Gus Grissom

Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom (April 3, 1926 – January 27, 1967) was a United States Air Force pilot who became one of the first American astronauts and one of the first to die in the U.S. space program. He was also the first astronaut to go into space twice.

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.

As a young boy he attended the local Church of Christ.

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

Career

Military

Grissom was a United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel. He received his wings in March, 1951. Over his Air Force career he flew 100 combat missions in Korea in F-86s with the 334th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. Upon returning from Korea, he became a jet instructor at Bryan, Texas.

In August 1955, Grissom entered the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, to study aeronautical engineering.

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.

NASA

In 1959, after physical and psychological tests, Grissom was chosen as one of the seven Project Mercury astronauts, along with:

Lieutenant Malcolm Scott Carpenter, U.S. Navy
Captain LeRoy Gordon Cooper, Jr., U.S. Air Force
Lieutenant Colonel John Herschel Glenn, Jr., U.S. Marine Corps
Lieutenant Commander Walter Marty Schirra, Jr., U.S. Navy
Lieutenant Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr., U.S. Navy
Captain Donald Kent Slayton, U.S. Air Force

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, Grissom was designated command pilot for the first manned Project Gemini mission (Gemini 3), making him the first astronaut to return to space. 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." NASA fought the naming and did not use it in any official references. To make this denial work, the agency announced a new policy of not naming spacecraft, resuming the practice when the Apollo flights required identifying two elements of the same flight (i.e., Charlie Brown and Snoopy, both of which were officially known as Apollo 10).

Grissom was also backup command pilot for Gemini 6 before shifting to the Apollo program.

Death

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

According to the Star tabloid, Gus's son Scott Grissom, a pilot himself, demanded a renewed investigation into the disaster that claimed the life of his father, and believes that the Apollo 1 astronauts died from an act of sabotage.

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. In James R. Hansen's biography First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, Hansen claims that Deke Slayton (who made crew assignments) would have put Grissom on the moon landing flight had Grissom lived, even though it would not have been in his normal rotation.

He logged a total of 4,600 hours flying time, including 3,500 hours in jet aircraft.

Honors and awards

Posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor
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
The Air Force Command Astronaut Wings
Honorary Doctorate, Florida Institute of Technology

Memorials

Virgil I. Grissom High School ^*, in Huntsville, Alabama, is named after him. Huntsville, also known as "Rocket City" is a large center for space technology and rocket development, and several of the schools are named after others who died in the space program. Grissom is also honored in his hometown of Mitchell 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.

An engineering building at Purdue University bears Grissom's name.

An artificial island in San Pedro Bay off Southern California, is also named for him.

Grissom Air Reserve Base in Bunker Hill, Indiana is named after him.
The Virgil I. Grissom Library in the Denbigh section of Newport News, Virginia is named after him.
The Virgil I. Grissom High School in Huntsville, Alabama is named after him.
The Virgil I. Grissom Middle School in Mishawaka, Indiana is named after him.
The Virgil I. Grissom Elementary School in Tinley Park, Illinois is named after him.
The Virgil I. Grissom Elementary School in Hegewisch, Illinois (Chicago) is named after him.
The Grissom Elementary School in the Tulsa, Oklahoma Public School District.
The Virgil I. Grissom School No. 7 in Rochester, NY is named after him.
The now defunct V.I. Grissom Elementary School in the former Clark Air Base, Philippines was named after him.
Crime Scene Investigation character Gil Grissom is named after him.
Thunderbirds character Virgil Tracy is named after him.
Grissom Hall at Purdue University is named after him.
Grissom Hall at SUNY Fredonia is named after him.
Grissom Hall at Florida Institute of Technology is named after him.
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.http://www.space.com/spacewatch/star_names_030829.html
Gus Grissom is the Class Exemplar of the United States Air Force Academy's class of 2007.

Film and television

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 Search for Spock, the Federation starship sent to survey the newly formed Genesis Planet was named USS Grissom.

William Petersen named his television character on Crime Scene Investigation after Grissom.

References

External links

Grissom Air Reserve Base
Apollo Burning, a tribute to the Apollo 1 astronauts
NASA biography
Spacefacts biography of Gus Grissom
Roadside America review of Grissom Museum

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