They Shot for the Moon

Virgil "Gus" Grissom and astronaut rookie, Roger Chaffee died in the Apollo I fire along with Ed White.  Grissom was photographed while preparing for his mission aboard Gemini 3 which he dubbed "Molly Brown"  He was taking no chances after losing his Mercury capsule, "Liberty Bell" Seven, when it sank into fifteen thousand feet of ocean on July 21, 1961 after a 15-minute flight that took him 118.3 miles into space.  This was the only Gemini capsule that was named by its crew.  All the rest were simply known by their mission number.

Grisson's Mercury capsule was found some 300 miles off the Atlantic coast where it was recovered from the ocean floor July 20, 1999, 30 years to the day after Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon.  The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, Kansas was last known to be in possession of the capsule with plans to restore and exhibit Liberty Bell 7 in several cities before returning it to their museum for display.

The recovery team found the capsule to be in a remarkable state of preservation and the Mercury dimes Grissom had carried as momentos of his flight were found.  Jim Lewis, the helicopter pilot who tried to pull Liberty Bell 7 from the ocean 38 years ago was on hand to witness the recovery.  The original recovery line was still attached to the capsule.

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