Portrait of the Apollo 1 prime crew for first manned Apollo space flight. From left to right are: Edward H. White II, Virgil I. 'Gus' Grissom, and Robert B. Chaffee. On January 27, 1967 at 5:31 p.m. CST (6:31 local time) during a routine simulated launch test onboard the Apollo Saturn V Moon rocket, an electrical short circuit inside the Apollo Command Module ignited the pure oxygen environment and within a matter of seconds all three Apollo 1 crewmembers perished.