Virgil I. (Gus) Grissom [NASA]
Virgil Ivan ("Gus") Grissom (Lieutenant Colonel, USAF)
Born 3 April 1926, in Mitchell., Indiana. Died 27 January 1967, at NASA Kennedy Space Center, Florida, in the Apollo spacecraft fire. He is survived by his wife Betty and their two children.
Graduated from Mitchell High School; received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University.
Member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.
Posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with cluster for his Korean service, two NASA Distinguished Service medals and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal; the Air Force Command Astronaut Wings.
Grissom, an Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, received his wings in March 1951. He flew 100
combat missions in Korea in F-86s with the 334th Fighter Interceptor Squadron and, upon
returning to the United States in 1952, 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. He attended the Test Pilot School at
Edwards Air Force Base, California, in October 1956 and returned to Wright-Patterson in
May 1957 as a test pilot assigned to the fighter branch.
He has logged 4,600 hours flying time–3,500 hours in jet aircraft.
Grissom was one of the seven Mercury astronauts selected by NASA in April 1959. He
piloted the Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft -- the second and final suborbital Mercury
test flight -- on 21 July 1961. This flight lasted 15 minutes and 37seconds, attained an
altitude of 118 statute miles, and traveled 302 miles downrange from the launch pad at
Cape Kennedy.
On 23 March 1965, he served as command pilot on the first crewed Gemini flight, A 3-orbit
mission during which the crew accomplished the first orbital trajectory modifications and
the first lifting reentry of a crewed spacecraft. Subsequent to this assignment, he served
as backup command pilot for Gemini 6.
Grissom was named to serve as command pilot for the AS-204 mission, the first 3-man Apollo
flight
Lieutenant Colonel Grissom died on 27 January 1967, in the Apollo spacecraft flash fire
during a launch pad test at Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
# | Mission | Function | Launch | Landing | Duration | Remarks: |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Mercury MR-4 | Commander | 21.07.1961 | 21.07.1961 | 0000:00:15 | Suborbital |
2 | Gemini 3 | Commander | 23.03.1965 | 23.03.1965 | 0000:04:52 | |
- | Apollo 1 | Commander | --- | --- | --- | Killed during launch rehearsal |
Total: | 0000:05:07 |