Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
Astronaut

Date of Birth: April 3, 1926
Place of Birth: Mitchell, Indiana
Died: January 27, 1967
Cause of Death: Killed in the Apollo 1 fire
Joined NASA: April 2, 1959
Space Flights: 2
Time in Space: 5 hours, 9 minutes, 8 seconds



MISSION ASSIGNMENTS
Mercury-Redstone 4 "Liberty Bell 7"
July 21, 1961
Assignment: Pilot
Flight Duration: 15 minutes, 37 seconds

Mercury-Atlas 6 "Friendship 7"
Assignment: Capcom (Bermuda)

Mercury-Atlas 7 "Aurora 7"
Assignment: Capcom (Cape)

Mercury-Atlas 8 "Sigma 7"
Assignment: Capcom (Hawaii)

Mercury-Atlas 9 "Faith 7"
Assignment: Capcom (Guayamas, Mexico)

Gemini 3 "Molly Brown"
March 23, 1965
Assignment: Command Pilot
Flight Duration: 4 hours, 53 minutes, 31 seconds

Gemini 4
Assignment: Capcom (Houston)

Gemini 5
Assignment: Capcom (Cape)

Gemini 6A
Assignment: Back-up Command Pilot

Apollo 1
Assignment: Commander

HIGHLIGHTS

  • B.Sc., Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, 1950

  • Recieved USAF Pilots Wings in 1951 and flew 100 combat missions in Korea.

  • 1952, jet flight instructor, Bryan, Texas.

  • 1955, attended USAF Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio, studying Aeronautical Engineering.

  • 1956 graduated from USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB, California.

  • 1957, assigned as test pilot, fighter branch, Wright-Patterson AFB where he worked until selected by NASA.

  • July 21, 1961, became the second American in space aboard the Mercury spacecraft Liberty Bell 7.

  • March 23, 1965, Command Pilot on the first two man flight by NASA. Gemini 3 orbited the earth three times and Grissom performed the first orbital trajectory changes of a manned spacecraft in history.

  • Gus Grissom died January 27, 1967, along with his crew of Edward H. White II and Roger B. Chaffee in the Apollo 1 fire at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

    • "If we die, we want people to accept it. We're in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life."

    - Gus Grissom, responding to a reporter, at a press conference
    for the first manned Apollo mission.