So in the immediate aftermath, someone at NASA, probably within the crew office, initiated the capability of a commander to lock the hatch if he or she felt uncomfortable about a crew member. It was used frequently in subsequent missions
It’s a little concerning that being in space made so many people want to kill themselves.
Apollo fire, as per the article. Safety lessons are written in blood.
You’re right that no hatch would probably be better. Fewer seals, moving parts, suicide mechanisms. But somehow the astronauts need to get into the shuttle when boarding too ;)
After learning a hard lesson regarding cabin pressure and complicated locking mechanisms in the Apollo 1 fire, NASA had designed the Shuttle hatch to open outward. It was a relatively simple procedure, requiring little physical force, as the hatch opened into the vacuum of outer space.
In the words of Yzma, “why do we even have that lever?”. It seems like it would be appropriate in only a very small set of circumstances, and almost never when the Shuttle was actually in space.
Why would we have the lever that opens the door? Ummm… To open the door. You don’t want the door bolted closed and unable to be opened in an emergency, EXACTLY the accident the quote is referring to.
On the ground, yes, but once in space, I’d feel much more comfortable in a spacecraft with the door bolted closed and unable to be opened by accident or intentionally. Yes, a fire in a spacecraft can quickly kill everyone, but wouldn’t depressurizing the spacecraft also kill everyone?
And panicky people like you are why the commander lock now exists on what should otherwise be an always accessible safety mechanism. Astronauts could take their helmet off in space too, should we weld them on then because they only sometimes need them open?
Perhaps not welded, but some sort of interlock to prevent opening under the wrong circumstances seems prudent to me.
I’m still not entirety clear how a door which opens directly to the vacuum of space would be a safety mechanism. Do any such scenarios exist?
