Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom ~ April 3, 1926 - January 27, 1967

Gus Grissom, air force pilot, test pilot, and astronaut, died tragically in 1967.

Grissom was a member of the Mercury 7, the first group of NASA astronauts. He was the second American to fly in space and the first NASA astronaut to go to space twice. And sadly, he was the first Mercury astronaut to die.

 We've visited his museums, boyhood home, gravesite, and other places holding Grissom memorabilia. 

This is his boyhood home in Mitchell, Indiana (715 W. Grissom Avenue).

The Grissom Rocket Monument was built on the site where Grissom attended school (407 S. 6th St, Mitchell, Indiana).

Also in Mitchell, Indiana, is the Virgil I. Grissom Memorial Museum (3333 IN-60 in Spring Mill State Park). It holds many artifacts, including the Gemini 3 capsule, the Molly Brown.

There is a lot to see at the Grissom Air Museum located at the Grissom Air Reserve Base in Peru, Indiana, but we concentrated on the items pertaining to Gus.

The Mercury 7 and the New Nine.

John Young, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Thomas Stafford suited up for their Gemini flights.

John Young and Gus Grissom

Photo of Apollo 1 capsule after the deadly fire.

Ed White, Gus Grissom, Roger B Chaffee, crew of the fateful Apollo 1.

There's an outdoor viewing platform for a great view of the base.

There is a small space museum in Bonne Terre, Missouri, called The Space Museum and Grissom Center (118 E. School St.).

In 2017, the Liberty Bell was on loan from the Cosmosphere in Kansas to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis so we took a trip down to see it. It was the second Mercury flight and after re-entry, the door blew open, Grissom almost drowned, and the capsule sank. For many years, Grissom was accused of panicking and blowing the door open prematurely. Being the seasoned pilot he was, this was unlikely but he had to live this down the rest of his life. The capsule was recovered in 1999, long after his death.

Frankenmuth, Michigan, has a Michigan Heroes Museum (1250 Weiss St) where the Apollo 1 mission is remembered because Roger B Chaffee was from Michigan.

Sometime later we made a trip to the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas, where the Liberty Bell had not yet returned.

In 2017, we visited the Kennedy Space Center where 50 years after the Apollo 1 fire, the center put the hatch doors on display. The astronauts, Grissom, White, and Chaffee were sitting in the capsule on the launch pad for pre-launch testing in 1967. A fire broke out and all three were asphyxiated before they could get out of the capsule.

The Space Center has a memorial to those who lost their lives in service to flight 😢

Our final Grissom site was visiting his humble grave in Arlington National Cemetery in 2024. It's not on the tram tour and it is a long walk up a hill. We were honored to pay our respects.

RIP Gus Grissom.

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