At Cape Kennedy's Launch Complex 34, the spacecraft 012 sat atop a Saturn IB on Fri. morning, January 27, 1967. Everything was ready for a virtual launch simulation, a vital step in figuring out if the spacecraft would be ready to fly the following month. During this "plugs out" out test, all  of the electrical, environmental, and ground checkout cables would be disconnected to verify that the spacecraft launch vehicle could function on internal power alone after the umbilical lines dropped out.

THE CREW

The crew of the space craft would be Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee. Sadly on the day of the launch a fire broke out in the capsule suffocating the three astronauts. The engineers tried there best to save the astronauts but they could not blow the hatch. Grissom and Chaffee were buried at Arlington national cemetery. White was buried at the Military Academy at WestPoint.