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| Gus Grissom launch aboard Liberty Bell 7-- fifty years ago today! |
Fifty years ago today, America flung its' second astronaut into space. At this point in history, only one astronaut could fly at a time, and Gus Grissom was thrilled to be finally going into space. Just two months previous to Grissoms' flight, America had launched Alan Shepard--their first astronaut in space. Now it was Grissom's turn, and his flight plan was to basically repeat Shepard's performance. While Shepard had called his capsule "Freedom 7", Grissom referred to his as "Liberty Bell 7", even painting a crack down the side of the capsule!
July 21, 1961. 7:20am. The Redstone booster came alive, rocketing Grissom into space on his 15-minute, sub-orbital flight. Everything went as planned until the recovery, when Liberty Bell 7 malfunctioned and started taking on thousands of pounds' worth of water. Grissom swam out of the capsule, trying disparately to get the attention of the recovery helicopter, which at the moment seemed more interested in recovering the capsule! Finally the helicopter let go of Liberty Bell 7, and the capsule sunk to the bottom of the sea. Finally focusing on the astronaut, the helicopter soon had him on board the ship and America's second venture into space was (barely) successful.
I must say, I think it's rather cool that on the day that the final space shuttle lands, fifty years ago Gus Grissom flew! Click here for a really cool interactive feature on Grissom's flight, and to learn more about Liberty Bell 7 in general.
~Photobug
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