Gus Grissom in his Mercury spacesuit

Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom (April 3, 1926 – January 27, 1967) was a U.S. Air Force pilot who became one of the first American astronauts.

Background

Grissom was born in Mitchell, Indiana and graduated from Mitchell High School. He earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Purdue University in 1950. He was married with two children.

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, he entered the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, to study Aeronautical Engineering.

In October 1956 he attended 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 a series of physical and psychological tests, Grissom was chosen to be 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 for Mercury-Redstone 4 ("Liberty Bell 7"), the second American (suborbital) spaceflight, and command pilot for the first manned Project Gemini mission (Gemini 3), as well as backup command pilot for Gemini 6.

Following the Splashdown of "Liberty Bell 7" the hatch ejected letting water into the capsule interior and Grissom's suit and in the process of his recovery by a helicopter he was nearly drowned while the spacecraft sank in several hundred feet of water.

Death

Grissom was killed along with fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger B. Chaffee in the Apollo 1 fire at Cape Kennedy. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Grissom had been selected as commander of the first Project Apollo flight at the time of his death. 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. He logged a total of 4,600 hours flying time — 3,500 hours in jet aircraft.

Awards and honors

• Posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor
• Distinguished Flying Cross for his service in Korea
• Air Medal with cluster for his serice in Korea
• Two NASA Distinguished Service medals
• The NASA Exceptional Service Medal
• The Air Force Command Astronaut Wings.

Tributes

• Grissom Air Reserve Base in 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.

Film and television

Grissom was depicted in the movie "The Right Stuff" by Fred Ward and in the tv mini-series "From the Earth to the Moon" by Mark Rolston.

References

• "Gus Grissom." Detailed Biographies of Apollo I Crew. Accessed on March 29, 2005.

External links

• Grissom Air Reserve Base