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Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, September 17, 2007 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium
Please note that this talk has been rescheduled from May 7 to September 17.

Dean Smith

"The Fire NASA Never Had"

ABSTRACT -- The talk will describe a test done for NASA that examined space suits for the Gemini project. During the test, the speaker and another pilot experienced a disastrous fire in a simulator. The fire nearly cost the two pilots their lives. The atmosphere during the test was 100% oxygen, like the atmosphere in the Apollo I capsule when a fire took the lives of astronauts Grissom, White, and Chaffee.

The talk will present the reasons for doing the test and will discuss the test preparations. The talk will then describe the events of the test itself and the resulting fire.

SPEAKER -- Colonel B. Dean Smith graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1953, and was commissioned in the U.S. Air Force. After pilot training, he served numerous flying tours and administrative positions. He earned an MBA from George Washington University in 1969, and followed that schooling with a tour in Vietnam. Colonel Smith's last military position was serving in the office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He retired from the Air Force in 1974.

Col. Smith has been married to the former Catharine Arrington for 54 years. They have four children and numerous grand- and great grand- children.



Engineering Colloquium home page: https://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov