Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Grissom's widow heads home without space suit
Houston Chronicle ^ | Nov. 21, 2002 | Orlando Sentinel

Posted on 11/21/2002 1:37:48 PM PST by PAR35

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-53 last
To: Paleo Conservative

"Do they still have the spacesuits of the other astronauts that were with him on Mercury 7"
No!


41 posted on 02/12/2005 3:20:58 PM PST by BellStar (Pray for our heroes...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: KneelBeforeZod
that necklace of VC ears

Gov't property or not? Could be argued.

42 posted on 02/12/2005 3:24:05 PM PST by RightWhale (Please correct if cosmic balance requires.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: PAR35

I vaguely recall looking up info on that company once. There's something about it that bothered me, but I'd have to look it up again. Maybe it is a RAT-related company??????? Maybe not.


43 posted on 02/12/2005 3:31:14 PM PST by petitfour
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PAR35

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.



Wouldn't the suit he was wearing at his death have been fire damaged? Is this one damaged? I don't mean to appear dense, but I'm not understanding this. How could he have taken it home with him and then died in it at Kennedy? There must have been two suits. A proto-type maybe?


44 posted on 02/12/2005 3:48:35 PM PST by kalee (Kalee's Tinfoil Bonnets, purveyor of stylish tinfoil bonnets since 2000)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kalee
Wouldn't the suit he was wearing at his death have been fire damaged? Is this one damaged? I don't mean to appear dense, but I'm not understanding this. How could he have taken it home with him and then died in it at Kennedy? There must have been two suits. A proto-type maybe?

This was his suit from the Mercury flight - a suborbital 15 minute flight in 1961 that traveled only some 300 miles down range.

The Apollo program used an entirely different kind of equipment. The fire was in 1967, 5 and 1/2 years after the suit in question was used.

If anything, the suit would have shown the effects of immersion in water. Grissom's flight was the one where the hatch blew before it was supposed to, the capsule sank, and Grissom almost drowned.

45 posted on 02/12/2005 4:15:03 PM PST by PAR35
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: petitfour
I vaguely recall looking up info on that company once. There's something about it that bothered me, but I'd have to look it up again. Maybe it is a RAT-related company??????? Maybe not.

Sorry, I can't add any light to the subject. I probably posted this when I was involved in several (at the time) ongoing discussions about contracting out of government services.

46 posted on 02/12/2005 4:17:53 PM PST by PAR35
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: PAR35

Hah! I did not even see when you posted this story. I probably read this way back when and looked it up at the time.


47 posted on 02/12/2005 4:24:10 PM PST by petitfour
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: PAR35

thanks for the explanation.


48 posted on 02/12/2005 4:24:28 PM PST by kalee (Kalee's Tinfoil Bonnets, purveyor of stylish tinfoil bonnets since 2000)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: BellStar
"Do they still have the spacesuits of the other astronauts that were with him on Mercury 7"
No!

Are you sure about that? According to one web site, the Alan Shepard suit is at NASA in Houston. They put the Glenn and Cooper suits at the Air and Space Museum in DC, and Schirra's at the museum in Kansas.
http://aesp.nasa.okstate.edu/fieldguide/pages/spacesuit/

This site also shows the John Glenn suit at the National Air & Space Museum, as well as at least one other Mercury suit.
http://www.nasm.si.edu/collections/space/space.html

The first site also shows NASA with several other astronaut suits from the Mercury program.

49 posted on 02/12/2005 4:36:11 PM PST by PAR35
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: PAR35
Betty Grissom has always had a prickly relationship with NASA, even before the 1967 fire that killed Gus. She wrote a book called Starfall in the '70s that was very critical of NASA. Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff has a chapter on the suborbital flight of Liberty Bell 7 that gives some good background on this as well.

IIRC, Liberty Bell 7 was raised from the Atlantic Ocean a couple of years ago, but the hatch could not be located.

50 posted on 02/12/2005 4:50:29 PM PST by IndyTiger
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Search4Truth
Common decency demands giving away government property? Everytime a police officer dies on duty should the spouse get his or her patrol car? It's because the suit belongs to we, the taxpayers that no one has the right to give it away.
51 posted on 08/12/2007 2:54:43 PM PDT by JonnyRelentless
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: nnn0jeh

ping


52 posted on 08/12/2007 2:59:54 PM PDT by kalee (The offenses we give, we write in the dust; Those we take, we write in marble. JHuett)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jaw1964a

Gus Grissom didn’t sink the Liberty Bell 7 Mercury capsule
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missions/liberty_bell_000617.html

“Following the splashdown of “Liberty Bell 7”, the hatch, which had explosive bolts, blew off prematurely, letting water into the capsule and into Grissom’s suit. Grissom nearly drowned but was rescued by helicopter, while the spacecraft sank in deep water. Grissom maintained he did nothing to set off the explosives to blow the hatch, and NASA officials agreed. The craft was recovered in 1999 but there was no evidence of how the hatch had been opened. However, later experience showed that the force necessary to trigger the initiator for the explosive egress system would leave a major bruise, and Grissom had no such injury. Guenter Wendt, “Pad Fuhrer” for most of the early American space launches, believes that the cover protecting the external release actuator was accidentally lost, then the T-handle may have been pulled by a parachute shroud line, or have been damaged by the heat of re-entry and fired when it contracted during cooling.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gus_Grissom


53 posted on 08/12/2007 3:05:02 PM PDT by Rb ver. 2.0 (eHarmony reject)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-53 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson