Famous Scientist or Inventor: Edward H. White

 Edward Higgins White II was born in November 14, of 1930 in San Ontario Texas. Ed grew up with aeronautics, his father graduated from West Point and served in the United States Air Force and retired as a major general. The White family moved around a lot due to their Air Force lifestyle, therefore Ed moved schools often, but was always considered an excellent student. One experience in particular that impacted Edward was flying in a T-6 trainer airplane with his father. Although Ed was only twelve at the time, his father allowed him to take control of the plane for a short time and as Ed said "It felt like the most natural thing in the world to do."

   After graduating high school, Ed attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, this was a family tradition to the Whites. While at West Point Ed excelled in academics and athletics, also while at West Point he met Patricia Eileen Finegan and the two were eventually married. In 1952 Edward graduated from West Point with a bachelor of science degree then enlisted in United States Air Force. He worked in Germany for a while and then one day in 1957 White read an article that changed the course of his life. The article pertained to the duties of future astronauts, and something told Ed that this was what he was meant to do. As he said, "The article was written with tongue in cheek, but something told me: this is it - this is the type of thing you're cut out for. From then on everything I did seemed to be preparing me for space flight." After about three years in Germany, White and his family moved back to America. At that point Ed and Patricia had had two children, Edward III and Bonnie Lynn.

   Once back in the U.S. Ed was preparing himself to become an astronaut. He made sure that he had all the experience neccassary to be accepted into the astronaut corps. As project Mercury started wrapping up, Gemini was on its way. With a new program beginning, NASA needed to recruit new astronauts. Edward White, along with eight other applicants, were accepted and dubbed astronauts. Among the other eight men were: Neil Armstrong, Charles (Pete) Conrad, James (Jim) Lovell, James McDivitt, Frank Borman, John Young, Elliot See, and Thomas Stafford. The nine men went through an intensive training for several months. They trained not only to fly the spacecraft and use its equipment but they also took courses in several subjects of science. After all of the training was finished the men were assigned flights. Ed White's first flight as an astronaut was Gemini 4, he was pilot and James McDivitt was command pilot. On Gemini 4 Ed White got the honor of being the first American to perform an EVA (Extravehicular Activity) better known as a space walk. Ed remarked "I'm very thankful in having the experience to be first...This is fun!" He later said about the space walk, “I felt red, white and blue all over.” When the Ed had to go back into the capsulre, concluding the space walk, White was truly disappointed, once he came back inside the capsule he remarked,"It's the saddest moment of my life." While space walking Ed took many pictures of Earth from space.

     It was clear that Ed White was a talented, smart, and capable young astronaut, most everyone who worked with him knew it. Ed was honored by being part of the first Apollo crew, along with Gus Grissom, who at the time was one of NASA's most experienced astronauts, and rookie astronaut Roger Chaffee. Everyone was very excited about the much anticpiated start of the Apollo program. It seemed that everyone working on the program had "Go Fever" This is a term implying that everyone was so determined and wanted so badly to begin the mission that they thought they were invincible and they were working very fast to get things done, therefore overlooking problems. The engineers, technicians, and flight directors alike were working so fast the they were ignorant to the mounting issues right infront of them; a symptom of "Go Fever". Nobody felt all too confident in the spacecraft, however they continued with the mission instead of taking the time to get things done correctly. This would be something that each person who was effected by the epidemic of "Go Fever" would later have much remorse for.

    It is standard procedure for the crew and Mission Control, to do a test run before the launch. Everyone acts like it's a normal launch; the men have to perform all of the usual tasks of getting ready for a launch, but they never leave the ground, the crew simply sits in the command module atop the rocket and makes sure all the systems are okay. So, on January 27, 1967 everyone was set in place for the "practice launch." The crew had been in the capsule for several hours and everyone was frustrated. The communication system was working poorly, the crew and mission control were barely, if at all, legible to one another. Several other minor issues came up aswell. At 6:31 pm, one of the crew member yelled "Fire, I smell fire." Roughly two seconds later Edward White yelled, "Fire in the cockpit!" 17 seconds later; all mission control heard was silence. The flames were quick, but vicious, enveloping the crew in mere seconds and burning away the interior of the ship and stealing the lives of Edward White, Virgil "Gus" Grissom and Roger Chaffee. They were each smart, courageous, talented, and fearless...the things we all wish we could be.

   An extensive investigation was conducted on the cause of the fire. It was concluded that the cause of the fire was a short circuit within a bundle of wires, located nearest Gus Grissom's seat. The spacecraft consisted of a lot of flammable materials, which explains why the flames spread so swiftly. The only thing that could have saved the priceless lives of these men would have been being able to open the hatch in 20 seconds or less, however the door of the cockpit took no less than 90 seconds to open. The door had been rebuilt to keep things in, not get them out in an emergency. It is ironic, though because the hatch had been re-designed because of an event that had occured on Gus Grissoms Liberty Bell 7, the Mercury spacecraft. During splashdown, the hatch popped open causing the spacecraft to sink, luckily Grissom survived, but only to perish, alongside Ed White and Roger Chaffee, due to reconstruction of an issue that occured with his spacecraft. The legacy of all three men will never be forgotten.

         Edward H. White                         Apollo 1, Grissom, White Chaffee       Apollo 1 patch

     Apollo 1 cockpit after the fire                                   Apollo 1 crew   

 Ed White performin the first                     Gemini 4 patch                Ed White all smiles, preparing 

American EVA                                                                                    for Gemini 4 launch

   Edward White is an example to us all. He was an intelligent, determined and skilled man who got were he did because of the hard work he put forth. The cause of his (along with the other crew members of Apollo 1) death shows us that we must not hasten to get things done if they aren't going to be done right, doing so may come with a high price. This event is also a perfect example of the fact that spaceflight is dangerous, even with todays technology. That being said, it is evident that Edward White had a passion for being an astronaut and I am willing to bet that even if he had known he would perish in the line of work, he wouldn't have stopped doing what he loved. No doubt if Ed had lived longer, he would have been a part of more Apollo missions, he wanted to go to the moon, he wanted to be a part of it. "A lot of us here on earth are getting pretty curious about what the moon's made of, and you'll never satisfy man's curiosity unless a man goes himself," Ed White commented about venturing to the moon. Though Edward White is gone now, the things he accomplished, and contributed while a part of the space program will live on.

 White, Mary. "Detailed biographies of Apollo 1 crew-Ed White." www.hq.nasa.gov. August 4, 2006. NASA. 8 Apr 2008 <http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Apollo204/zorn/white.htm>.

 "Bigraphical Data- Ed White." www.jsc.nasa.gov. December 1997. NASA. 8 Apr 2008 <http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/white-eh.html>.

 "Ed White." www.nndb.com. 2008. NNDB. 8 Apr 2008 <http://www.nndb.com/people/664/000030574/>.

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www.solcomhouse.com/apollo1.htm

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