Tag Archives: Roger B. Chaffee

Chaffee documentary premieres on WKTV, filmmaker, artist discuss the film

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Filmmaker Daniel Joel Deal and sculptor J. Brett Grill talk about the documentary “Roger B. Chaffee: Aviator Ad Astra,” which airs on WKTV Channel 25 at Oct. 16 and 18. (Photo credit: WKTV)

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

When constructing a statute like the one of former astronaut Roger B. Chaffee on the corner of Sheldon Boulevard and Fulton Street in downtown Grand Rapids, the most difficult part is trying to figure out what the person looked like from behind.

“When you think about it, people never take pictures of people from behind, it is always from the the front,” said filmmaker Daniel Joel Deal, whose documentary, “Roger B. Chaffee: Aviator Ad Astra” will premiere on WKTV Channel 25 Wednesday, Oct. 16, at 4 p.m., and Friday, Oct. 18, at noon. The film follows the story of Chaffee’s life and the construction of the statue in his honor.

Astronaut Roger B. Chaffee (Photo supplied by NASA)

Sculputor J. Brett Grill, who was commissioned to create the Roger B. Chaffee sculpture, agreed.

“Figuring out how the [astronaut’s] suit is going to lay, where the folds should be to create the movement, it’s all important to the piece,” Grill said during a recent Locally Entertaining podcast.

The Michigan Military Preservation Society (MMPS), together with the Lowell American Legion Post #152, raised the funds for the statue. The statute was the swan song for the MMPS, a non-profit organization of veterans whose vision was to honor historical contributions made by West Michigan vets. The group officially disbanded after the statute of Chaffee was installed by the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum in May.

The Locally Entertaining podcast with Daniel Joel Deal and J. Brett Grill.

As part of the project, the MMPS hired Deals to create a documentary about Chaffee and the construction of the statute. Chaffee was a NASA astronaut who was part of the Apollo 1 crew. The crew, which included Gus Grissom and Ed White, all died in a flash fire during a launch pad test at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.

Chaffee was from the Grand Rapids area, having graduated from Central High School in 1953. His parents moved to the Wyoming area after his death. The City of Wyoming’s Roger B. Chaffee Boulevard is named after Chaffee and is the former landing strip of the Kent County Airport which became the Gerald R. Ford International Airport.

“He was definitely up and coming,” said Deal of Chaffee. Deal spent about 18 months researching Chaffee’s life, visiting the National Archives and other sources for video. Through that process, Deals said he was able to find quite a bit of video on Chaffee including funeral footage and video of Chaffee talking about his life and career.

“So Chaffee narrates his own story, which was important to me because I wanted people to know who he is and leave some mystery as to what was going to happen,” Deal said.

Deal said having access to a facility like WKTV is vital to a person like himself who pretty much handles all the aspects of film producing.

“I am just a single producer, director, photographer and editor, so you know to have lights, cameras, and even some of the post-production stuff in the editing suites for mixing sound effects and stuff like that is important,” Deal said.

“All the rocket sounds are silent, so we added that,” he said, adding with a laugh, “I think we shook the building and someone came and told us that that rocket is too loud.”

For both Deal and Grill, the reason they wanted to work on this project was the opportunity to preserve a piece of history that was starting to fade.

“I like projects that I can keep the story alive,” Grill said. “This was one of those stories which was what drew me to being a part of this project.”

Other showings of the documentary “Roger B. Chaffee: Aviator Ad Astra” are planned, so check out the WKTV schedule on the wktvjournal.org and on wktv.org.

Supply craft named after local hero Roger B. Chaffee set to launch on Wednesday

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By Kelly Taylor
WKTV Program Director

S.S. Roger Chaffee is the newest Northrup Grumman Cygnus Cargo Craft.

On Wednesday, April 17, WKTV will be featuring, via the NASA channel, the launch of the newest Northrup Grumman Cygnus Cargo Craft, the S.S. Roger Chaffee, to the International Space Station.

Named after hometown hero Roger B. Chaffee, who died in the Apollo 1 spacecraft fire, the space station resupply craft will deliver several tons of cargo including food, supplies and live mice for scientific experiments.

Coverage begins at 4:15 p.m., with the launch scheduled for 4:46 p.m. from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. 

On Friday, April 19, WKTV will feature the rendezvous and capture of the S.S. Roger Chaffee to the ISS. Coverage begins at 4 a.m., with the capture scheduled at 5:30 a.m. Installation of the craft to the Unity Module of the Space Station starts at 7 a.m.

For more information on NASA TV or the International Space Station, visit www.nasa.gov. NASA TV can be seen on the WKTV 26 Government Channel on Comcast and AT&T U-verse 99 Government Channel 99.

Tune in for a special NASA launch, April 17

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Roger B. Chaffee (photo supplied)

By Kelly Taylor, WKTV


Tune in to WKTV Government 26 for our upcoming Special Programming Events from NASA TV! On Wednesday, April 17, we will be featuring the launch of the newest Northrup Grumman Cygnus Cargo Craft, the S.S. Roger Chaffee, to the International Space Station.

 
Named after hometown hero Roger B. Chaffee, who died in the Apollo 1 spacecraft fire, the space station resupply craft will deliver several tons of cargo, including food, supplies and live mice for scientific experiments.


Coverage begins at 4:15pm, with the launch scheduled for 4:46pm from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

S.S. Roger Chaffee (photo supplied)

Then be watching Friday, April 19, for the rendezvous and capture of the S.S. Roger Chaffee to the ISS. Coverage begins at 4am, with the capture scheduled at 5:30am. Installation of the craft to the Unity Module of the Space Station starts at 7am.


For more information on NASA TV or the International Space Station, log on to www.nasa.gov. NASA TV can be seen on the WKTV 26 Government Channelon Comcast and AT&T U-verse 99 Government Channel 99.

5 Local Things You Need to Know: Headlines for the Week

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Roger B. Chaffee By NASA/photographer unknown – NASA [1] Great Images in NASA Description, Public Domain

Wyoming and Kentwood: WKTV Journal Newscast

The latest WKTV Newscast takes a look at the new Roger B. Chaffee statute that was dedicated in May along with celebrating Older American Month with Holland Home. To get residents ready for the summer, we take a peak at the summer concerts in the cities of Kentwood and Wyoming and look at the summer exhibits that have opened at the Grand Rapids Public Museum and the Grand Rapids Art Museum.

 

For the full broadcast, click here.

Wyoming: Lee High School’s Top Ten

University of Michigan, Grand Rapids Community College, Grand Valley State University, Western Michigan University, these are just some of the places that that the top 10 of Lee High School’s Class of 2018 are heading.

 

For more on the story, click here.

 

Wyoming: Active Commute Week Challenge

It’s that time again when many area residents will take the challenge and leave their vehicle at home. June 11 – 15 is Active Commute Week, where commuters are encouraged to consider how they get to work and seek other ways that help benefit the environment.

 

For more on the story, click here.

 

Viewed from left and right, “Let Go” by Pamela Alderman. (Courtesy of the artist Alderman)

Kent County: ArtPrize Top 25 artists donates piece

 

When Pamela Alderman created “Let Go” for ArtPrize in 2017, she was looking to impact the audience with a large interactive piece. Alderman‘s work, an ArtPrize Top 25 finalist, is a beautiful seascape on five large wood panels that includes three Plexiglas figures that transform as you move around the artwork. The work was installed this month on the fifth floor of the Kent County Courthouse.

 

For more on the story, click here.

 

 

Kent County: Students get the  chance to be the change

 

A local radio group is teaming up with local organizations and businesses to provide Grand Rapids area students with funding, resources and mentors to implement the change they want to see in their community.
The #GRSummerProject is open to area students from sixth grade to college freshmen. The project is a collaboration led by Townsquare Media and includes the support of Level One Bank, Start Garden, Experience Grand Rapids, Amplify GR and Grand Rapids area schools.
For more on the story, click here.

Statue of former astronaut Chaffee to be unveiled this Saturday

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On the far right is Astronaut Roger B. Chaffee with his crew. Photo courtesy of NASA

By David Thompson

 

A full-sized bronze statue of Apollo Astronaut Roger B. Chaffee will be unveiled in his hometown of Grand Rapids at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 19. Chaffee’s widow Martha and daughter Sheryl Lyn plan to attend the event, taking place at the corner of East Fulton Street and Sheldon Avenue NE, near the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum.

 

Chaffee was born and raised in Grand Rapids, where he was a 1953 graduate of Grand Rapids Central High School.  He went on to become a U.S. naval aviator who flew missions during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1961.

 

In 1963, NASA selected Chaffee for its third group of astronauts. In 1966, he joined the crew of AS-204 (Apollo 1), which was to be NASA’s first three-man flight. Chaffee, along with his crewmates Virgil “Gus” Grissom and Ed White, died on January 27, 1967, in flash fire during a launch pad test at Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

 

His parents, Donald and Blanche Chaffee, had moved to the City of Wyoming where the former Kent County Airport landing strip was renamed the Roger B. Chaffee Boulevard. Also the American Legion Roger B. Chaffee Post 154 is located in City of Wyoming.

The Michigan Military Preservation Society (MMPS), together with the Lowell American Legion Post #152, raised the funds for the statue. MMPS is a non-profit organization of veterans whose vision is to honor historical contributions made by West Michigan vets.

 

CMDR David L. Thompson, USN (Ret.) chaired the project, with MMPS board members Dan Pfeiffer and Bud Vierson. This group chose respected sculptor and Grand Rapids native J. Brett Grill to undertake the project.

 

“We conducted a nationwide search to find the absolute finest possible sculptor to handle this commission,” said Thompson. “We wanted an artist who worked in bronze, and who could create a lifelike work of art. To our delight, we found Brett Grill, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the final product.”

 

Roger B. Chaffee Photo courtesy of the Grand Rapids Public Museum

Grill has become a highly sought-after sculptor, who recently returned to his hometown to open a Grand Rapids studio. In recent years, Grill has sculpted several likenesses of President Gerald R. Ford, on display in Grand Rapids and distinguished locations around the country.

 

Additional commissions, including Amway co-founder Jay Van Andel, Michigan Football Coach Glenn E. “Bo” Schembechler, L. William Seidman and others are displayed in well-known locations in Grand Rapids and around the state.

 

“I was deeply humbled to receive this commission,” said Grill. “Roger Chaffee is a hometown hero whose sacrifice helped ensure that mankind successfully reached the Moon. While a street and a building in Grand Rapids bear his name, his story may be less well known. For these reasons I’m immensely proud to be a part of its telling.”

 

The bronze statue alone stands over seven feet tall. Sitting atop a stone base adds another 36 inches. “Roger Chaffee will stand tall over this high traffic intersection in the heart of Grand Rapids for generations to come,” added Thompson.

 

The MMPS has also commissioned a documentary produced by West Michigan filmmaker Daniel Joel Deal. The program will track the arc of the project, starting with selecting Grill as the artist. It includes Grill’s detailed research of Chaffee and his lifelong passion for flight, visiting the NASA archives, creating the initial clay sculptures, right through to the foundry casting and installing the final bronze work.

 

MMPS plans to make the film available to schools, and talks are underway to air this fascinating story on television.

 

“For a statue of this caliber, it was critically important to me that every detail is accurate,” added Grill.  “For a space suit that never flew on a mission, that meant doing some serious digging to learn some of the details needed to recreate Roger in his pressure suit and holding his helmet.”

 

This accuracy can only add value to a statue that will reside on the NW corner of East Fulton Street and Sheldon Avenue in downtown Grand Rapids, near the entrance of the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum. Beginning on May 19, children and adults alike will have a chance to see the man from Grand Rapids who played an important role in achieving humanity’s goal of walking on the moon.

Astronaut Nicole Mann to visit the Grand Rapids Public Museum

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Nicole Aunapu Mann Photo courtesy of NASA

The Grand Rapids Public Museum is pleased to partner with the Roger B. Chaffee Scholarship Board and the Grand Rapids Amateur Astronomical Association (GRAAA) to bring one of the members of the latest class of NASA astronauts to Grand Rapids on May 9 and 10. Nicole Aunapu Mann, a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S Marine Corps, was among eight candidates selected for future space missions in 2013. She completed Astronaut Candidate training in 2015 and is now qualified for assignment.

On Wednesday, May 9, Lt Col Mann will give a presentation titled “The Sky is Not the Limit” at 7:30 p.m. in the Meijer Theater at the Grand Rapids Public Museum. The event is free and open to the public.

In the presentation, Mann will recount pre-astronaut experiences that put her on a path to the appointment, and then turn to the rigorous training required to fly into space. Mann has undergone intensive instruction about International Space Station systems, robotics, and space walking in the event she is assigned a mission to the orbiting laboratory. Mann is currently training to be part of an Orion mission to the moon in 2022, the first human flight back to the Earth’s satellite in a half century.    She will also look ahead to proposed missions to Mars. For more information, please visit grpm.org.

Visitors will have a second opportunity to hear Lt. Col Mann at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 10. Mann will be the featured speaker at the annual banquet in honor of the 51st recipient of the prestigious Roger B. Chaffee Scholarship, this year honoring Patrick Clark Morgan of East Grand Rapids High School. In this talk, Mann will highlight her upcoming space travel in “Back to the Moon and Beyond.” Tickets to the banquet are $55 and can be reserved by calling 800-237-0930 by April 28, or e-mail:  dave@mpi-invest.com.

Mann was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in United State Marine Corps in 1999.  She began her active flying career in 2004 and was involved in a number of high profile test flights and missions. She accumulated more than 2,000 flight hours in 22 types of aircraft, 200 carrier arrestments and 47 combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

During her two-day visit to Grand Rapids, Mann will also be speaking to students at Innovative Central High School, the same building where Roger Chaffee attended high school in the early 1950s, Burton Elementary, and the Grand Rapids Public Museum School.

Retired astronaut keynote speaker at Roger B. Chaffee 50th Scholarship event

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Jack Lousma during a spacewalk in 1973.

The Roger B. Chaffee Scholarship Fund announced that retired Skylab and Space Shuttle Astronaut Jack Lousma (Colonel, USMC, Ret.) will be the key note speaker at the Scholarship’s annual award dinner to be held Thursday, May 4, at the Grand Rapids Public Museum, main floor, 6 p.m.

 

Roger B. Chaffee, a Grand Rapids native, perished with his crew mates Ed White and Gus Grissom in the tragic Apollo 1 fire on the launch pad at Cape Kennedy, January 27, 1967. The Scholarship Fund was established in 1967 by family and friends of Roger who graduated with him from Central High School. It is one of the oldest space memorial foundations in the country. The Planetarium at the Grand Rapids Public Museum is named in Roger’s honor.

 

Astronaut Jack Lousma  (Colonel, USMC, Ret.)  (Photo by Phil Konstantin)

Col. Jack lusma (Ret.), who also was born in Grand Rapids, was a fighter pilot in the Marine Corps and joined NASA in 1966. He was on of the nation’s first space residents, flying an Apollo capsule to Skylab in 1973. He spent 59 days aboard the first space station, including 11 hours on two space walks. Jack was also the commander on the third Space Shuttle Columbia STS-3 in 1982. Jack has amassed more than 7,000 hours of flight time including 1,600 hours in space. Jack retired from NASA in 1983 and has been active in space-related activities and high tech businesses.

 

The 50th Roger B. Chafee Scholarship award, presented each year to an outstanding Kent County High School senior, will this year go to Eric J. Pearson, from Northview High School. Col. Lousma will be doing a presentation in the newly renovated Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium following dinner.

 

The public is invited. Dinner tickets are $55 and space is limited. For reservations or information call Scholarship Director David Pequet at 800-237-0939 or visit the Scholarship website, www.rogerbchaffeescholarship.org. The Grand Rapids Public Museum is located at 272 Pearl St. NW.

Roger That!: Local astronaut remembered for contributions to the space program

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Astronauts (left to right) Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, pose in front of Launch Complex 34 which is housing their Saturn 1 launch vehicle. The astronauts died ten days later in a fire on the launch pad. (NASA/photographer unknown – NASA [1] Great Images in NASA Description, Public Domain)
By Joanne N. Bailey-Borosma

joanne@wktv.org

 

Whether you have traveled the road, visited the planetarium, or seen the American legion post in your travels through Wyoming, there is a good chance you have seen or heard the name Roger B. Chaffee.

 

And for some the question during those travels may have been who was Roger B. Chaffee?

 

Chaffee was one of the first NASA astronauts, who tragically never made it to the stars. On Jan. 27, 1967, there was a fire in the Apollo 1 capsule during a training exercise killing Chaffee and his two crew mates, Virgil “Gus” Grisson and Edward H. White II, who was the first person to perform a space walk.

 

The inside of the Apollo 1 capsule after the fire. (NASA/photographer unknown – NASA [1] Great Images in NASA Description, Public Domain)
This Friday, fifty years to the date of the accident, the Wyoming Roger B. Chaffee American Legion Post 154 will host a dinner and memorial ceremony at the post, 2327 Byron Center Ave. SW. The dinner is at 6 p.m. and the ceremony is at 7 pm.

 

“From what I know, his father was a member of the post and they asked if they would name it after him,” said Jerry Smith, an adjunct with the post. American Legion posts have a tradition of bringing named after a local veteran.

 

Chaffee was a Navy officer before being accepted to the NASA program, said Glen Swanson, a Grand Valley State University physics professor who worked for NASA in Houston as the Johnson Space Center’s chief historian. Swanson credits some of his love for space from Chaffee’s parents, Donald and Blanche Chaffee. In their later years, the couple had moved to the city of Wyoming and Swanson would bike over to visit them and talk about NASA and the space program.

 

A photo of Don and Blanche Chaffee with their daughter after the Apollo 1 accident. The photo is in the ‘Roger That!’ exhibit.

“Don and Blanche were huge supporters of the space program even after their son’s death,” Swanson said, adding the couple would visit area schools to talk about NASA and space and Don Chaffee even wrote a book.

 

The Chaffee family was from Greenville. Due to Don Chaffee having scarlet fever, Blanche Chaffee was forced to stay with relatives in Grand Rapids until Roger was born. The family later moved to Grand Rapids and Roger attended Central High School.

 

After graduation, Chaffee would attend Purdue to pursue his passion of flying and earned a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering. He joined the Navy and in 1962 applied for the astronaut training program. He wold be one of 14 out of a pool of more than 1,800 to be chosen for the Astronaut Group 3, all of who would be part of the Apollo program.

 

In January 1966, Chaffee was selected for the first Apollo mission, which was a surprise, Swanson said, adding that Chaffee had no previous flight experience unlike his crew mates Grissom and White. None would make it into space as the following year, the fire happened.

 

The accident also happened shortly after the move of the then Kent County Airport, which was located in Wyoming, formerly Paris Township. The landing strip was being paved and it was decided to name the road Roger B. Chaffee Boulevard.

 

“There was the local connection and since it was the former runway, it probably made sense,” Swanson said, adding that there was some debate on naming the airport after Chaffee but eventually it would be named after the former president and is now called the Gerald R. Ford International Airport.

 

The ‘Roger That!’ exhibit will be up through Mar. 31 at the GVSU Eberhard Center in downtown Grand Rapids.

Wanting to remember Chaffee’s contributions to the space program, Swanson help put together a photo exhibit, “Roger That!,” on the West Wall Gallery at the GVSU Eberhard Center in downtown Grand Rapids.

 

“We didn’t want to focus just on the tragedy of what happened, but rather on his life and accomplishments,” Swanson said. The exhibit will be up through Mar. 31.

 

There was plans to host an event on the actual anniversary, but since family members were booked for the NASA event this week in Florida, GVSU officials instead worked with the Grand Rapids Public Museum to plan a two-day conference and celebration in February, which was Chaffee’s birth month. On Feb. 10, there will be a conference featuring discussions on a variety of space-related topics including science, society, and the arts. The event concludes with a ticketed dinner with Chaffee’s wife and daughter, Martha and Sheryl Chaffee, and the planetarium show “Dark Side: The Light Show.”

 

On Feb. 11, Brother Guy Consolmagno of the Vatican Observatory and winner of the Carl Sagan Medal for excellence in public communication in planetary sciences will present at 11 a.m. at the Grand Rapids Public Museum, 272 Pearl St. NW. This is a ticketed event. For more on the Roger That! activities, visit www.gvsu.edu/rogerthat.

 

Swanson said he hopes the activities will not only remind people of who Chaffee was, but encourage others to follow in his footsteps by pursuing their passion whether it be space or something else in the great beyond.