Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, who died tragically in a fire inside their command module on a Cape Canaveral launchpad. (Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

In the history of space exploration, 4 Soviet cosmonauts and 17 American astronauts have perished during space missions. See photos of the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for space exploration.

In the end, the accident may have saved more lives than it took.

On Jan. 27, 1967, three astronauts were killed when a fire erupted inside the Apollo 1 command module.

Michael Collins, who was the Command Module pilot during the Apollo 11 mission, shared what he says is a previously unreleased photo of the crew.

The title sort of gives it away, but did you know that there is an online archive that contains high-resolution film scans from every Apollo mission? The

Astronauts (foreground, left) Rusty Schweickart, Jim McDivitt, Dave Scott, Roger Chaffee, Ed White and (foreground, right) Gus Grissom.

REMASTERED by Dan Beaumont. APOLLO 1 "Three Astronauts Killed by Fire", ABC News,Jan. 27,1967 VIDEO: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rBA0iAE8T4 NASA INFO: Remembering the Apollo 1 Crew On Jan. 27, 1967, veteran astronaut Gus Grissom, first American spacewalker Ed White and rookie Roger Chaffee were preparing for what was to be the first manned Apollo flight. The astronauts were sitting atop the launch pad for a pre-launch test when a fire broke out in their Apollo capsule. The investigation into…

From the top: Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee - Apollo 1

The Crew of Apollo 1