Virgil Grissom Research Paper

Virgil Grissom was a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force, He later was an astronaut for NASA. He was one of the first to be chosen by NASA for the mercury missions. Virgil Grissom was the second American in space during his first flight assignment piloting Liberty Bell 7 on July 21, 1961. The second mercury flight was a suborbital flight that lasted 15 minutes and 37 seconds. Then once landed the explosive bolts on the door unexpectedly blew open and the spacecraft flooded. Grissom was then picked up by the recovery helicopter. The helicopter then attempted to retrieved the Liberty Bell 7 but failed. The liberty Bell 7 was then retrieved in 1999 and is now on display at the Cosmosphere and space center in Kansas. Grissom also co-piloted the Gemini 3 on march 23 1965. Gemini 3 was the first manned mission of the Gemini program. This mission was about a five-hour flight orbiting around the Earth three times. Its purpose was to test all the operating systems and to determine if they could control the spacecraft. Having the ability to change orbit and flight path were an important part of later missions. This mission made him the first person in NASA to be in space twice. Grissom also invented the multi-axis translation thruster controller which was used to help push the Apollo and Gemini spacecrafts in the …show more content…
He was a member of the Church of Christ where he became a Boy Scout in troop 46. His first jobs were delivering newspaper for the Indianapolis Star, and he worked at a meat market. Grissom spent quite a bit of time at the local airport where his interest in flying was born. He took lessons for a dollar a day where he learned the basics of flying. He married on July 6, 1945, to Betty Moore and they had two sons, Scott, and Mark. Gus loved being with his family he refused to let work problems get in the way of family time. He taught his sons to fish and