Facts about Gus Grissom
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One of NASA's original Mercury Seven astronauts, Gus Grissom was selected in 1959 alongside pioneers including John Glenn and Alan Shepard.
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Gus Grissom's 1965 Gemini 3 mission carried a corned beef sandwich smuggled aboard by crewmate John Young, creating an unexpected controversy about spacecraft food protocols at NASA.
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Gus Grissom's Distinguished Flying Cross from his Korean War service recognized him as one of the Air Force's most skilled combat pilots before his astronaut career began.
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At age 40, Gus Grissom became the first person to fly to space twice when he commanded Gemini 3 in March 1965, less than four years after his Mercury flight.
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Nicknamed 'Molly Brown' by his crewmate John Young, Gemini 3 achieved the first crewed orbital maneuver by firing its thrusters to change the spacecraft's orbit on March 23, 1965.
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Gus Grissom commanded Gemini 3 on March 23, 1965, conducting the first crewed flight of NASA's Gemini program with pilot John Young.
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Liberty Bell 7, Grissom's Mercury capsule, was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean floor in 1999, 38 years after sinking, revealing the hatch had blown prematurely due to a faulty explosive bolt design.
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Before becoming an astronaut, Gus Grissom served as a fighter pilot in the Korean War, completing 100 combat missions in an F-86 Sabre jet.
- 03
Gus Grissom's Mercury-Redstone 4 capsule sank in the Atlantic Ocean on July 21, 1961, just minutes after splashdown, forcing his rescue by helicopter.
- 02
The Apollo 1 cabin fire on January 27, 1967 killed Gus Grissom along with Ed White and Roger Chaffee during a launch rehearsal test.
- 01
In 1961, astronaut Gus Grissom became the second American in space aboard Mercury-Redstone 3, reaching a suborbital altitude of 116 miles.