Gus Grissom
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in SpaceSixty Years On, America Remembers the Achievements, Sacrifice of the Mercury Seven
Best known as the residence of the fourth First Lady of the United States, on this day in 1959 the Dolley Madison House, opposite Lafayette Park in downtown Washington, D.C., provided the setting for the introduction of the United States’ first group of astronauts: the long-awaited “Mercury Seven”. Sixty years later, the names of Scott […] More
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in Apollo, Space, Apollo 1, Gus Grissom
‘Isn’t That Enough?’ Remembering Grissom, White and Chaffee, Fallen Crew of Apollo 1
At 6:31 p.m. EST on Friday, 27 January 1967—52 years ago, tonight—as darkness fell over Cape Kennedy in Florida, one of the worst disasters ever to befall America’s space program unfolded with horrifying suddenness. Out at the Cape’s Pad 34 sat a two-stage Saturn IB booster, capped with the Command and Service Module (CSM) for […] More
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in NASA, Space, astronaut, space shuttleRemembering John Young, an ‘Astronaut’s Astronaut’, Gone at Age 87
John Young, one of only 12 humans to have walked the dusty surface of the Moon, one of only three of mankind’s sons to have traveled twice to lunar distance, the only astronaut to fly aboard Gemini, Apollo and the Space Shuttle, and the first person to record six space missions, has died, aged 87. […] More
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In Dire Peril: 55 Years Since the Troubled Mission of Aurora 7 (Part 2)
Fifty-five years ago, this week, Scott Carpenter became America’s second man in orbit. Aboard Mercury-Atlas (MA)-7—a spacecraft which he had dubbed “Aurora 7”—the astronaut was tasked with the most comprehensive program of scientific research yet seen on a piloted mission: astronomical observations, visibility and flying evaluations and medical checks. Sadly, as outlined in yesterday’s AmericaSpace […] More
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in NASA, Space, John Glenn, Mercury Program‘Zero-G and I Feel Fine’: Remembering John Glenn’s Mercury Flight (Part 1)
Two months after his death, aged 95, Monday will be a somber date for America’s human space program, as the 55th anniversary of John Glenn’s pioneering flight aboard Friendship 7—during which he became the first U.S. citizen in history to orbit the globe—passes without him. Glenn’s four hours and 55 minutes spent inside that tiny […] More
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Grissom, White, and Chaffee: On 50th Anniversary of Apollo 1 Fire, America Remembers
At 6:31 p.m. EST on Friday, 27 January 1967, as night fell over Cape Kennedy in Florida, one of the worst disasters ever to befall America’s space program unfolded with horrifying suddenness. Out at the Cape’s Pad 34 sat a two-stage Saturn IB booster, capped with the Command and Service Module (CSM) for Apollo 1. […] More
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in Space, astronaut, Gus Grissom‘Worst Day’: Remembering the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 1 (Part 2)
In the windowless blockhouse at Pad 34 at Cape Kennedy, Deke Slayton heard the call of “rookie” astronaut Roger Chaffee and glanced over to a monitor which showed the hatch window of the Apollo 1 Command Module (CM). It was Friday, 27 January 1967, and Chaffee and his crewmates—Command Pilot Virgil “Gus” Grissom and Senior […] More
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in Space, astronaut, Gus Grissom
‘Fire in the Cockpit’: Remembering the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 1 (Part 1)
Five decades ago, this month, one of the worst tragedies in the history of U.S. space exploration unfolded with horrifying suddenness on Pad 34 at Cape Kennedy in Florida. “The Fire”—as it became infamously known—tore through the Command Module (CM) of the Apollo 1 spacecraft, during a “plugs-out” ground systems test on the evening of […] More
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‘The Next Mission in the Schedule’: 50 Years Since Apollo Took Steps to the Moon (Part 1)
Nearly five decades have passed since astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee lost their lives aboard Apollo 1, during a “plugs-out” ground test atop their Saturn IB booster at Cape Kennedy’s Pad 34. In just a few terrible moments on the evening of 27 January 1967, America’s hopes of landing a man on […] More
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The ‘No Sense’ Mission: 50 Years Since the Rise and Fall of Apollo 2 (Part 2)
It is rare to find a space mission which was born, thrived, and ended within a matter of weeks; a mission whose crew never left Earth, lived to tell the tale, and went on to fly another mission which sowed the seeds for the grandest scientific endeavor ever undertaken in human history. Yet that is […] More
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The ‘No Sense’ Mission: 50 Years Since the Rise and Fall of Apollo 2 (Part 1)
Fifty years ago, this month, a space mission which even its commander—veteran Mercury and Gemini astronaut Wally Schirra—described as having “no sense” was born, thrived and breathed its last, in the final weeks before the catastrophic Apollo 1 fire. Schirra was right: for had it taken place, the Apollo 2 mission, crewed by himself and […] More
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in NASA, Space, Gus Grissom, Mercury Program‘The First Thing I Had Ever Lost’: 55 Years Since Gus Grissom’s Flight in the Liberty Bell (Part 2)
Fifty-five years ago, a small, tough, ex-fighter pilot named Virgil “Gus” Grissom became America’s second man in space … and almost lost his life in a watery demise at its conclusion. As described in yesterday’s AmericaSpace article, he had grown up with a determination to be the best and by April 1959 was selected as […] More
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