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Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom

Gus Grissom
NASA Astronaut
Nationality	American
Status	Killed during training
Born	April 3, 1926 Mitchell, Indiana
Died	January 27, 1967 (age 40) Cape Canaveral, Florida
Other occupation	Test pilot
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel, USAF
Space time	5h 7m
Selection	1959 NASA Group
Missions	Mercury-Redstone 4, Gemini 3
Mission insignia

Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom (April 3, 1926 – January 27, 1967) was a United States Air Force pilot and a NASA astronaut. A native of Mitchell, Indiana, he was the second American to fly in space. He was killed during a training exercise for the Apollo One mission on January 27, 1967, at Launch Complex 34 at Cape Kennedy, along with fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger Chaffee. Grissom was a posthumous recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Background

Born in Mitchell, Indiana, he graduated from Mitchell High School, and then earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Purdue University in 1950 and joined the United States Air Force.

As a young boy he attended the local Church of Christ, and was a member for the rest of his life.

He had two children, Scott and Mark, with his wife Betty Moore Grissom. For some part of his life he lived in Peru, Indiana.

He was a Master Mason and a member of Mitchell Lodge 228 in Mitchell, Indiana.

Military career

Grissom received his pilot wings in March, 1951. In his initial assignment he went to Korea as an F-86 replacement pilot with the 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing. There he flew 100 combat missions in Korea with the 334th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. Upon returning from Korea, he became an instructor pilot at Bryan AFB in Bryan, Texas.^[1]

In August 1955, Grissom entered the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, to study aeronautical engineering.<ref name="GG" />

In October 1956, he entered the Test pilot school at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and returned to Wright-Patterson in May 1957 as a test pilot assigned to the fighter branch.<ref name="GG" />^[2]

NASA career

In 1959, after physical and psychological tests, Grissom was chosen as one of the seven Project Mercury astronauts. A captain when selected, Grissom rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel during his participation in the astronaut program. He was pilot of Mercury-Redstone 4 ("Liberty Bell 7"), the second American (suborbital) spaceflight.

Following the splashdown of "Liberty Bell 7", the hatch, which had explosive bolts, blew off prematurely, letting water into the capsule and into Grissom's suit. Grissom nearly drowned but was rescued by helicopter, while the spacecraft sank in deep water. Grissom maintained he did nothing to set off the explosives to blow the hatch, and NASA officials agreed. The craft was recovered in 1999 but there was no evidence of how the hatch had been opened. However, later experience showed that the force necessary to trigger the initiator for the explosive egress system would leave a major bruise, and Grissom had no such injury. Guenter Wendt, "Pad Fuhrer" for most of the early American space launches, believes that the cover protecting the external release actuator was accidentally lost, then the T-handle may have been pulled by a parachute shroud line, or have been damaged by the heat of re-entry and fired when it contracted during cooling.

After Alan Shepard was grounded in early 1964 (having been diagnosed with Ménière's disease), Grissom was designated command pilot for the first manned Project Gemini mission (Gemini 3), making him the first astronaut to return to space as well as the first man to fly twice above the accepted boundary of space in a capsule-based spacecraft.

Because of his Mercury experience Grissom, one of the smaller astronauts, was very close to the McDonnell engineers and technicians who built the Gemini capsule, and the first three spacecraft were designed around him. He also innovated a multi-axis joystick for controlling the maneuvering thrusters with one hand. The spacecraft was familiarly dubbed the "GUSMOBILE." By July 1963 NASA had discovered that 14 of the 16 astronauts could not be fitted into the cabin as designed, and all later cockpits had to be modified.^[3]

Spacecraft naming

In a joking reference to the sinking of his Mercury craft, Grissom named the Gemini craft the Molly Brown after the Broadway show The Unsinkable Molly Brown. The NASA Public Affairs Office (PAO) fought the naming and when ordered to submit an alternate name, Grissom and Young offered The Titanic. Aghast, the NASA PAO relented and allowed Molly Brown to be named as such, but refused to use it in any official references. However, much to the PAO's chagrin, all references to Gemini 3 by ground controllers used Grissom's name, beginning with CAPCOM Gordo Cooper's sendoff of "You're on your way, Molly Brown" over the uplink at liftoff.

The NASA PAO, shortly after the safe return of Gemini 3, announced that a new policy of not naming spacecraft was in effect. This was upheld by then-NASA administrator James E. Webb, which prevented the next mission, Gemini IV, from being named "American Eagle". This decision was later reversed in 1967. The naming practice was resumed after it was determined that the Apollo flights required identifying two separate elements of the same flight. The PAO was overruled by a combined effort on the part of the astronauts and other, senior NASA administrators, and all Apollo missions beginning with Apollo IX received names for both their Command Modules and Lunar Modules (e.g., Charlie Brown and Snoopy, both of which were officially known as Apollo 10).

Some deference was given to the PAO in requiring that spacecraft names retain some sense of decorum, taste and historical perspective. This prevented Wally Schirra from naming his Apollo 7 spacecraft "The Phoenix" in honor of Grissom and the Apollo 1 crew, as it was felt the "fire" metaphor would not be taken in the proper spirit and understanding by the average taxpayer.

Death

Grissom was made commander of AS-204, intended to be the first manned Apollo flight. He was killed along with fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger B. Chaffee in Apollo 1 fire at Cape Kennedy on January 27, 1967.

NASA blamed the fire on a short-circuit accelerated by a pure oxygen artificial atmosphere inside the spacecraft. Despite repeated requests from his widow Betty Moore Grissom and other members of his family, no independent inquiry has ever been carried out into the Apollo 1 incident and its exact cause remains unknown although subsequent missions used an oxygen-nitrogen mix similar to the atmosphere on Earth. The spacesuit Grissom used in space is on display at the Astronaut Hall of Fame. When the museum was taken over by NASA, the Grissom family objected to the display of the spacesuit. The family believes that Grissom's death was sabotage, and objects to NASA making money from a museum which displays the spacesuit.^[4]

Grissom and Chaffee are both buried in Section 3 of Arlington National Cemetery, while White is buried at West Point Cemetery.

Honors and awards

• Posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978
• Posthumously made Honorary Mayor of the City of Newport News, Virginia
• Distinguished Flying Cross for his service in Korea
• Air Medal with cluster for his service in Korea
• Two NASA Distinguished Service Medals
• The NASA Exceptional Service Medal
• Air Force Command Pilot rating with astronaut qualifier
• Honorary Doctorate, Florida Institute of Technology

Memorials

• Grissom is honored in his hometown of Mitchell, Indiana with a small museum, which includes his Gemini 3 spacecraft and flight suit, and a limestone carving of the Titan II rocket that launched the Gemini flight. The memorial is located in Spring Mill State Park, while the carving is in downtown Mitchell. The auditorium at Mitchell High School where Grissom went to high school is also named for the astronaut, and his boyhood home on Grissom Avenue in Mitchell has been renovated into a museum.
• The star Epsilon Cassiopeiae was named Navi, "Ivan" backwards, in his honor. Grissom and his crew used the star to calibrate their equipment and recorded the name as a joke, though it eventually stuck.^[5]
• Marina Grissom (a landmark on the moon) is named in his honor.
• Grissom Hill, 7.5 km (4.7 mi) southwest of Columbia Memorial Station on Mars, is named after him as part of the Apollo 1 Hills.
• Bunker Hill Air Force Base in Peru, Indiana, was renamed on May 12, 1968, to Grissom Air Force Base. In 1994 it was renamed again to Grissom Air Reserve Base in accordance with the USAF's realignment program.^[6]
• Virgil I. Grissom High School , in Huntsville, Alabama, is named after him. Huntsville, also known as "Rocket City" because it is a major center for space technology and rocket development, simultaneously named Roger B. Chaffee Elementary and Ed White Middle School for his Apollo 1 crewmates.
• The Virgil I. Grissom Library in the Denbigh section of Newport News, Virginia, is named after him.
• The Virgil Grissom Elementary in Princeton, Iowa, is named after him.
• The Virgil I. Grissom Middle School in Mishawaka, Indiana, is named after him.
• Virgil I. Grissom Middle School 226 in South Ozone Park, Queens, New York, is named after him.
• Virgil Grissom Elementary Schoolhttp://www.oldbridgeschools.org/grissom/ in Old Bridge, New Jersey, is named after him.
• The Virgil I. Grissom Middle School in Tinley Park, Illinois, is named after him.
• The Virgil I. Grissom Elementary School in Hegewisch, Illinois, is named after him.
• The Virgil I. Grissom Middle School in Sterling Heights, Michigan, is named after him.
• The Grissom Elementary School in the Tulsa, Oklahoma, Public School District.
• The Gus Grissom Stakes is a thoroughbred horse race run annually in the fall at Hoosier Park in Anderson, Indiana.
• The Virgil I. Grissom School No. 7 in Rochester, New York, is named after him.
• The now defunct V.I. Grissom Elementary School in the former Clark Air Base in the Philippines was named after him.
• character Gil Grissom is named after him.
• Thunderbirds character Virgil Tracy is named after him.
• Grissom Hall, an engineering building at his alma mater, Purdue University, is named after him.^[7]
• Grissom Hall at SUNY Fredonia is named after him.
• Grissom Hall at Florida Institute of Technology is named after him.
• Grissom Dining Facility in Misawa Air Base, Japan is named after him.
• Gus Grissom is the Class Exemplar of the United States Air Force Academy's class of 2007.
• Virgil "Gus" Grissom Park in Fullerton, California is named for him.^[8] Fullerton has also named parks in honor of White and Chaffee.
• An artificial island in Long Beach Harbor off Southern California, is named for him.

Film and television

Grissom appears in a scene in the film "Air Cadet" (1951) starring Richard Long and Rock Hudson. His appearance is early in the film, as a U.S. Air Force candidate for flight school at Randolph Field, San Antonio, Texas.

Grissom was depicted in the movie The Right Stuff (1983) by Fred Ward, in the movie Apollo 13 (1995) by Steve Bernie, and in the TV mini-series From the Earth to the Moon (1998) by Mark Rolston. Actor Kevin McCorkle played Grissom in the third season finale of the NBC television show American Dreams. Had the show not been cancelled, the Apollo 1 fire would have figured into the fourth season storyline. Bryan Cranston played Grissom as a nervous variety-show guest in the film That Thing You Do!

In the movie , the Federation starship sent to survey the newly formed Genesis Planet was named USS Grissom.

The character Gus Griswald in the popular children's TV show Recess is named after Grissom, with his father being a General in the US Army and Gus effectively made his recruit.

The character Gil Grissom on the CBS television series is also named after the astronaut.^[9]

Trivia

• "If we die, we want people to accept it. We are in a risky business and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life." - after the Gemini 3 mission, March 1965
• Grissom was also backup command pilot for Gemini 6 before shifting to the Apollo program.
• NASA management wanted one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts to be the first man to eventually walk on the moon. Had Grissom lived, he would very likely have been that man. Deke Slayton makes it clear in his 1994 autobiography "Deke!" that he wanted one of the original Mercury astronauts to take the first step on to the moon and "Had Gus been alive, as a Mercury astronaut he would have taken the step". Slayton also wrote, "My first choice would have been Gus, which both Chris Kraft and Bob Gilruth seconded."
• Grissom logged a total of 4,600 hours flying time, including 3,500 hours in jet aircraft.
• Grissom's death was ironic because NASA wanted to prevent another Liberty Bell 7-type accident. Although North American, the contractor, wished to include a swing-out style door to facilitate easy escape, NASA voted for a swing-in style for the door.
• The spacesuit worn by Gus Grissom during Mercury 4 is on display at the Astronaut Hall of Fame, and has been stuck in a tug of war between NASA and Grissom's heirs and supporters since 2002. The spacesuit, along with other Gus Grissom artifacts, were loaned to the original owners of the Hall of Fame by the Grissom family when it opened in 1990. However, after the Hall of Fame went into bankruptcy and was taken over by a NASA contractor in 2002, the family requested all of their items to be returned.^[10] All of the items, except the spacesuit, were returned to Grissom's family. Both NASA and the Grissoms claim ownership of the spacesuit.^[11] NASA claims Grissom checked out the spacesuit for a show and tell at his son's school, and then never returned the spacesuit, while the Grissoms claim Gus rescued the spacesuit from a scrap heap.^[12]

References

• Gus Grissom. Biographical data at the Johnson Space Center. Retrieved on March 29, 2005.
• Gus Grissom. Detailed Biographies of Apollo I Crew. Retrieved on March 29, 2005.
• Astronaut Memorial Foundation webpage
• Florida Institute of Technology - Walking Tour - Challenger Memorial
• Florida Today, August 17, 2004

External links

• Grissom Air Reserve Base
• Virgil I. Grissom High School in Huntsville, Alabama
• Indiana Historical Society tribute to Gus Grissom
• Apollo Burning, a tribute to the Apollo 1 astronauts
• NASA biography
• Spacefacts biography of Gus Grissom
• Roadside America review of Grissom Museum
• Virgil Ivan Grissom Photographs of his grave site at Arlington National Cemetery, other photographs, and a brief biography.

Apollo 1 Apollo 1 Hills Astronaut Hall of Fame Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 5 Congressional Space Medal of Honor

Expedition 9 Fred Ward Grissom Hill Mercury - Redstone Mercury 4

Mercury Seven Mercury-Redstone 4 Mitchell, Indiana NASA Exceptional Service Medal Project Gemini

Project Mercury Stars named after people The Right Stuff Virgil (disambiguation) More results