Grissom's widow heads home without space suit

Houston Chronicle ^ | Nov. 21, 2002 | Orlando Sentinel

[PAR35]

MELBOURNE, Fla. -- Gus Grissom's 75-year-old widow and eldest son retrieved the fallen astronaut's personal effects Wednesday from the Astronaut Hall of Fame.

Among the boxed items was the Stetson hat President Lyndon Johnson gave Grissom, the astronaut's logbook and the folded American flag from his funeral at Arlington National Cemetery.

But the artifact his widow and son wanted most -- Grissom's Mercury 7 spacesuit -- was still sealed in a glass case at the Titusville, Fla., museum when the pair headed home to Houston.

Although the Grissoms had the suit for nearly 30 years before loaning it to the museum a decade ago, NASA says it always has belonged to the government.

According to NASA, Gus Grissom borrowed the suit in the early 1960s and never returned it. His family said he took it because he had learned NASA planned to destroy it, a contention the space agency disputes.

"The suit will remain at the Hall of Fame until the ownership issue is resolved," said the Grissom's Melbourne attorney Jim Fallace. "We're hoping to find some way of resolving it other than litigation."

Fallace said NASA has been aware since 1965 that the family had the spacesuit.

"It never was an issue until September of this year when Betty Grissom refused to sign a new loan agreement" with the museum, he said.

That month, the once not-for-profit Hall of Fame was taken over by Delaware North Park Services, which also has a contract with NASA to run the visitor center tourist attraction at Kennedy Space Center.

The Grissoms, who have long blamed NASA for the Apollo 1 launch-pad fire that killed Gus Grissom, 41, and two other astronauts, said they didn't want the space agency making money off his artifacts.

"Betty Grissom also is concerned that the Astronaut Scholarship Fund is not getting sufficient money from the use of her husband's artifacts now," Fallace said.

The Grissoms had planned to confront NASA officials Tuesday outside the museum to demand the silver spacesuit. However, shortly before the planned meeting, Fallace asked that it be rescheduled for Wednesday morning at his office.

During the 1 1/2-hour meeting with NASA's chief counsel Bruce Anderson and a Delaware North representative, the personal items were returned, ownership of the suit was discussed and the family's lingering questions over the fire were heard, Scott Grissom said.

And, although they left town without the spacesuit, the Grissoms took with them something possibly more valuable.

"It was probably the first time since the fire we really had a positive conversation with NASA," he said. "My mom and I are very encouraged."

[PAR35]

"the once not-for-profit Hall of Fame was taken over by Delaware North Park Services, which also has a contract with NASA to run the visitor center tourist attraction at Kennedy Space Center. "

[E. Pluribus Unum]

"It never was an issue until September of this year when Betty Grissom refused to sign a new loan agreement" with the museum, he said.

If it was government property, why would they need a loan agreement?

This episode once again proves that no good deed goes unpunished.

[TX Bluebonnet]

Do they still have the spacesuits of the other astronauts that were with him on Mercury 7 or were they destroyed? That would pretty much settle the issue in my mind.

[dead]

The suit belongs to whomever paid to build it.

(I'm betting it wasn't Betty Grissom.)

[jaw1964a]

They want to keep the suit to keep Betty Grissom from proving that Gus didn't hit the 'chicken switch' and blow the hatch on Liberty Bell 7. Evidently, one triggered the hatch by pushing the button with the elbow, and always the resulting backblow from the button left a bruise on the arm and tore the suit. I can't believe that an experienced test pilot would make such a rookie mistake.

[mgstarr]

Rest in peace Gus.

[PAR35]

Good question. We know Grissom's is at the Florida location. Glenn's is in the Smithsonian in DC. Sheppard's is/was on display in Houston. One of the 7 didn't make a Mercury flight. Schirra's is in San Diego. That leaves 2 still unaccounted for

http://www.chron.com/content/interactive/space/missions/sts-095/stories/mission/981030b.html

October 29, 1998, 06:11 p.m.

"On display at Space Center Houston are many artifacts from Glenn's own collection, such as the NASA flight suit he wore while an astronaut from 1959 to 1965 and the ID badge with "Mercury Astronaut" typed onto it like a crude early driver's license.

All that's missing is the actual spacesuit Glenn wore while flying America's first manned orbital mission aboard Friendship 7 Feb. 20, 1962. That suit is in the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

However, an almost identical silvery spacesuit worn by the late Alan Shepard on his suborbital Mercury flight -- America's first manned mission -- is shown with Glenn's artifacts. Shepard's suit is part of Space Center Houston's permanent collection. "

http://www.aerospacemuseum.org/2002newWEB/Exhibits/Exhibits.html

The Museum's collection of spacecraft and and artifacts, including Wally Schirra's spacesuit

[Redleg Duke]

Deke Slaton from my home state of Wisconsin was grounded due to a heart murmur. He had a long and distiguished career and finally made it to space on the shuttle, I believe.

[job]

her husband, Gus Grissom burned up in a rocket, while working for the US. You don't think she paid enough for the suit? pinhead!

[virgil]

Its interesting that after all this time Mrs. Grissom still has unanswered questions about the fire. Have you ever read the account of events that occurred leading up to the fire? Last I know, the account is on the NASA website. There is also a kind of failure analysis summary. Its very interesting. There were a lot of QC problems with the capsule...defects etc. Too many I think. Wasn't the command module/service module made by McDonnell-Douglas?

[dead]

Why don't you throw in the space shuttle to boot, doofus?

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[archy]

That leaves 2 still unaccounted for.

There's one at the Virgil *Gus* Grissom Memorial Museum at Spring Mill state Park in Indiana, near Grissom's Mitchell, Indiana boyhood home. The actual Gemini III space capsule is also on display at the modest but impressive Hoosier tribute.

I believe the Pima Air Museum in Arizona has the other Mercury astronaut suit.

[archy]

The Magnificent Seven:

[archy]

the once not-for-profit Hall of Fame was taken over by Delaware North Park Services, which also has a contract with NASA to run the visitor center tourist attraction at Kennedy Space Center. "

More on Delaware North, previously known as *Emprise*, and their interesting business practices, including the bombing murder of Phoenix investigative reporter Don Bolles *here.*

-archy-/-

[bonesmccoy]

In your last posting, you mentioned the space suits of Al Sheppard, Gus Grissom, John Glenn, and Wally Schirra.

The three others were Deke Slayton (who got grounded), Malcolm Scott Carpenter, and Gordon Cooper.

Someone would have to locate Gordo's and Scott Carpenter's stuff.

[poindexter]

>>Deke Slaton from my home state of Wisconsin was grounded due to a heart murmur. He had a long and distiguished career and finally made it to space on the shuttle, I believe.

Close. It was Apollo-Suyuz.

[Pyro7480]

Deke Slayton made his only spaceflight on the Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975.

[poindexter]

"Wasn't the command module/service module made by McDonnell-Douglas?"

Rockwell built the command module, the service module, and the Saturn V second stage. Harrison Storms lost his job over Appolo I.

Grumman built the lunar module. I don't remember who built the S4-B.

Greg

[Lancey Howard]

How long before the shuttles have "NEXTEL" or "TACO BELL" painted across their sides?