Grissom flight successful; splashdown shrouded in mystery – Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

James Smith McDonnell, founder of Aircraft Corporation, speculated in May 1957 that humans would orbit the Earth by 1990 and attempt to land on the moon by 2010.

He apparently was unaware of the Soviet Unions secret space program. Five months later, the Soviets launched the first orbiting satellite, Sputnik, which stunned the world and rocketed the U.S. into a race for space. The U.S. responded with Explorer 1 in January 1958

Then, a few years later, after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth, the U.S. responded May 5, 1961, with a suborbital flight, Mercury Freedom 7, piloted by Alan Sheppard.

Not having accomplished two big firsts, President John F. Kennedy in a May 25, 1961, speech rallied the nation to aim for the moon literally and be the first to land astronauts there and safely return them home.

The U.S. responded enthusiastically. Throughout the 1960s, Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs would be in direct competition with the Soviets Vostok, Voshkod and Soyuz programs.

The U.S., now on a path to reach the moon, would on July 21, 1961, launch a second suborbital Mercury flight, Liberty Bell 7, piloted by Virgil I. Gus Grissom.

Grissom was a standout among the initial class of seven astronauts chosen for Mercury. But his early years were nondescript, his high school principal remembering him as average and unmotivated.

A series of unrewarding jobs motivated Grissom to enlist in the Air Force to pursue his interest as a test pilot. His distinguished military service and reputation for thoroughness earned him a shot at becoming an astronaut, and on April 13, 1959, he received word he was chosen to begin training.

Fiercely competitive, he hoped to pilot Freedom 7 but that prize went to Sheppard, and Grissom was picked to pilot the Liberty Bell 7 capsule on the MR-4 mission.

Although the Redstone rocket was the identical to the one used in the preceding mission, the capsule Grissom flew in was different. It had a larger window, modified instrument panel, and a side hatch that could be opened by an explosive charge.

The spacecraft reached and altitude of 118 miles and a 5-minute weightlessness period. The mission was successful, but after splashdown the hatch blew open prematurely and Grissom almost drowned. The capsule took too much water for the Marine helicopter to hold it and forced its release into the ocean 90 miles northeast of Grand Bahamas.

There was speculation that Grissom had triggered the explosive that prematurely opened the hatch. He acknowledged modifying the exit procedure, saying, I felt that I was in good condition at this point and started to prepare ... for egress. But he denied depressing the plunger designed to activate an explosive to open the hatch.

An independent technical review in late 1961 cast doubts on any theory that Grissom caused the explosion and noted that he showed no bruising from the plungers recoil. The controversy had no effect on his place in the astronaut flight rotation.

But tragically, Grissoms career would be cut short Jan. 27, 1967, when he and two other astronauts, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, died in fire during prelaunch testing for the Apollo 1.

On July 20, 1999, a Discovery Channel-funded search mission recovered Grissoms sunken Liberty Bell 7 from the Atlantic Ocean at depth greater than 15,000 feet. The hatch was never recovered, but inspection of the capsule found no special markings indicative of an explosion and noted the contents and condition consistent with long-term exposure to salt water and high pressures at the bottom of the sea.

In a separate evaluation, restoration experts for the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center discovered a buckled strip of titanium next to the hole where the hatch had been. The sill was also bowed by half an inch, the result of a great force, and there were no burn marks which would have been present had an explosive triggered opening the hatch.

The cause for the premature opening of the hatch remains a mystery, but evidence seems to support Grissoms claims.

Terry P. Bolt, call sign Woodsy, lives in Richmond, Va. She is a helicopter pilot, space travel enthusiast and holds a masters of science degree in information systems from Virginia Commonwealth University. She and former Walla Wallan Craig Dreher write the Space Tourists columns for the Union-Bulletin. Comments to them are welcome at spacewwub@gmail.com.

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Grissom flight successful; splashdown shrouded in mystery - Walla Walla Union-Bulletin