On January 27, 1967, NASA was running a test launch for their first manned space mission- Apollo 1. Due to design flaws in the initial construction (and the use of pure oxygen in the capsule), there was a fire during the test that claimed the lives of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee.
The site was used to successfully test a number of Saturn I and Saturn IB rockets, but was eventually razed. The launch platform remains as a memorial with a plaque that lists the time of the accident and the names of the astronauts, as well as the following inscription:
They gave their lives in service to their country in the ongoing exploration of humankind's final frontier. Remember them not for how they died but for those ideals for which they lived.
