The second US mission to space went to Grissom, however. Ultimately all of the Americans lost out to Yuri Gagarin, but Shepard claimed the US honor. By early 1961 he, Shepard, and Glenn had emerged as the frontrunners for the coveted first flight. Among the group, Grissom distinguished himself by working hard (and partying hard). They were all hotshot test pilots, determined to become the first human to fly in space. Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom was the second youngest of the Mercury Seven astronauts NASA announced to the world on April 9, 1959. “Let me tell you, you can hurt yourself in the ocean.” “This I did not do” “Water is a great place to land in, but it’s a hell of a place post-landing,” Thompson told Ars.
Yet after an all-too-brief career that ended tragically in the 1967 Apollo 1 fire, Grissom deserves recognition not as an unlucky footnote but as a genuine hero. And for today’s astronauts, Grissom's near-death experience in the Atlantic Ocean has renewed importance, offering a sobering reminder of the sea's peril as NASA plans to return its Orion capsule from deep space again by way of the ocean. Shepard has the honor of the first US spaceflight, John Glenn made the first orbital flight, and Neil Armstrong stepped on the Moon. More than half a century later, Grissom’s name has faded from memory. Such an accident early in NASA's space program could have given President Kennedy pause over the country’s nascent Moon-landing ambitions at a time when the US lagged badly behind the Soviet Union. He reacted decisively in an uncertain situation when otherwise this mission would have ended in death. From these measured accounts, Grissom emerges as a quick-thinking hero.
#SHIP SINKING SIMULATOR 2 WATER WEIGHT MOVIE#
Some renditions of it, including the famous The Right Stuff novel and movie from Tom Wolfe, portray Grissom as “screwing the pooch.” Such accounts argue that the astronaut panicked and fired his hatch before it was time, essentially inviting the water in.īut a new book by author George Leopold about Grissom’s life- Calculated Risk: The Supersonic Life and Times of Gus Grissom-and a recent interview with the head of NASA’s recovery options for the Mercury program, Bob Thompson, dispels that fiction. This incident has gone down in history amid controversy. He struggled for five minutes to remain above the churning waves even as his spacesuit, already 22 pounds when dry, filled with water.
#SHIP SINKING SIMULATOR 2 WATER WEIGHT FREE#
The astronaut responded by jumping free of the Liberty Bell 7 capsule. It was July 21, 1961, toward the end of the second Mercury mission, and the hatch to Grissom's spacecraft blew early. At that moment, Gus Grissom almost drowned.įurther Reading A Cold War mystery: Why did Jimmy Carter save the space shuttle? Only it wasn't flawless, nor was it closed. After the small Mercury capsule’s parachutes deployed, Grissom splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean, seemingly bringing a flawless mission to a close.
A mere 10 weeks after Alan Shepard made America’s first human flight into space, Grissom followed with the second one, a 15-minute suborbital hop that took him to an altitude of 189km above the blue planet. Gus Grissom had just entered the history books. This story first published on November 8, 2016, and it appears unchanged below. This overlooked event has its 60th anniversary next Wednesday, and as such we're resurfacing Space Editor Eric Berger's examination of Grissom's landing from the Ars archives. The lessons NASA learned that day and in the following weeks undoubtedly changed the course of human spaceflight. But back on July 21, 1961, another pivotal moment in the evolution of human spaceflight took place when Gus Grissom splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean within a small Mercury capsule-almost drowning in the process. Update, July 17, 2021: When it comes to NASA history, July 21 may not have the same significance as July 20, the date when Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in 1969.
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