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| Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom (1926-1967) |
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| Gus Grissom was selected as an astronaut in NASA's first class and is therefore a member of the original "Mercury 7" (1959). During is career, he made two flights into space. For his first mission, Grissom was given command of the Mercury Redstone 4 flight dubbed "Liberty Bell 7." This mission was launched on July 21, 1961, and landed in the Atlantic Ocean fifteen minutes after its launch. Shortly after landing, the capsule began to fill with water and sank to the sea floor; Grissom narrowly escaped with his life. As a result of this flight, Grissom became the second American (3rd human) to fly in space. His second mission came in 1965 when he commanded Gemini-3. This was the first manned mission of the Gemini program and would be America's first multi-manned crew in space. This short flight was a simple three orbit mission to test the Gemini spacecraft. Grissom became the first person to make a return to space since Gemini-3 was his second mission. In 1966, Gus Grissom was given the honor of commanding the first mannded Apollo mission whch was slated to launch in February of 1967. On January 27, 1967, Grissom and the rest of the Apollo 1 crew were locked inside the space capsule during a routine launch simulation. During the simulation, there was a wire inside the capsule which sparked and started a fire. The fire quickly spread throughout the capsule killing the crew in seconds. Grissom, along with the other two members of the Apollo crew, perished in the fire which occured during a routine test on top of an unfueled rocket. This was NASA's first space mission disaster. During his two missions, he logged 5 hours and 7 minutes in space. My Collection: This is an autograph of Grissom which was made on a notecard and then cut out and attached to a "Liberty Bell 7" cover. This signature is slightly unusual because Grissom signed his given name instead of thie more common "Gus." This is usually seen in early autographs and legal documents. |
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