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."

[foreverfree]

The Magnificent Seven:

Looks like a two-bit rock group's group photo. :-)

foreverfree

[RIGHT IN SEATTLE]

.10 Shylock, (a lousy one at that),

could get the NASA suit,

"that didn't save his life!",

in a nanosecond!!!!!!!

[TLI]

Dang, I only remember watching all the launches live, I think we got to play hooky from 1-2 grade or maybe I was not in school yet. I remember thinking nothing bad would happen, I "knew" that they would be sucessful on the manned flights. Don't know why I "knew" it... I just did. Interesting... well to me it was interesting.

[RightOnline]

"Do they still have the spacesuits of the other astronauts that were with him on Mercury 7 or were they destroyed?"

Ummm...........that would be Apollo 1. Mercury missions had one crewmember, Gemini missions had two, Apollo had three. Grissom, White, and Chafee all died in the fire on the launchpad during preflight of Apollo 1.

[RightOnline]

"Looks like a two-bit rock group's group photo. :-)"

Try showing a little more respect. No............a hell of a lot more respect.

[foreverfree]

Try showing a little more respect. No............a hell of a lot more respect.Just being objective. Sorry if you were offended or are not amused.

foreverfree

[Slyfox]

...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.

I remember going to the Johnson Space Center in, I think, 1975, when the probe had landed on Mars and was sending pictures back to Earth. Johnson had a relaxed atmosphere back then and I spent the whole day bumming around the place. They were showing the live feed from Mars in the auditorium. All of the diplays were like walking into a high school science classroom. I thought it was really neat. But, the most memorable thing for me was a display sitting on a table in the corner of an out-of-the-way-room which featured a posterboard version of something called a 'Space Shuttle'. It was just like a science fair project, complete with a hand-drawn picture of a 747 designed to piggyback it into the stratosphere.

Those scientist's patched together display's at NASA were much more interesting than the 'Disney-ized' setup.

[Search4Truth]

This is outrageous and disgraceful. Have these people no shame what-so-ever? Where has common human decency gone? This woman's husband made the ultimate sacrifice for his country. Could they at least make this gesture as a token of our countries gratitude. We, the tax payers, paid for the damn suit anyway. Give it to her for Christ's sake. Is this how we encourage the heroes of the future? I'm so mad I could spit.

Sure would like to know the names and the e-mail addys of those who made this stupid decision. A major Freep may be in order here. The slimy little bastads.

[KneelBeforeZod]

I wonder if this means, by extrapolation, that my dad needs to give back that necklace of VC ears...

[Search4Truth]

LOL.

I forwarded this article to Bill O'Reilly. If it sticks in his craw there will be hell to pay.

[PAR35]

The "Mercury 7" was how they referred to the whole group. Each flight had a name, also ending in 7. Liberty Bell 7 (Grissom), Freedom 7 (Shepard), Friendship 7 (Glenn). There were 6 Mercury 7 flights.

[PAR35]

Archy gets the prize - see post 13.

[RightOnline]

Yes, I know. I thought the poster was mistakenly referring to the mission number of the tragic fire.

[PAR35]

I should have checked your profile before I responded. I thought maybe you were a youngster that learned it all from a history book, but you are old enough to remember the TV coverage, and you probably got a dose of it in the AFA. Sorry if I came across as "talking down" to you.

[RightOnline]

No sweat. :)

[stationkeeper]

Not the Shuttle, but the joint Apollo/Soyuz "Detente" mission.

[stationkeeper]

The Mercury and Gemini were both built by M-D but the Apollo CSM was built by North American. Since this was their first foray as the prime contractor they had some serious QC problems that resulted in the pad fire that killed Grissom/White/Chafee.
One of the results of the fire, aside from a top to bottom design review of the CSM, was that NASA (at the behest of the astronauts) forced North Ameican to hire Gunther Wendt from Mcdonnel Douglas. Gunther Wendt was the white room manager for the mercury and gemini launches and a real stickler for detail when it came to pad and crew safety.
many of the astronauts believe that if Wendt had been in the white room that day in january, those three astronauts would not have died because the test would have been scubbed.
grissom kept complaining of a "funny,sour" smell in the o2 that was coming into their suits. That, plus all the COM glitches (which they think were electrical related and thus the source of the ignition source) should have set off alarm bells to the North American pad crew who were present that evening.

[Redleg Duke]

Thanks for the correction. He was a fine American.

[Paleo Conservative]

His family said he took it because he had learned NASA planned to destroy it, a contention the space agency disputes.

Do they still have the spacesuits of the other astronauts that were with him on Mercury 7 or were they destroyed?

Perhaps they are missing tin-foil hats?

[bonesmccoy]

Hind sight is 20/20. You can say the same about the launch of 51-L.

Also, you forget that Gus had a problem with the hatch design because of the loss of Liberty Bell 7.

Say, where is Liberty Bell 7? Do they have it on display now?