72 Facts About Gus Grissom

Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom was an American engineer, pilot in the United States Air Force, and member of the Mercury Seven selected by National Aeronautics and Space Administration's as Project Mercury astronauts to be the first Americans in outer space.

Gus Grissom was a Project Gemini and an Apollo program astronaut.

Gus Grissom was the second American to fly in space twice, preceded only by Joe Walker with his sub-orbital X-15 flights.

Gus Grissom was a World War II and Korean War veteran, mechanical engineer, and USAF test pilot.

Gus Grissom was a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with an oak leaf cluster, two NASA Distinguished Service Medals, and, posthumously, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Gus Grissom was followed by three younger siblings: a sister, Wilma, and two brothers, Norman and Lowell.

Gus Grissom received his nickname when his friend was reading his name on a scorecard upside down and misread "Griss" as "Gus".

Gus Grissom joined the local Boy Scout Troop and earned the rank of Star Scout.

Gus Grissom credited the Scouts for his love of hunting and fishing.

Gus Grissom was the leader of the honor guard in his troop.

Gus Grissom worked at a local meat market, a service station, and a clothing store in Mitchell.

Gus Grissom wanted to play varsity basketball but he was too short.

Gus Grissom's father encouraged him to find sports he was more suited for, and he joined the swimming team.

World War II began while Gus Grissom was still in high school, but he was eager to join the armed services upon graduation.

Gus Grissom enlisted as an aviation cadet in the US Army Air Forces during his senior year in high school, and completed an entrance exam in November 1943.

Gus Grissom was sent to Sheppard Field in Wichita Falls, Texas, for five weeks of basic flight training, and was later stationed at Brooks Field in San Antonio, Texas.

In January 1945 Gus Grissom was assigned to Boca Raton Army Airfield in Florida.

Gus Grissom was discharged from military service in November 1945, after the war had ended, and returned to Mitchell, where he took a job at Carpenter Body Works, a local bus manufacturing business.

Gus Grissom was determined to make his career in aviation and attend college.

Bill for partial payment of his school tuition, Gus Grissom enrolled at Purdue University in September 1946.

Betty Gus Grissom joined her husband on campus during his second semester, and the couple settled into a small, one-bedroom apartment.

Gus Grissom continued his studies at Purdue, worked part-time as a cook at a local restaurant, and took summer classes to finish college early, while his wife worked the night shift as a long-distance operator for the Indiana Bell Telephone Company to help pay for his schooling and their living expenses.

Gus Grissom graduated from Purdue with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering in February 1950.

Gus Grissom was accepted into the Air Cadet Basic Training Program at Randolph Air Force Base in Universal City, Texas.

In March 1951, Gus Grissom received his pilot wings and a commission as a second lieutenant.

Gus Grissom flew one hundred combat missions during approximately six months of service in Korea, including multiple occasions when he broke up air raids from North Korean MiGs.

On March 11,1952, Gus Grissom was promoted to first lieutenant and was cited for his "superlative airmanship" for his actions on March 23,1952, when he flew cover for a photo reconnaissance mission.

Gus Grissom was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with an oak leaf cluster for his military service in Korea.

Gus Grissom returned to the United States to serve as a flight instructor at Bryan AFB in Bryan, Texas, where he was joined by his wife, Betty, and son, Scott.

Gus Grissom soon learned that flight instructors faced their own set of on-the-job risks.

Gus Grissom quickly climbed from the rear seat of the small aircraft to take over the controls and safely land it.

Gus Grissom served as a test pilot assigned to the fighter branch.

In 1959, Gus Grissom received an official teletype message instructing him to report to an address in Washington, DC, wearing civilian clothes.

The message was classified "Top Secret" and Gus Grissom was ordered not to discuss its contents with anyone.

Gus Grissom was intrigued by the program, but knew that competition for the final spots would be fierce.

Gus Grissom passed the initial screening in Washington, DC, and was among the thirty-nine candidates sent to the Lovelace Clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the Aeromedical Laboratory of the Wright Air Development Center in Dayton, Ohio, to undergo extensive physical and psychological testing.

On July 21,1961, Gus Grissom was pilot of the second Project Mercury flight, Mercury-Redstone 4.

Gus Grissom quickly exited through the open hatch and into the ocean.

Gus Grissom managed to stay afloat until he was pulled from the water by a helicopter and taken to the US Navy ship.

Gus Grissom explained that he had gotten ahead in the mission timeline and had removed the detonator cap, and pulled the safety pin.

NASA officials concluded Gus Grissom had not necessarily initiated the firing of the explosive hatch, which would have required pressing a plunger that required five pounds of force to depress.

Gus Grissom's spacecraft was recovered in 1999, but no evidence was found that could conclusively explain how the explosive hatch release had occurred.

Gus Grissom recalled that "Reinhard must have cut the antenna a mere second or two before I got us in a position for him to attach our harness to the capsule lifting bale," indicating that the timing of the helicopter's approach aligned with the static discharge theory.

In early 1964, Alan Shepard was grounded after being diagnosed with Meniere's disease and Gus Grissom was designated command pilot for Gemini 3, the first crewed Project Gemini flight, which flew on March 23,1965.

Gus Grissom was one of the eight pilots of the NASA paraglider research vehicle.

Problems with the simulator proved extremely annoying to Gus Grissom, who told a reporter the problems with Apollo 1 came "in bushelfuls" and that he was skeptical of its chances to complete its fourteen-day mission.

Gus Grissom was interred at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia, beside Roger Chaffee.

At the time of his death, Gus Grissom had attained the rank of lieutenant colonel and had logged a total of 4,600 hours flying time, including 3,500 hours in jet airplanes.

Some contend that Gus Grissom could have been selected as one of the astronauts to walk on the Moon.

NASA insisted Gus Grissom got authorization to use the spacesuit for a show and tell at his son's school in 1965 and never returned it, but some of Gus Grissom family members claimed the astronaut rescued the spacesuit from a scrap heap.

The airport in Bedford, Indiana, where Grissom flew as a teenager was renamed Virgil I Grissom Municipal Airport in 1965.

Gus Grissom's death forced the cancellation of a student project to design a flag to represent Grissom and their school, which would have flown on the mission.

Gus Grissom was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal for his Mercury flight and was awarded it a second time for his role in Gemini 3.

Gus Grissom's family received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978 from President Carter.

Gus Grissom was granted an honorary doctorate from Florida Institute of Technology in 1962, the first-ever awarded by the university.

Gus Grissom was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1981, and the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1987.

Gus Grissom was posthumously inducted into the US Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1990.

Gus Grissom's name is included on the plaque left on the Moon with the Fallen Astronaut statue in 1971 by the crew of Apollo 15.

The Gus Grissom Stakes is a thoroughbred horse race run in Indiana each fall; originally held at Hoosier Park in Anderson, it was moved to Horseshoe Indianapolis in Shelbyville in 2014.

Gus Grissom Island is an artificial island off of Long Beach, California, created in 1966 for drilling oil.

Virgil "Gus" Grissom Park opened in 1971 in Fullerton, California.

Gus Grissom is named with his Apollo 1 crewmates on the Space Mirror Memorial, which was dedicated in 1991.

Gus Grissom used this name, plus two others for White and Chaffee, on his Apollo 1 mission planning star charts as a joke, and the succeeding Apollo astronauts kept using the names as a memorial.

Gus Grissom crater is one of several located on the far side of the Moon named for Apollo astronauts.

The Virgil I Grissom Museum, dedicated in 1971 by Governor Edgar Whitcomb, is located just inside the entrance to Spring Mill State Park in Mitchell, Indiana.

Gus Grissom Hall, dedicated in 1968 at Purdue University, was the home of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics for several decades.

Gus Grissom has been noted and remembered in many film and television productions.

Gus Grissom was depicted by Fred Ward in the film The Right Stuff and in the film Apollo 13 by Steve Bernie.

Gus Grissom was portrayed in the 1998 HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon by Mark Rolston.

In 2016 Gus Grissom was included in the narrative of the movie Hidden Figures.

In 2020's Disney+ miniseries The Right Stuff, Gus Grissom is portrayed by Michael Trotter.

When Gus Grissom died, he was in the process of writing a book about Gemini.