NASA

The drive from Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor Complex to the launch facilities that line the Atlantic coast offers spectators a beautiful glimpse into American innovation: the gargantuan Blue Origin facility, the SpaceX landing zones and multiple NASA launch complexes.

It’s on this path that the now-deserted Launch Complex 34 sits, “ABANDON IN PLACE” spray-painted in black on the four columns holding up the concrete launching cradle. A barely noticeable plaque fastened to the structure reads, “Ad Astra Per Aspera (A Rough Road Leads to the Stars).”

In the early 1960s, the site was bustling with the activity of NASA engineers and contractors, but today it stands as a reminder of one of NASA’s most tragic days. It’s where, 55 years ago, my grandfather experienced one of the most traumatic days of his life.

When the clock ticked 6:31 P.M. at Cape Canaveral on January 27, 1967, an electrical fire erupted inside the command module where astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee were conducting what was supposed to be a routine “plugs-out” test, one month before Apollo 1, the first crewed mission of the Apollo program, was scheduled to take flight.

At the time of the accident, my grandfather, James Gleaves, was the lead technician for North American Aviation, the NASA contractor that designed and manufactured the command and service module (CSM-012) that caught fire. As panic consumed the white room, he worked frantically with several other men to open the...

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