 820
From: Longview, Texas, USA
Registered: Apr 2000
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posted 09-23-2026 01:27 PM
According to "Deke!" by Michael Cassutt, Slayton substituted Ed White for the injured Don Eisele. White had the center seat as "Senior Pilot" for Apollo 1, and on Apollo 7, Don Eisele had the center seat. Chaffee had the right seat on Apollo 1, so substituting Chaffee for Eisele doesn't make sense to me (differing responsibilities for each position). I have read Chaffee replaced Eisele, too, but I think White was his replacement. I know Cassutt has commented in the past on this forum about this subject and as I recall he mentioned Slayton's memory of events might have been inaccurate due to his condition (brain cancer). Even so, I still think White replacing Eisele is what happened. In "Deke!," Slayton's plan for Chaffee after Apollo 1 was to move him to the Apollo Applications Program (later named Skylab). Slayton did not have him planned for a lunar mission. I believe the same was true for White. Slayton thought White might have political ambitions; evidently, he did not like the idea of placing White on a lunar flight with the idea it would further that ambition. How Slayton got that idea, I do not know. I have not read in any astronaut biography or autobiography that White had any ambition to enter politics. |
FFrench
Member Posts: 3335
From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 09-23-2026 05:42 PM
See the chapter about the Apollo 7 mission in our book "In the Shadow of the Moon" - with input from the crew. it goes into what happened in some detail. | |
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