Gus Grissom
| Gus Grissom | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Country: | USA |
| Organization: | NASA |
| selected on | 2 April 1959 ( 1st NASA Group ) |
| Calls: | 2 space flights |
| Start of the first space flight: |
July 21, 1961 |
| Landing of the last space flight: |
March 23, 1965 |
| Time in Space: | 5h 07m |
| retired on |
January 27, 1967 Death on Apollo 1 
|
| spaceflights | |
|
|
Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom ( April 3, 1926 in Mitchell , Indiana – January 27, 1967 in Cape Canaveral , Florida ) was an American astronaut . He was the second American and third human in space after Alan Shepard , and also the first human to travel into space twice. Gus Grissom died while testing the Apollo 1 spacecraft .
early years
Gus Grissom grew up with his two younger brothers, Norman and Lowell, and his younger sister, Wilma, with his parents Dennis and Cecile Grissom in his native town of Mitchell, Indiana. The city is located about ten kilometers south of Bedford in the south-central part of the US state of Indiana. His father was working at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at this time . From an early age, Grissom wanted to be a pilot and was therefore also increasingly interested in the natural science subjects mathematics and physics . At that time he was already building small models of airplanes out of balsa wood and had an IQ of 145. He was very athletic and was already playing at school active and successful basketball and handball . He was also active in the boy scout movement (scouting) in his youth.
While attending Mitchell High School , he met his future wife, Betty Moore, whom he married on July 6, 1945. At the time, he was a student pilot with the United States Army Air Forces , which he had enlisted in in 1944. After the end of World War II, however, he got a desk job, which he hated terribly because he wanted to fly as a pilot, so he decided to leave the Army Air Forces.
In 1950, Grissom received his Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana . He and his wife financed their studies by Grissom preparing hamburgers in a fast-food restaurant after class or doing various part-time jobs and his wife Betty working as a telephone operator for long-distance calls. He received a second bachelor's degree in Aeromechanics from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1956 .
Test Pilot and Korean War
Since Gus Grissom always wanted to be a test pilot , he rejoined the US Air Force after successfully completing his studies and passed the pilot's test at Williams Air Force Base in Arizona . Less than a year later, he was posted to the 334th Fighter Squadron in Korea, stationed at Kimpo Air Force Base and later at Suwon , which was close to what was then the front line. There he flew a hundred combat missions in half a year in the Korean War with the North American F-86 , which a fighter pilot there usually had to have flown before he was relieved. He himself could not record an enemy kill, but was the wingman of the squadron commander and was highly decorated because he had above-average flying talent.
In his unit, it was customary for pilots who had never been fired upon by a MiG to have to stand on the bus during transport to the airfield. Grissom was allowed to sit down after his second mission as he was shot at on the first.
After that time, he worked as a flight instructor , which he said was harder than fighting enemy fighters in Korea. He was stationed at Craig Air Force Base , Alabama , then Bryan Air Force Base , Texas , and completed his test pilot training at Edwards Air Force Base in 1957 . He then tested new fighter aircraft at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base . His favorite aircraft for this job became the Lockheed F-104 .
The Mercury program
Shortly thereafter, Gus Grissom received a top-secret notice ordering him to appear in civilian clothes at a specified address in Washington, DC . There he was told that he was one of the one hundred and ten test pilots whose awards enabled them to learn more about the American space program and the Mercury program in particular .
By Grissom's own estimation, he never expected to be selected for the program, but he decided to take part in some of NASA 's tests anyway. After doctors determined that Gus Grissom suffered from hay fever , he almost dropped out of the program. However, he was able to convince the doctors that there was no pollen in space and that his allergy would not prevent him from space flight.
Of all the tests, he found the psychological tests to be the most stressful. Later in a book, he himself called the psychologists shrunken heads , whereas the physical tests, which pushed the limits of a person's strength, bothered him less.
On April 13, 1959, the first American group of astronauts, including Gus Grissom, was selected. The other six astronauts were: Scott Carpenter , Gordon Cooper , John Glenn , Walter Schirra , Alan Shepard , and Deke Slayton . They became known and famous worldwide as the Mercury Seven almost overnight, as NASA presented its first astronauts to the public with great press hype.
Grissom was the smallest of the group of astronauts, but could always compete with the other astronauts. Gus Grissom then moved with his family (he now had two sons) to Langley Air Force Base in Virginia . The next few years were filled with worldwide training flights, survival training , planning work and a lot of press work. A 16-hour day was the norm. Grissom was assigned the Mercury spacecraft's new three-axis control system as a specialty.
Mercury-Redstone 4 - Liberty Bell 7
The competition with the Soviet Union for space conquest began with the Sputnik satellite and was intensified by Gagarin's first space flight on April 12, 1961. Grissom himself was chosen for the second manned Mercury flight. Because the spacecraft looked like a bell , Gus Grissom christened it Liberty Bell 7 . In contrast to Alan Shepard's first Mercury mission, the spacecraft was modified somewhat. A larger window, planned before Shepard's flight, was installed. A blast hatch was also installed , which should make it easier for the astronaut to open the landing capsule more quickly and easily, a new dashboard , new spacecraft controls and a new spacesuit with different microphones and a larger proportion of nylon . At the same time, new missiles were installed for the salvage crew aboard the Liberty Bell 7. These changes had been requests from the astronauts to NASA and their technicians. Grissom therefore spent a lot of time assembling the spacecraft at McDonnell 's plant in St. Louis and personally took care of the details.
On July 21, 1961, on the second launch attempt due to weather, Gus Grissom launched his first space mission , Mercury-Redstone 4 , after three countdown stops caused by a misplaced hatch detonator, extinguishing the headlights, and brief cloud formation. The start of this suborbital flight with the Redstone rocket built by Chrysler went smoothly. The re-entry into the earth's atmosphere took place with more than 11 g. After a ballistic flight, which marked the first time an astronaut had hand-ignited the spacecraft's braking rockets, the landing parachute deployed and Liberty Bell 7 landed in the Atlantic Ocean .
Gus Grissom prepared to exit the landing pod by opening his helmet, removing the oxygen hose and seat belts . Then he armed the hatch release mechanism. After consultation with the Hunt Club rescue helicopter , Grissom waited for the capsule to be recovered. In the meantime, he wrote down the positions of the levers and buttons on the dashboard, since Alan Shepard had forgotten them on his flight.
Suddenly, however, the hatch explosive detonated, and water immediately entered the interior of the Liberty Bell 7. Instinctively, he immediately left the sinking landing pod, leaving all his paraphernalia behind. The capsule became heavier and heavier due to the ingress of water and the helicopter was pushed beyond its load limit, so that it had to cut the rescue rope that had already been attached and the Liberty Bell 7 sank into the sea.
Grissom's space suit was filling with water because he hadn't plugged the hole for the oxygen hose. He also carried extra weight as he carried several souvenirs in the left leg of his space suit on his flight, including two rolls of nickels for friends' children, three dollar bills, a few miniature models of the spaceship and two pilot's badges. He tried to get help from the helicopters by waving his arms, but the crews only interpreted it as a greeting from Grissom and waved him back in a friendly way. An additional rescue helicopter then saved him from drowning and pulled him on board, whereby Grissom, in panic and physical exhaustion, had put on the rescue sling the wrong way round. On the helicopter ride to the salvage aircraft carrier, he immediately put on a life jacket, afraid of ending up back in the water if the helicopter had problems. On board the aircraft carrier, an officer then presented him with his helmet, which must have floated out of the sinking capsule and had been recovered by the crew of a destroyer .
According to Grissom's own statement and that of the NASA technicians, there was a defect in the system, so the hatch was blown off prematurely. Grissom never got over the loss of the landing pod. Although suspicions of wrongdoing on his part were never cleared, he remained a respected member of the astronaut crew.
The current theory for the cause of the accident is the following, but like all others, unproven variant: During the descent, Grissom observed a hole in one of the parachutes, which was approximately the size of the outer cover of the trigger for the door's explosive bolts. It is believed that a line from the parachute or the light buoy could have gotten caught in the lever and triggered it after landing. This theory is also supported by the fact that John Glenn, Walter Schirra and Gordon Cooper suffered minor injuries to their wrists after opening the blast hatch. Grissom did not have these injuries, and Scott Carpenter exited the capsule through the recover compartment at the top of the spacecraft without detonating the hatch.
After the mission, Grissom suggested that divers be on board the recovery helicopters, which would secure the capsule with buoyancy devices. This proposal was accepted by NASA in the Gemini project and applied without exception until the end of the Apollo missions, since up until then all spacecraft had landed in the sea. It was only with the introduction of the space shuttle during the STS-1 mission under the command of Grissom's friend John Young that splashdowns were dispensed with, since this type of spaceship is able to land on a runway like an airplane. With the introduction of the spaceship Orion , a splashdown of the capsule could become likely again.
At the time, Grissom was working with John Glenn to make NASA 's first urine bag out of a condom , rubber tubing , and plastic bag .
Grissom was then liaison ( Capcom ) on several Mercury missions.
Late recovery of the Liberty Bell 7
It wasn't until 1999 that the Liberty Bell 7 was recovered from the Atlantic. Curt Newport , a dedicated underwater robot pilot, had the idea to recover the capsule in the early 1980s, invested his entire fortune in the research and, after a long and fruitless search , was able to inspire the Discovery Channel to finance the rescue mission. Former astronaut Tom Stafford helped him as an advisor .
Portions of the film that Grissom made on board were cast in acrylic as a souvenir by the salvage financier and then sold. There are exactly 1000 of these acrylic glass souvenirs.
The salvage of the capsule was the most expensive deep-sea commercial salvage to date, as the Mercury capsule lay almost 6000 meters deep on the bottom of the Atlantic. It is remarkable that the capsule could be discovered at all at this depth, especially since other, much larger objects in much shallower water, such as the Titanic , could only be discovered after a very long search.
The Gemini program
As a continuation of the Mercury program, NASA planned a program that would use a Titan II rocket to launch a spacecraft manned by two astronauts. Spacewalks and docking maneuvers for the future moon landing should also be practiced. This was the Gemini program .
The training for the Gemini program had been significantly tightened in contrast to the Mercury training. It was no longer just passengers of the spaceships that were in demand. The Gemini spacecraft had to be controlled and coupled to other spacecraft, spacewalks were also planned. In addition, the prospective astronauts had to familiarize themselves with significantly more carrier rockets, since the follow-up project, the Apollo program , was already being planned. The individual workshops and assembly facilities, as well as the launch pads for the Titan, Atlas , Agena and Saturn rockets were visited one after the other. In addition, scientific training courses were on the program, since research work also had to be carried out during the space flights.
With NASA planning a new space center in Houston , Texas , the Grissom family moved to nearby Timber Cove .
Gemini 3 - Molly Brown
.jpg)
As a trained test pilot, Gus Grissom was completely immersed in the Gemini program because, unlike the Mercury spacecraft, the Gemini spacecraft had to be flown by a pilot. Alan Shepard was chosen for the first manned Gemini flight. Grissom was the back-up. However, when Shepard fell ill, Gus Grissom was given the honor of being commander of the Gemini 3 mission. Its pilot became John Young , the first second-choice astronaut of 1962 to fly into space, as he replaced astronaut Tom Stafford, who was originally scheduled to fly with Shepard. Stafford and Grissom did not harmonize as expected, so they resorted to Young.
Gus Grissom derived the name Molly Brown for the Gemini 3 spaceship from the Broadway musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown in order to come to terms with his trauma with the sunken Liberty Bell 7 in a humorous way . At NASA, this did not meet with everyone's understanding. They wanted to refuse to accept the name, whereupon the astronauts together provocatively suggested the name Titanic and one could then agree on Molly Brown and Gemini 3 was the last spaceship for the time being, which was given its own name by its astronauts for this reason. As part of the Apollo program, starting with the Apollo 9 mission , it was necessary to be able to distinguish between the command module and the lunar module in radio communication, so that spaceships were given names again.
Liberty Bell 7 and Molly Brown were the first spaceships with a double name, NASA would only allow double names for spaceships on the Apollo 10 , Apollo 12 and Apollo 14 missions in its history.
On March 23, 1965, the Titan II took off on a successful maiden flight with Molly Brown at the helm. The astronauts' main task was to test the spacecraft for its space suitability and control characteristics. It was the first time a spacecraft had tested docking, rendezvous, and turning maneuvers in space, as the Gemini spacecraft was much more maneuverable in space than its Mercury counterpart.
Early in the flight, problems were encountered with the inner atmosphere gauges. It quickly turned out that it was a display error and that the breathing air corresponded to the expectations placed in it.
Since the next few missions were scheduled to last several days, Grissom and Young's duties also included testing the new space food in plastic bags . Grissom, who had seen and tasted the food at ground station , said before the flight that he would only eat it if nothing else was on board.
Young caught on to this, and when it came time in space to do the test, he asked Grissom, "How about a corned beef sandwich ? " He took a sandwich of Grissom's favorite brand out of the suit and handed it to him. Grissom bit into it with relish, which upset NASA officials as the sandwich crumbs spilled all over the Molly Brown in zero gravity . While enjoying the sandwich, Grissom only jokingly complained that there was no mustard on the sandwich. After three full orbits, the Molly Brown landed .
After three orbits, the braking rockets were fired. The splashdown on parachutes took place in two phases, with the landing capsule hanging first with the nose up, then with the nose diagonally down on the parachutes. Transitioning from one position to the other, the two astronauts were thrown against the windows. Young's helmet was scratched, Grissom's visor even broke.
On that maiden manned flight, however, NASA had miscalculated the lander's drag , and it landed 52 miles (84 kilometers) from target, and it took 30 minutes for a recovery helicopter to arrive. Grissom refused to open the hatches until divers had secured the capsule with ties, still fearing the Molly Brown would sink like the Liberty Bell 7 before it, becoming truly a Titanic . Both astronauts in the capsule became seasick as a result of the long rocking at sea .
Liaison spokesmen for this mission were Grissom's longtime friend from test pilot days and Mercury comrade Gordon Cooper and from the second group of astronauts Edward White.
Both astronauts got a parade of confetti in the rainy weather on the streets of New York in the presence of US Vice President Humphrey. Up until that point, only Alan Shepard and John Glenn had gotten a parade as astronauts.
From that time on, Grissom and Young formed a close friendship that lasted until Grissom's death.
He then served as liaison spokesman for the Gemini 4 and Gemini 5 missions . Gus Grissom continued to be employed on the Gemini program. Among other things, he was provided with John Young as a backup team for the Gemini 6 mission.
The Apollo program
During the Gemini program, work continued toward a successful moon landing. Gus Grissom was also considered early on in the follow-up project, where he was to lead the first manned Apollo mission and thus once again become NASA's maiden aviator.
In preparation, he flew a mission with Roger B. Chaffee , among others, as an escort pilot on an unmanned Saturn 1B mission to photograph its launch.
AS-204 (Apollo 1)
However, the Apollo spacecraft was not nearly as mature as the previous Gemini model, so the technicians and astronauts worked flat out to complete the first Apollo spacecraft (serial number 012), since in the 1960s it was imperative to go to the moon wanted to land, as promised and publicly proclaimed by former US President John F. Kennedy in 1961. At the same time, it was suspected in the United States that the Soviet Union was also planning a manned lunar landing mission, which was the case, as they learned after the collapse of the Soviet Union. As Apollo-Saturn-204 (AS-204) the mission should take place in the spring of 1967.
The design of the Apollo spacecraft was still immature and changes were constantly being made. Spacecraft and simulator were never on the same page. Out of irritation, Grissom hung a lemon on the simulator during 1966.
The Apollo 1 disaster and death
One of the most important tests took place on January 27, 1967 at Cape Canaveral AFS Launch Complex 34 in Cape Canaveral . The entire crew, Edward H. White , Roger B. Chaffee , and Gus Grissom, took their places in the command module to perform a plugs-out test . However, during testing (probably from a short circuit or arcing ) the interior of the capsule caught fire. By using pure, slightly over-pressurized oxygen as the capsule's atmosphere, the fire spread to all combustible materials within seconds. The internal pressure of the capsule was immediately increased significantly by the computer-controlled oxygen supply. All three astronauts died because the hatch could not be opened quickly enough either from the inside (too high internal pressure due to the fire) or from the outside (no rescue teams directly at the capsule). The hatch, which was only intended for Block I capsules anyway, was then completely redesigned and more than a thousand other changes were made to the spacecraft and its processing. The original design of the hatch was designed by NASA in such a way that another accident like Grissom's with the Liberty Bell 7 should not happen again.
Grissom complained just seconds before the fire accident that the radio connection to the control center was beyond bad and he couldn't imagine how the radio traffic from the moon should work if it didn't even work properly between various houses.
Their mission was scheduled to start on February 21, 1967, less than a month after the devastating test.
Gus Grissom was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor on October 1, 1978, as one of six inaugural astronauts and as the first astronaut posthumously. He was buried in Section 3 of the well-known American National Cemetery Arlington near Washington DC, next to Roger B. Chaffee, with a state funeral in which the then US President Lyndon B. Johnson personally attended and was the first mourner to offer his condolences to the widow. Grissom is buried in close proximity to Thomas E. Selfridge , who was the first American fatality in a plane crash. Grissom's coffin accompanied the six remaining members of the Mercury program and his Gemini 3 pilot, John Young. His last rank had been Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force.
Grissom had flown over 4,600 hours in his service with the US Air Force and NASA, of which he completed about 3,500 in jets.
accident or sabotage
Scott Grissom , Gus Grissom's older son, himself a commercial pilot with FedEx , later expressed the opinion that the Apollo 1 disaster was due to sabotage . Then NASA, who knew the background, covered it up.
The files on the accident of Apollo 1 are still under lock and key at NASA, only the final report of the committee of inquiry headed by Floyd Thompson and Frank Borman was published , although some members of Congress had already criticized the independence of this committee, since six of the nine members were employees of the NASA were.
To date, NASA has rejected Scott Grissom's call for a new and independent commission of inquiry.
First man on the moon?
Because of his accomplishments in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, Grissom had a pretty good chance of being chosen to be the first human to walk on the moon. Deke Slayton , his close friend from test pilot days and Mercury comrade who assembled the astronaut crews for the Apollo program, wrote in his 1994 autobiography Deke! that he wanted a Mercury program astronaut to have been the first man on the moon, and had Grissom been alive at the time he would have been. ("Had Gus been alive, as a Mercury astronaut he would have taken the step". // If Gus had survived, as a Mercury astronaut he would have taken this step.)
Alan Shepard was unfit to fly for medical reasons at the time of the first moon landing; At the request of US President Kennedy, John Glenn was no longer allowed to fly because, as an American hero, he should no longer be exposed to danger in space; After his Mercury mission, Scott Carpenter was no longer assigned a new space flight by NASA and had already left the active astronaut team; Walter Schirra had ended his space career with Apollo 7 and Gordon Cooper was a difficult character who would not have been suitable as a new figurehead for NASA and was also not planned for any space mission after Gemini 5 . Finally, Deke Slayton was still unfit to fly and would have had no space experience. Only Grissom would have been available as the only Mercury veteran for the first moon landing. After his death, various changes in plans and mission cancellations gave Neil Armstrong the honor of taking man's first steps on the moon. He did so on July 21, 1969, eight years to the day after Virgil Grissom took off on his maiden voyage in the Liberty Bell.
Summary of spaceflights
| No. | mission | function | flight date | flight duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mercury Redstone 4 | commander | July 21–December 21 July 1961 | 0h 15m |
| 2 | gemini 3 | commander | March 23–December 23 March 1965 | 0d 4h 52min |
summary
Grissom was one of NASA's most experienced and celebrated astronauts at the time of his death. The fact that he was the first astronaut to be offered a second maiden flight and that he was to be the first astronaut to go to the moon testifies to his outstanding position within NASA's astronaut crews. Even the sinking of the Liberty Bell 7 couldn't stop his meteoric rise. The setback that NASA suffered after Apollo 1 and the worldwide media coverage still testify to its importance today.
Features and Records
- Second American in space ( Mercury-Redstone 4 )
- First human to make two space flights ( Gemini 3 )
- First human to pilot two spacecraft ( Mercury-Redstone 4 and Gemini 3 )
- First human scheduled for three spaceflights ( Apollo 1 )
- The human who has been to space multiple times and spent the least amount of time there, totaling five hours and seven minutes ( Mercury-Redstone 4 and Gemini 3 )
- Joined with Edward White and Roger Chaffee in first fatalities aboard a spacecraft ( Apollo 1 )
- First astronaut to be posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor
Private
Grissom's hobbies included fishing and hunting , as well as skiing , water skiing and sailing , and he was an avid handball player.
Shortly before his first mission, he gave up water skiing for a while to avoid the risk of injuring himself and jeopardizing his own mission. Like most of the astronauts in the first selection groups, Grissom also had a penchant for fast cars, privately driving a Chevrolet Corvette . Grissom was a good listener and only spoke up when he really had something to say. But he was also known for his quirky sense of humour.
Grissom was a member of the Masonic League at Mitchell Lodge No. 228 in his hometown of Mitchell.
honors
- In 1970 a lunar crater was named after him.
- In 1978, Grissom was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor
- In 1981, the asteroid (2161) Grissom was named after him.
- In 1987, Grissom was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame , which has few astronauts as members.
- He is also a member of the Astronaut Hall of Fame.
- The airport in the city of Bedford , Indiana , has been named for him.
- The former Bunker Hill Naval Air Station in the state of Indiana was renamed Grissom Air Force Base on May 12, 1968 after Grissom's death .
- His native town of Mitchell erected a monument in his honor, designed in the shape of a stone rocket.
- After Gemini 3, Paraguay , Guinea and also Yemen issued a postage stamp featuring the two astronauts.
- After Apollo 1, a postage stamp featuring the crew was again issued by Yemen and a souvenir sheet depicting the three astronauts appeared in Mauritania .
- The star Epsilon Cassiopeiae was named Navi, "Ivan" backwards. Grissom and his crew used the star to calibrate their devices and reported the name as a joke, hence the name.
- Grissom Hill, located 7.5 kilometers southwest of Columbia Memorial Station on Mars , was named after him as part of the Apollo 1 Hills .
- His name is listed on the metal plate of the Fallen Astronaut , the only piece of art on the moon.
- There is the Virgil I Grissom Library in Newport News , Virginia.
- Several schools were named after him.
- Grissom Hall, an engineering department at his university, Purdue University , is also named after him.
- Likewise the Grissom Hall of the Florida Institute of Technology .
- The Grissom Dining Facility at Misawa Air Base in Japan also bears his name.
- Virgil "Gus" Grissom Park in Fullerton , California also bears his name.
- An uninhabited island near Long Beach Harbor in California also bears his name.
- There is a Virgil I Grissom Library at Newport News .
Astronaut Hall of Fame
At the beginning of the Astronaut Hall of Fame , Virgil Grissom's space suit and other exhibits from the Mercury-Redstone 4 mission were on display. After the Astronaut Hall of Fame's bankruptcy, there was a legal repercussion over ownership of these mission items, as Gus Grissom's family would not allow NASA to take ownership of these items.
trivia
- According to an interview with American actor William Petersen , his role in CSI , Gil Grissom, was named after Virgil Grissom. Originally, the character was to be called Gil Scheinbaum.
- In the Thunderbirds series , there is a character named Virgil Tracy, named after Grissom.
- In the 1983 film The Stuff of Heroes, directed by Philip Kaufman , actor Fred Ward plays Virgil Grissom.
- In the film That Thing You Do! 1996 directed by Tom Hanks , actor Bryan Cranston has a supporting role as Virgil Grissom.
- In the 1995 film Apollo 13 , directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks, actor Steve Bernie plays Virgil Grissom in a very small supporting role without lyrics.
- In the Star Trek film Star Trek III: In Search of Mr. Spock , the spaceship USS Grissom is named after Virgil Grissom.
- He is portrayed by Shea Whigham in the film To the Moon (2018) .
quotes
- "If we die, we want people to accept it. We're 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.” (If we were to die, we want people to accept it. We are in a high-risk profession and we hope that if anything happens to us, the program will not be delayed. The Conquest of space is worth risking life.) (at a press conference in the time of the Apollo program)
- "I said how are we going to get to the moon if we can't talk between two or three buildings..." talk (spark)) (the last recorded words of Grissom one minute before the start of the fire in the Apollo capsule)
See also
sources
- The Astronaut Book 1962
- Life Magazine April 2, 1965
- Life Magazine February 3, 1967
- PM Magazine 12/2001
- Lost Spacecraft 2002
- Gus Grissom: A Space Biography 2003
itemizations
- ↑ 50 things you didn't know about the moon landing. 19 July 2019, retrieved 20 July 2019 .
- ↑ Source: Curt Newport: Lost Spacecraft. Apogee Books, Burlington 2002, ISBN 1-896522-88-2 .
- ↑ club-sandwich.net 2003 ( Memento of February 22, 2008 at the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Dana Holland: John Watts Young. 2003, retrieved September 25, 2007 .
- ↑ The Apollo program. Archived from the original on June 9, 2007 ; retrieved September 25, 2007 .
- ↑ Courtney G Brooks, James M Grimwood, Loyd S Swenson: Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft. Retrieved March 24, 2015 (English, cited: Riley D. McCafferty, interview, Cocoa, Fla., Nov. 15, 1969; Slayton to CSM Contracting Officer, "Acceptance of Apollo Mission Simulator No. 2," Aug. 12, 1966 .). Grissom's widow Betty, on the other hand, writes in her book Starfall of a lemon that Grissom picked on his last day at home in Texas in January 1967 to hang on the spaceship.
- ↑ Manfred Schmerkampf: Company moon flight. 1999, archived from the original on June 21, 2015 ; retrieved September 25, 2007 .
- ↑ APOLLO 1: catastrophe on launch pad 34 on space-odyssee.de ( Memento from June 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Damond Benningfield: Apollo Stars . Deutschlandfunk , January 27, 2007.
- ↑ A frank and honest interview with Scott and Betty Grissom. Retrieved November 16, 2021 (with two audio files of the interview by Mark Estabrook).
- ↑ Matthias Lipinski: apollo-projekt.de. (No longer available online.) 2001, archived from the original on October 5, 2007 ; retrieved September 25, 2007 .
- ↑ Masonic Info. Lindale Park Lodge Archived from the original on December 31, 2012 ; retrieved December 4, 2012 (English): "Grissom was a Master Mason and member of Mitchell Lodge 228."
- ↑ Gus Grissom in the IAU (WGPSN)/ USGS Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature
- ↑ Gus Grissom at the IAU Minor Planet Center
- ↑ NightSky Friday: Rotanev, Derf, Navi, and other Backward Star Names on space.com ( September 6, 2008 memento at the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Virgil 'Gus' Grissom Park ( December 7, 2014 memento at Internet Archive )
- ↑ dailyexpress.com: Newport News libraries to install new computers. (No longer available online.) In: Daily Express. 16 September 2011, formerly in the original ; retrieved September 19, 2011 . ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ↑ NASA, Grissom widow spar over spacesuit. In: CNN.com. December 3, 2002, retrieved June 17, 2019 .
- ↑ Starfleet Intelligence. 2001, retrieved September 25, 2007 .
- ↑ 40th Anniversary of Mercury. Retrieved September 25, 2007 .
- ↑ Eugene Cernan, Donald A Davis (1999): The Last Man on the Moon. ISBN 978-0-312-19906-7 online
web links
- Short biography of Gus Grissom at spacefacts.de
- NASA Biography by Gus Grissom (PDF)
- Biography of Gus Grissom in Encyclopedia Astronautica
- Arlington website (English)
Aldrin | Different | Armstrong | beans | Borman | Fire | Carr | Cernan | Chaffee | Collins | Conrad | Cunningham | duke | Eisele | Evans | Garriott | Gibson | Gordon | Grissom | Haise | Irvin | Kervin | Lousma | Lovell | Mattingly | McDivitt | Mitchell | Pogue | Roosa | Schirra | Smith | Schweickart | Scott | Shepard | Slayton | Stafford | Swigert | Weitz | White | Worden | Young
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Grissom, Gus |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Grissom, Virgil Ivan; Grissom, Virgil |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American astronaut |
| BIRTH DATE | April 3, 1926 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mitchell , Indiana , United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 27, 1967 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Cape Canaveral , Florida , United States |