Gus Grissom

Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
NASA Astronaut
Status	Killed during a training exercise and test in Florida
Born	April 3, 1926(1926-04-03)
Died	January 27, 1967 (aged 40)
Other occupation	Test pilot
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel, USAF
Time in space	5h 7m
Selection	1959 NASA Group
Missions	Mercury-Redstone 4, Gemini 3, Apollo 1
Mission insignia

Virgil Ivan Grissom, more widely known as Gus Grissom, (3 April 1926 – 27 January 1967) was one of the original NASA Project Mercury astronauts and a United States Air Force pilot. He was the second American to fly in space. Grissom was killed along with fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger Chaffee during a training exercise and pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission at the Kennedy Space Center. He was a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross and, posthumously, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Background

Grissom was born in Mitchell, Indiana. As a child he attended the local Church of Christ and became a lifelong member. Grissom graduated from Mitchell High School and in 1950 earned a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University, then enlisted in the United States Air Force. He married Betty Moore Grissom and they had two children, Scott and Mark. Grissom was a master Mason and member of Mitchell Lodge 228.

Military pilot

USAF F-86-01 similar to the aircraft Grissom flew in Korea.

Grissom received his pilot wings in March 1951. His first assignment was in Korea as an F-86 Sabre replacement pilot with the 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing. Grissom flew 100 combat missions during the Korean conflict with the 334th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. After returning from Korea he served as 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.^[1] 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.^[1][2]

Astronaut

The Project Mercury astronauts with a model of an Atlas rocket, 12 July 1962. Grissom is at the far left.

As an Air Force captain in 1959 Grissom underwent a series of physical and psychological tests and was then chosen as one of the seven Project Mercury astronauts.^[3]

Liberty Bell 7

Grissom in front of the Liberty Bell 7 capsule.

In 1961, Grissom was pilot of Mercury-Redstone 4, popularly known as Liberty Bell 7, the second American (suborbital) spaceflight. After splashdown explosive bolts blew the hatch off unexpectedly and water flooded into the tiny capsule. Grissom exited through the open hatch and into the ocean but nearly drowned as water filled his flightsuit while a helicopter tried to lift and recover the spacecraft. However, the capsule had become too heavy with water and sank. Grissom strongly asserted he had done nothing to blow the hatch and NASA officials eventually agreed with him. Initiating the explosive egress system required hitting a metal trigger with the side of a closed fist. This was later shown to leave a big bruise but Grissom did not have one. The capsule was recovered in 1999 but no evidence was found which could explain how the hatch opened on its own. Years after, Guenter Wendt (who was pad leader for the early American manned space launches) wrote he believed a small cover over the external release actuator was accidentally lost sometime during the flight or splashdown and the T-handle may have been tugged by a stray parachute shroud line, or was perhaps damaged by the heat of re-entry, cooled upon splashdown, contracted and then fired.^[3]

Gemini 3

In early 1964 Alan Shepard was grounded after being diagnosed with Ménière's disease and Grissom was designated command pilot for Gemini 3, the first manned Project Gemini flight. This mission would make him the first astronaut to fly twice beyond the accepted boundary of space. Grissom was one of the smaller-sized astronauts and he worked very closely with the engineers and technicians from McDonnell Aircraft who built the Gemini capsule. The first three spacecraft were built around him and the design was humorously named the Gusmobile. However by July 1963 NASA discovered 14 out of the 16 astronauts could not fit themselves into the cabin and later cockpits were modified.^[4] During this time Grissom innovated a multi-axis joystick for controlling the maneuvering thrusters with one hand.

Naming of the Molly Brown

Gemini 3 mission patch design.

In a joking nod to the sinking of his Mercury craft Grissom named the first Gemini capsule the Molly Brown after the popular Broadway show The Unsinkable Molly Brown but NASA publicity officials were unhappy with this name. When Grissom and his pilot John Young were ordered to come up with a new one they offered The Titanic. Aghast, NASA executives gave in and allowed the name Molly Brown but didn't use it in any official references. Subsequently and much to the agency's chagrin, on launch CAPCOM Gordon Cooper gave Gemini 3 its sendoff by saying over the uplink, "You're on your way, Molly Brown!" and ground controllers used this name throughout the flight.

After the safe return of Gemini 3 NASA announced new spacecraft would not be named. Hence Gemini IV was not named American Eagle as planned. The naming of spacecraft resumed in 1967 after managers found the Apollo flights needed a name for each of two flight elements, the command module and lunar module. Lobbying by the astronauts and senior NASA administrators also had an effect. Apollo 9 had the callsigns Gumdrop for the command module and Spider for the lunar module. However, Wally Schirra had been prevented from naming his Apollo 7 spacecraft the Phoenix in honor of Grissom's Apollo 1 crew since it was believed the average taxpayer would not take a fire metaphor as intended.

Death

Apollo 1 crew, Grissom, White and Chaffee

Apollo I mission patch design

Grissom was backup command pilot for Gemini 6 when he shifted to the Apollo program and was assigned as commander of AS-204, which was meant to be the first manned Apollo flight. He was killed along with fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger B. Chaffee when the Apollo 1 command module caught fire and burned on the launchpad during a training exercise and pre-launch test at Cape Kennedy on 27 January 1967. The fire's ignition source was never determined but their deaths were attributed to a wide range of lethal design hazards in the early Apollo command module such as its highly pressurized 100% oxygen atmosphere during the test, many wiring and plumbing flaws, flammable materials in the cockpit, a hatch which might not open at all in an emergency and even the flightsuits worn by the astronauts.^[5] These along with other flaws and design problems were fixed and the Apollo program carried on successfully.

Grissom was a Lieutenant Colonel at the time of his death and had logged a total of 4,600 hours flying time, including 3,500 hours in jet aircraft. In his 1994 autobiography Deke! chief astronaut Deke Slayton said he wanted one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts to be the first on 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 is buried in Section 3 of Arlington National Cemetery, near Chaffee. White is buried at West Point Cemetery.

Spacesuit controversy

Grissom's MR-4 spacesuit on display at the Astronaut Hall of Fame

When the Astronaut Hall of Fame opened in 1990 his family loaned it the spacesuit worn by Grissom during Mercury 4 along with other personal artifacts belonging to the astronaut. In 2002 the museum went into bankruptcy and was taken over by a NASA contractor, whereupon the family asked for everything back.^[6] All the artifacts were returned to them except the spacesuit, which NASA claimed was government property.^[7] NASA insisted Grissom got authorization to use the spacesuit for a show and tell at his son's school and never returned it but some Grissom family members claimed the astronaut rescued the spacesuit from a scrap heap.^[8]

Awards and honors

• Distinguished Flying Cross for service in Korea
• Air Medal with cluster for service in Korea
• Two NASA Distinguished Service Medals
• NASA Exceptional Service Medal
• Air Force Command Pilot rating with astronaut qualifier
• Honorary Doctorate, Florida Institute of Technology
• Congressional Space Medal of Honor, 1978 (posthumous)
• Honorary Mayor of Newport News, Virginia (posthumous)
• Enshrined at the "Wall Of Honor" at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center (Smithsonian) at Dulles Airport

Memorials

One of two Apollo 1 memorial plaques at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 34.

• Navi (Ivan backwards), a star formerly named Epsilon Cassiopeiae: Grissom and one of his flight crews had used the star to calibrate their equipment, wrote the name in logs as a joke and it eventually stuck.^[9]
• Grissom Hill is 7.5 km (4.7 mi) southwest of Columbia Memorial Station on Mars and is one of the Apollo 1 Hills.
• A landmark on the moon is called Marina Grissom.

• Grissom's boyhood home on Grissom Avenue in Mitchell, Indiana has been restored into a small museum which includes his Gemini 3 spacecraft and flight suit. A limestone carving of the Titan II rocket which launched the Gemini flight is in downtown Mitchell. There is also a memorial in Spring Mill State Park. Grissom attended Mitchell High School and its auditorium is named for him.
• Virgil I. Grissom Library, Denbigh section of Newport News, Virginia.
• Virgil "Gus" Grissom Park, Fullerton, California. (Fullerton also has parks named for White and Chaffee).^[10]
• The Gus Grissom Stakes, thoroughbred horse race run each fall at Hoosier Park in Anderson, Indiana.
• Grissom Island, artificial island, Long Beach Harbor off Southern California.

Military

• Bunker Hill Air Force Base in Peru, Indiana was renamed on May 12, 1968 to Grissom Air Force Base. In 1994 it was again renamed to Grissom Air Reserve Base following the USAF's realignment program.^[11]
• Grissom Dining Facility, Misawa Air Base, Japan.
• Grissom was the "Class Exemplar" of the United States Air Force Academy class of 2007.

Schools

• Grissom Hall, an engineering building at Purdue University, his alma mater.^[12]
• Grissom Hall, Florida Institute of Technology.
• Grissom Hall, State University of New York at Fredonia.
• Virgil I. Grissom High School, Huntsville, Alabama.^[13] (Huntsville also has schools named for Chaffee and White: Roger B. Chaffee Elementary and Ed White Middle School)
• Virgil I. Grissom Middle School, Mishawaka, Indiana.
• Virgil I. Grissom Middle School, Tinley Park, Illinois.
• Virgil I. Grissom Middle School, Sterling Heights, Michigan.
• Virgil I. Grissom Middle School 226, South Ozone Park, Queens, New York.
• Virgil Grissom Elementary School, Old Bridge, New Jersey.^[14]
• Virgil I. Grissom Elementary School, Hegewisch, Illinois.
• Virgil Grissom Elementary, Princeton, Iowa.
• Grissom Elementary School, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• Virgil I. Grissom School No. 7, Rochester, New York.
• V.I. Grissom Elementary School, former Clark Air Base, Philippines (closed).

Film and television

Grissom has been noted and remembered in many film and television productions. Before he became widely known as an astronaut, the film Air Cadet (1951) starring Richard Long and Rock Hudson briefly featured Grissom early in the movie as a U.S. Air Force candidate for flight school at Randolph Field, San Antonio, Texas. Grissom was depicted by Fred Ward in the film The Right Stuff (1983) and (very briefly) in the film Apollo 13 (1995) by Steve Bernie. He was portrayed 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. Bryan Cranston played Grissom as a nervous variety-show guest in the film That Thing You Do! In the film Star Trek III: The Search for Spock the Federation starship sent to survey the newly formed Genesis Planet is named USS Grissom. The character Gus Griswald in the popular children's TV show Recess is named after Grissom (his fictional father is a General in the US Army and Gus is his recruit). The character Gil Grissom in the CBS television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation^[15] and the character Virgil Tracy in the British television series Thunderbirds are named after the astronaut. NASA footage including Grissom's Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions was released in high definition on the Discovery Channel in June 2008 in the television series When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions.^[3]

Quote

- after the Gemini 3 mission, March 1965

References

External links

• Gus Grissom - I Knew Him
• Indiana Historical Society tribute to Gus Grissom
• Detailed Biographies of Apollo I Crew - Gus Grissom - NASA
• NASA biography
• Grissom page at Astronaut Memorial Foundation
• Spacefacts biography
• Roadside America review of Grissom Museum
• Virgil Ivan Grissom Photographs of grave site, Arlington National Cemetery along with other photographs and a brief biography.
• Gus Grissom at Find A Grave