Roger B . Chaffee Roger Bruce Chaffee ( February 15 , 1935 – January 27 , 1967 ) , ( Lt Cmdr , USN ) , was a Naval Aviator , aeronautical engineer and a NASA astronaut in the Apollo program . Chaffee died along with fellow astronauts Gus Grissom and Ed White during a pre - launch test for the Apollo 1 mission at the then - Cape Kennedy Air Force Station , Florida , in 1967 . Chaffee was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the Navy Air Medal . Early years . 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 appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis , Maryland , Chaffee accepted a Naval ROTC scholarship and in September 1953 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 Naval ROTC program in order to prepare him for a career as a Naval Aviator , soloing on 29 March 1957 and obtained his private pilot ' s license on 24 May 1957 . Chaffee married Martha Horn in Oklahoma City on August 24 , 1957 , whom he met while on a blind date in September 1955 , and had two children , Sheryl Lyn ( born November 17 , 1958 ) and Stephen ( born July 3 , 1961 ) . Military career . Following graduation , Chaffee completed his Navy training on August 22 , 1957 and was commissioned as an Ensign in the U . S . Navy . He would ultimately rise to the rank of Lieutenant Commander . After attending flight school at Naval Air Station Pensacola , Florida and Naval Air Station Kingsville , Texas , Chaffee was awarded his aviator wings in early 1959 . Chaffee was given a variety of assignments and participated in numerous training duties over the next few years , spending the majority of his time in photo reconnaissance squadrons . He was stationed at Naval Air Station Jacksonville , Florida , serving as safety officer and quality control officer for Heavy Photographic Squadron 62 ( VAP - 62 ) flying the A3D - 2P ( later RA - 3B ) Skywarrior . In the book " Moon Shot : The Inside Story of America ' s Race to the Moon " , it is claimed that he flew the U - 2 spy plane , a U . S . Air Force aircraft which took the pictures of Soviet missiles in Cuba which President Kennedy used on television on October 22 , 1962 . However , during this time Chaffee actually flew the U . S . Navy A3D - 2P / RA - 3B ( a reconnaissance version of the carrier - based Douglas Skywarrior heavy attack / nuclear strike bomber ) . He was officially recognized for his service during the Cuban Missile Crisis with VAP - 62 , but his exact role is unclear and the Skywarrior was never employed in any overflights of Cuban territory during the crisis . In mid - 1962 , Chaffee was accepted in the initial pool of 1 , 800 applicants for the third group of NASA astronauts . In January 1963 , he entered the Air Force Institute of Technology ( AFIT ) at Wright - Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton , Ohio to work on a master of science degree in reliability engineering . While at AFIT , Chafee would continue to participate in astronaut candidate testing as the pool of candidates dropped to 271 in mid - 1963 . NASA career . Chaffee was an avid hunter . After completing the astronaut application process , he went hunting to calm his nerves . It was while he was on that hunting trip that NASA called him to offer him an astronaut slot . On October 18 , 1963 he was officially announced as one of 14 chosen for Astronaut Group 3 . He served as a capsule communicator , along with Virgil " Gus " Grissom and Eugene Cernan , for the Gemini 4 mission , in which Edward H . White II made his space walk . Chaffee later served as one of the pallbearers for fellow astronaut Elliot See , who was killed in a plane crash while training for the Gemini 9 mission . He never got a seat on a Gemini mission , but was tasked with working on flight control , communications , instrumentation , and attitude and translation control systems in the Apollo program . He was paired with Grissom to fly chase planes to photograph the launch of an unmanned Saturn 1B rocket . On 21 March 1966 , he received his first spaceflight assignment as Pilot for the first manned Apollo flight , AS - 204 , along with Command Pilot Grissom and Senior Pilot White . In June , the men got permission to name their flight " Apollo 1 " . Death . On January 27 , 1967 , Grissom , White and Chaffee were participating in a " plugs - out " countdown demonstration test at Cape Kennedy in preparation for the planned February 21 launch , when a fire broke out in the cabin , killing all three men . Chaffee ' s is believed by some to be the first cockpit voice to report the fire to ground controllers . During the seventeen seconds that the fire raged , fed by pure oxygen at slightly greater than atmospheric pressure , Chaffee stayed strapped to his right - hand seat , as it was his job to maintain communications in an emergency , while White in the center seat apparently tried in vain to open the hatch . At that point , the increasing pressure burst the inner cabin wall . Now fed by ambient air , the fire decreased in intensity and eventually put itself out , but produced large amounts of smoke , which killed the astronauts . Chaffee and Grissom are both buried in Section 3 of Arlington National Cemetery , while White is buried at West Point Cemetery . Film and television . In the 1995 film " Apollo 13 " Chaffee was played by Reed Rudy . In the 1998 miniseries " From the Earth to the Moon " he was played by Ben Marley . The TV series " " features a shuttlecraft named the " Chaffee " .