Heros This is a small group of people that are forgotten these days

Apollo 1
Apollo 1 was scheduled to be the first manned mission of the Apollo manned lunar landing program, with a target launch date of February 21, 1967. A cabin fire during a launch pad test on January 27 at Launch Pad 34 at Cape Canaveral killed all three crew members.
Virgil Ivan Grissom (April 3, 1926 – January 27, 1967), better known as Gus Grissom, was one of the original NASA Project Mercury astronauts and a United States Air Force pilot. He was the second American to fly in space and the first NASA astronaut to fly in space twice.
Edward Higgins White, II (Lt Col, USAF) (November 14, 1930 – January 27, 1967) was an engineer, United States Air Force officer and NASA astronaut. On June 3, 1965, he became the first American to "walk" in space.
Roger Bruce Chaffee was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he became an Eagle Scout and graduated from Central High School. Turning down a possible Annapolis appointment, Chaffee accepted a Naval ROTC scholarship and in September 1953, he enrolled at the Illinois Institute of Technology. After transferring to Purdue University in the fall of 1954, Chaffee earned a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering in 1957. While there, he was a member of the Phi Kappa Sigma social fraternity, and the Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Gamma Tau engineering honor societies. While at Purdue, Chaffee took flight training as part of the ROTC program in order to prepare him for a career as a Naval Aviator, soloed on 29 March 1957, and obtained his private pilot's license on May 24.
Exterior of the Command Module was blackened from eruption of the fire after the cabin wall failed. All three men perished in about 15 seconds, the capsule was pressurized in pure oxygen, something NASA no longer does for this reason. The reasoning for pure oxygen was fewer tanks to haul, more time in space if needed. Carrying nitrogen takes away an oxygen tank. Pure oxygen is an engineering plus as long as you never have a spark, electrical short or flame.

Space Shuttle Challenger STS-51-L
STS-51-L was the twenty-fifth flight of the American Space Shuttle program, which marked the first time an ordinary civilian, schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, had flown aboard the Space Shuttle. The mission used Space Shuttle Challenger, which lifted off from the Launch Complex 39-B on 28 January 1986 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission ended in disaster with the destruction of Challenger 73 seconds after lift-off and the death of all seven crewmembers. The Rogers Commission determined the cause was due to the failure of an O-ring seal on one of the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs).

Commander Dick Scobee was selected for NASA's astronaut program in January 1978, Scobee completed his training in August 1979. While awaiting his first orbital spaceflight mission, he served as an instructor pilot for the shuttle's 747 carrier aircraft. In April 1984, Scobee piloted Challenger mission STS-41-C, which successfully deployed one satellite and repaired another.

Pilot Michael John Smith was selected for the astronaut program in May 1980; in addition to being pilot on the Challenger, he had been slated to pilot a future shuttle mission which had been scheduled for Fall of 1986. Smith's voice was the last one heard on the Challenger voice recorder. Just before Mission Control received the last telemetry data, Smith was heard saying, "Uh-oh." The shuttle broke up 73 seconds into the flight, and at an altitude of 48,000 feet. While analyzing the wreckage, investigators discovered that several electrical system switches on Smith's right-hand panel had been moved from their usual launch positions. Fellow Astronaut Richard Mullane wrote, "These switches were protected with lever locks that required them to be pulled outward against a spring force before they could be moved to a new position." Later tests established that neither force of the explosion nor the impact with the ocean could have moved them, indicating that Smith made the switch changes, presumably in a futile attempt to restore electrical power to the cockpit after the crew cabin detached from the rest of the orbiter.

Mission Specialist 1 Ellison Onizuka was selected for the astronaut program in January 1978, and completed one year of evaluation and training in August 1979.Later, he worked in the experimentation team, Orbiter test team, and launch support crew at the Kennedy Space Center for the STS-1 and STS-2. At NASA, he worked on the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL) test and revision software team. He also collaborated on other technical projects, for instance, as astronaut crew team coordinator. His first space mission took place on January 24, 1985, with the Kennedy Space Center launch of mission STS 51-C on Space Shuttle Discovery, the first space shuttle mission for the Department of Defense.Onizuka was accompanied by the commander Ken Mattingly, pilot Loren Shriver, fellow mission specialist James Buchli, and payload specialist Gary E. Payton. During the mission, Onizuka was responsible for the activities of the primary payloads, which included the unfolding of the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) surface. After 48 orbits around the Earth, Discovery landed at the Kennedy Space Center on January 27, 1985. Onizuka had completed a total of 74 hours in space.

Mission Specialist 2 Judith Arlene Resnik was an American engineer and a NASA astronaut who died in the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger during the launch of mission STS-51-L. Resnik was the second American woman astronaut, logging 145 hours in orbit. She was a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and had a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland. The IEEE Judith Resnik Award for space engineering is named in her honor.

Mission Specialist 3 Ronald Ervin McNair, Ph.D. was a physicist and NASA astronaut. In 1978 McNair was selected as one of thirty-five applicants from a pool of ten thousand for the NASA astronaut program. He flew on STS-41-B aboard Challenger in February 1984, as a mission specialist becoming the second African American to fly in space. Following this mission, McNair was selected for STS-51-L, which launched on January 28, 1986, and was subsequently killed when Challenger disintegrated nine miles above the Atlantic Ocean just 73 seconds after liftoff.

Payload Specialist 1 Christa McAuliffe was an American teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, and was one of the seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. She received her bachelor's degree in education and history from Framingham State College in 1970, and also a Master of Arts from Bowie State University in 1978. She took a teaching post as a social studies teacher at Concord High School in New Hampshire in 1982. In 1985, McAuliffe was selected from more than 11,000 applicants to participate in the NASA Teacher in Space Project and was scheduled to become the first teacher in space. As a member of mission STS-51-L, she was planning to conduct experiments and teach two lessons from Space Shuttle Challenger. On January 28, 1986, the spacecraft disintegrated 73 seconds after launch. After her death, schools and scholarships were named in her honor, and also in 2004 she was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Payload Specialist 2 Gregory Bruce Jarvis was an American engineer. In 1975, Jarvis became the MARISAT F-3 Spacecraft Test and Integration Manager. In 1976, the MARISAT F-3 was placed in geosynchronous orbit. Jarvis became a member of the Systems Applications Laboratory in 1976, and was involved in the concept definition for advanced UHF and SHF communications for the strategic forces. Joining the Advanced Program Laboratory in 1978, he began working on the concept formulation and subsequent proposal for the SYNCON IV/LEASAT Program. In 1979, Jarvis became the Power/Thermal/Harness Subsystem Engineer on the LEASAT Program. In 1981, he became the Spacecraft Bus System Engineering and in 1982, the Assistant Spacecraft System Engineering Manager. He was the Test and Integration Manager for the F-1, F-2, and F-3 spacecraft and the cradle in 1983, where he worked until the shipment of the F-1 spacecraft and cradle to Cape Kennedy for integration into the Space Shuttle. Both the F-1 and F-2 LEASAT spacecraft successfully achieved their geosynchronous positions. Jarvis was working on advanced satellite designs in the Systems Application Laboratory when he was selected as a payload specialist candidate in July 1984. The East Engineering building on University at Buffalo (SUNY) north campus was renamed Jarvis Hall after Gregory Jarvis' death. Students nailed the name "Jarvis Hall" onto the side of the building, and in 1987 the name was made official with a dedication ceremony. Jarvis Hall is devoted largely to Aerospace Engineering and engineering support services