Yeager Says There’s No Way to Prepare for Such a Disaster
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GRASS VALLEY, Calif. — Gen. Charles (Chuck) Yeager, the test pilot who in 1947 became the first man to break the sound barrier, said there is no way to prepare for a disaster like the one that destroyed the space shuttle Tuesday.
Reached at his home in Grass Valley, 50 miles northeast of Sacramento, Yeager said he saw videotape of the explosion and compared the tragedy to the 1967 Apollo launch pad fire that killed Virgil I. (Gus) Grissom and two other astronauts. But he said the space program recovered from that tragedy and will do so again.
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