Editing Gus Grissom (section)

== NASA career ==
[[File:Project Mercury-Mercury Seven-Astronauts.jpg|thumb|{{right| Grissom (far left) with fellow [[Project Mercury]] astronauts and a model of the [[Atlas LV-3B|Atlas rocket]], July 12, 1962}}]]

In 1959, Grissom received an official [[Teleprinter|teletype]] message instructing him to report to an address in Washington, D.C., wearing civilian clothes. The message was classified [[Classified information|"Top Secret"]] and Grissom was ordered not to discuss its contents with anyone. Of the 508 military candidates who were considered, he was one of 110 test pilots whose credentials had earned them an invitation to learn more about the U.S. space program in general and its [[Project Mercury]]. Grissom was intrigued by the program, but knew that competition for the final spots would be fierce.{{sfn|Boomhower|2004|pp=88–91}}<ref name="nasabio">{{cite web|url=https://history.nasa.gov/Apollo204/zorn/grissom.htm|title=Detailed Biographies of Apollo I Crew – Gus Grissom|website=NASA History Program Office|access-date=February 21, 2017|last=White|first=Mary}}</ref>

Grissom passed the initial screening in Washington, D.C., and was among the thirty-nine candidates sent to the [[Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute|Lovelace Clinic]] in [[Albuquerque, New Mexico]], and the Aeromedical Laboratory of the Wright Air Development Center in Dayton, Ohio, to undergo extensive physical and psychological testing. He was nearly disqualified when doctors discovered that he suffered from [[Allergic rhinitis|hay fever]], but was permitted to continue after he argued that his allergies would not be a problem due to the absence of ragweed pollen in space.{{sfn|Boomhower|2004|pp=92–93}}

On April 13, 1959, Grissom received official notification that he had been selected as one of the seven Project Mercury astronauts. Grissom and the six other men, after taking a leave of absence from their respective branches of the military service, reported to the Special Task Group at [[Langley Air Force Base]] in [[Virginia]] on April 27, 1959, to begin their astronaut training.{{sfn|Boomhower|2004|p=117}}<ref name="Ordinary Supermen">[[Discovery Channel]], [[When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions]], "Ordinary Supermen," airdate June 8, 2008 (season 1)</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Zornio|first=Mary C.|title=Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom|url=https://history.nasa.gov/40thmerc7/grissom.htm|website=NASA History Program Office|access-date=November 16, 2014}}</ref>

=== Project Mercury ===
{{Main|Mercury-Redstone 4}}
[[File:Grissom prepares to enter Liberty Bell 7 61-MR4-76.jpg|thumb|left|Grissom in front of the ''[[Liberty Bell 7]]'' spacecraft]]

On July 21, 1961, Grissom was pilot of the second Project Mercury flight, [[Mercury-Redstone 4]]. Grissom named his spacecraft ''[[Liberty Bell 7]]'' after the [[Liberty Bell]], and drew a crack on it as a nod to the bell. ''Liberty Bell 7'' was launched from [[Cape Canaveral Air Force Station|Cape Canaveral]], Florida, a [[Sub-orbital spaceflight|sub-orbital flight]] that lasted 15 minutes and 37 seconds.<ref name="jscbio" /><ref name="nasabio" /> After [[splashdown]] in the Atlantic Ocean, the ''Liberty Bell 7''{{'}}s emergency explosive bolts unexpectedly fired, blowing off the hatch and causing water to flood into the spacecraft. Grissom quickly exited through the open hatch and into the ocean. While waiting for recovery helicopters from {{USS|Randolph|CV-15|6}} to pick him up, Grissom struggled to keep from drowning after his [[Navy Mark IV|spacesuit]] began losing buoyancy due to an open air inlet. Grissom managed to stay afloat until he was pulled from the water by a helicopter and taken to the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] ship. In the meantime another recovery helicopter tried to lift and retrieve the ''Liberty Bell 7'', but the flooding spacecraft became too heavy, forcing the recovery crew to cut it loose, and it ultimately sank.<ref name="nasabio" />

[[File:2006LibertyBell7Display.JPG|thumb|right|''Liberty Bell 7'', recovered in 1999, was restored and is displayed at the [[Cosmosphere]] in [[Hutchinson, Kansas]]]]

When reporters at a news conference surrounded Grissom after his space flight to ask how he felt, Grissom replied, "Well, I was scared a good portion of the time; I guess that's a pretty good indication."<ref name=upi-events-1961>{{cite news|publisher=UPI.com|work=Year in Review|url=http://www.upi.com/Archives/Audio/Events-of-1961/U.S.-in-Space/|title=U.S. in Space|access-date=July 12, 2015}}</ref> Grissom stated he had done nothing to cause the hatch to blow, and no definitive explanation for the incident was found.<ref name="nasabio" /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-dec-12-mn-43115-story.html|title=Liberty Bell 7 Yields Clues to Its Sinking|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=January 29, 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170327181316/http://articles.latimes.com/1999/dec/12/news/mn-43115|archive-date=March 27, 2017}}</ref> Robert F. Thompson, director of Mercury operations, was dispatched to {{USS|Randolph|CV-15|6}} by [[Space Task Group]] Director Robert Gilruth and spoke with Grissom upon his arrival on the aircraft carrier. Grissom explained that he had gotten ahead in the mission timeline and had removed the detonator cap, and also pulled the safety pin. Once the pin was removed, the trigger was no longer held in place and could have inadvertently fired as a result of ocean wave action, bobbing as a result of helicopter rotor wash, or other activity. NASA officials concluded Grissom had not necessarily initiated the firing of the explosive hatch, which would have required pressing a plunger that required five pounds of force to depress.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/11/with-every-splashdown-nasa-embraces-the-legacy-of-gus-grissom/|title=Gus Grissom taught NASA a hard lesson: 'You can hurt yourself in the ocean'|last=Berger|first=Eric|date=November 8, 2016|access-date=March 26, 2017|website=Ars Technica}}</ref> Hitting this metal trigger with the hand typically left a large bruise,{{sfn|French|Burgess|2007|p=93}} but Grissom was found not to have any of the telltale hand bruising.<ref name="nasabio" />

While the debate continued about the premature detonation of ''Liberty Bell 7'''s hatch bolts, precautions were initiated for subsequent flights. Fellow Mercury astronaut [[Wally Schirra]], at the end of his [[Mercury-Atlas 8|October 3, 1962, flight]], remained inside his spacecraft until it was safely aboard the recovery ship, and made a point of deliberately blowing the hatch to get out of the spacecraft, bruising his hand.<ref name="nasabio" /><ref>{{cite book|title=This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury|year=1966|author1=Alexander, C. C.|author2=Grimwood, J. M.|author3=Swenson, L. S. Jr.|publisher=NASA|page=484|chapter=Chapter 14: Climax of Project Mercury-The Textbook Flight|hdl = 2060/19670005605}} ([https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4201/ch14-4.htm HTML copy] Retrieved July 12, 2015)</ref>

Grissom's spacecraft was [[Mercury-Redstone 4#Recovery of Liberty Bell 7|recovered in 1999]], but no evidence was found that could conclusively explain how the explosive hatch release had occurred. Later, [[Guenter Wendt]], pad leader for the early American crewed space launches, wrote that he believed a small cover over the external release actuator was accidentally lost sometime during the flight or splashdown. Another possible explanation was that the hatch's T-handle may have been tugged by a stray parachute suspension line, or was perhaps damaged by the heat of re-entry, and after cooling upon splashdown it contracted and caught fire.<ref name="Ordinary Supermen" /><ref>{{Cite web | author = Banke, Jim | website = Space.com | title = Gus Grissom didn't sink the Liberty Bell 7 Mercury capsule | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101115142635/http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missions/liberty_bell_000617.html | archive-date = November 15, 2010 | url = http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missions/liberty_bell_000617.html | date = June 17, 2000 | access-date=February 11, 2023}}</ref> It has also been suggested that a static electricity discharge during initial contact between the spacecraft and the rescue helicopter may have caused the hatch's explosive bolts to blow. The co-pilot of the helicopter, U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant John Reinhard, had the job of using a cutting pole to snip off an antenna before the helicopter could latch onto the capsule. In the 1990s, he told a researcher that he remembered seeing an electric arc jump between the capsule and his pole right before the hatch blew.<ref>{{Cite web | author = Leopold, George | author2 = Saunders, Andy | date = July 21, 2021 | title = Did static electricity — not Gus Grissom — blow the hatch of the Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft? | url = https://astronomy.com/news/2021/07/did-static-electricity-blow-the-hatch-of-liberty-bell-7 | access-date = December 4, 2022 | website = Astronomy.com}}</ref> Jim Lewis, the pilot of Grissom's rescue helicopter, told ''[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian Magazine]]'' that closer inspection of film footage made him remember the day in better detail. He recalled that "Reinhard must have cut the antenna a mere second or two before I got us in a position for him to attach our harness to the capsule lifting bale," indicating that the timing of the helicopter's approach aligned with the static discharge theory.<ref>{{Cite web | author = Reichhardt, Tony | title = New Evidence Shows That Gus Grissom Did Not Accidentally Sink His Own Spacecraft 60 Years Ago | url = https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/new-evidence-shows-gus-grissom-did-not-accidentally-sink-his-own-spacecraft-sixty-years-ago-180978240/ | access-date = December 4, 2022 | website = Smithsonian Magazine}}</ref>

=== Project Gemini ===
{{Main|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 crewed [[Project Gemini]] flight, which flew on March 23, 1965.<ref name="nasabio" /> This mission made Grissom the first human and thus first [[NASA Astronaut Corps|NASA astronaut]] to fly into space twice.<ref>The first person to reach space twice was [[Joseph A. Walker]], a NASA [[test pilot]] who made two [[X-15]] flights in 1963 which exceeded {{convert|100|km|nmi|sp=us}} altitude, the internationally recognized definition of outer space.</ref> The two-man flight on Gemini 3 with Grissom and [[John Young (astronaut)|John W. Young]] made three revolutions of the Earth and lasted for 4 hours, 52 minutes and 31 seconds.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.astronautsmemorial.org/virgil-ldquogusrdquo-grissom-honored.html|title=Virgil "Gus" Grissom Honored|publisher=Astronaut Memorial Foundation|access-date=May 4, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706011157/http://www.astronautsmemorial.org/virgil-ldquogusrdquo-grissom-honored.html|archive-date=July 6, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> Grissom was one of the eight pilots of the NASA [[NASA Paresev|paraglider research vehicle]] (Paresev).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/Paresev/HTML/index.html|title=Photo Paresev Contact Sheet|access-date=November 28, 2016|website=NASA Dryden Flight Research Center}}</ref>

Grissom, the shortest of the original seven astronauts at five feet seven inches tall, worked very closely with the engineers and technicians from [[McDonnell Aircraft]] who built the Gemini spacecraft. Because of his involvement in the design of the first three spacecraft, his fellow astronauts humorously referred to the craft as "the Gusmobile". By July 1963 NASA discovered 14 out of its 16 astronauts could not fit themselves into the cabin and the later cockpits were modified.{{sfn|Boomhower|2004|p=100}}<ref>{{cite book|title=On the Shoulders of Titans: A History of Project Gemini|url=http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4203/ch10-2.htm|first=Barton C.|last=Hacker|author2=James M. Grimwood|year=1977|access-date=January 23, 2008|publisher=NASA Special Publications|series=NASA History Series #4203|archive-date=November 30, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071130070830/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4203/ch10-2.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> During this time Grissom invented the multi-axis [[translation (physics)|translation]] thruster controller used to push the Gemini and Apollo spacecraft in linear directions for [[space rendezvous|rendezvous and docking]].<ref>{{Citation|last=Agle|first=D.C.|title=Flying the Gusmobile|journal=Air & Space|publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]]|date=September 1, 1998|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/flying-the-gusmobile-218187/}}</ref>

In a joking nod to the sinking of his Mercury craft, Grissom named the first Gemini spacecraft ''[[Margaret Brown|Molly Brown]]'' (after the popular Broadway show, ''[[The Unsinkable Molly Brown (musical)|The Unsinkable Molly Brown]]'').<ref name="nasabio" /> Some NASA publicity officials were unhappy with this name and asked Grissom and his pilot, [[John Young (astronaut)|John Young]], to come up with a new one. When they offered ''Titanic'' as an alternate,<ref name="nasabio" /> NASA executives decided to allow them to use the name of ''Molly Brown'' for Gemini 3, but did not use it in official references. Much to the agency's chagrin, [[Capsule communicator|CAPCOM]] [[Gordon Cooper]] gave Gemini 3 its sendoff on launch with the remark to Grissom and Young, "You're on your way, ''Molly Brown''!" Ground controllers also used it to refer to the spacecraft throughout its flight.{{sfn|Shayler|2001|p=186}}

After the safe return of Gemini 3, NASA announced new spacecraft would not be nicknamed. Hence, [[Gemini 4]] was not called ''American Eagle'' as its crew had planned. The practice of nicknaming spacecraft resumed in 1967, when managers realized that the [[Apollo Program|Apollo]] flights needed a name for each of two flight elements, the [[Apollo Command/Service Module|Command Module]] (CSM) and the [[Apollo Lunar Module|Lunar Module]]. Lobbying by the astronauts and senior NASA administrators also had an effect. [[Apollo 9]] used the name ''Gumdrop'' for the Command Module and ''Spider'' for the Lunar Module.{{sfn|Collins|2001|pp=138–139}} However, Wally Schirra was prevented from naming his [[Apollo 7]] spacecraft ''Phoenix'' in honor of the [[Apollo 1]] crew because some believed that its nickname as a metaphor for "fire" might be misunderstood.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-101514a-apollo7-phoenix-mission-patch.html|title=Alternate Apollo 7: Astronaut's anniversary patch recalls 'Flight of the Phoenix'|access-date=May 31, 2017|publisher=collectSPACE}}</ref>

=== Apollo program ===
Grissom was backup command pilot for [[Gemini 6A]] when he was transferred to the [[Apollo program]] and was assigned as commander of the first crewed mission, [[Apollo 1|AS-204]], with Senior Pilot [[Ed White (astronaut)|Ed White]], who had flown in space on the Gemini 4 mission, when he became the first American to make a [[Extravehicular activity|spacewalk]], and Pilot [[Roger B. Chaffee]].<ref name="nasabio" /> The three men were granted permission to refer to their flight as "Apollo 1" on their mission insignia patch.
[[File:Apollo 1 Prime Crew - GPN-2000-001159.jpg|thumb|290x290px|Grissom with the [[Apollo 1]] crew in 1966]]
Problems with the simulator proved extremely annoying to Grissom, who told a reporter the problems with Apollo 1 came "in bushelfuls" and that he was skeptical of its chances to complete its fourteen-day mission.{{sfn|Boomhower|2004|p=293}}  Grissom earned the nickname "Gruff Gus" by being outspoken about the technical deficiencies of the spacecraft.{{sfn|Burgess|Doolan|Vis|2008|p=82}} The engineers who programmed the Apollo training simulator had a difficult time keeping the simulator in sync with the continuous changes being made to the spacecraft. According to backup astronaut [[Walter Cunningham]], "We knew that the spacecraft was, you know, in poor shape relative to what it ought to be. We felt like we could fly it, but let's face it, it just wasn't as good as it should have been for the job of flying the first crewed Apollo mission."<ref name="nasabio" />

NASA pressed on. In mid-January 1967, "preparations were being made for the final pre-flight tests of Spacecraft 012."<ref name="nasabio" /> On January 22, 1967, before returning to [[Cape Canaveral Air Force Station|Cape Kennedy]] to conduct the January 27 plugs-out test that ended his life, Grissom's wife, Betty, later recalled that he took a lemon from a tree in his back yard and explained that he intended to hang it on that spacecraft, although he actually hung the lemon on the simulator (a duplicate of the Apollo spacecraft).{{sfn|Boomhower|2004|p=290}}<ref name="chariots8-7">{{cite book|title=Chariots for Apollo|author1=Brooks|author2=Grimwood|author3=Swenson|year=1979|access-date=April 22, 2016|chapter=Preparations for the First Manned Apollo Mission|chapter-url=http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4205/ch8-7.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080209003722/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4205/contents.html|archive-date=February 9, 2008|url-status=live}}</ref>