He was an record-breaking astronaut with the whole
universe ahead of him — until a grisly accident brought it all crashing down.
Gus Grissom was the second American astronaut to travel in space. He was born Virgil Ivan
Grissom in 1926 — and he didn't have any particular goals in mind when it came to
his career. The onset of World War II gave the young man some perspective, however:
He enlisted in the Air Force, and, although the war ended before he could be trained,
by 1951 he was flying combat missions in the Korean War.
In 1958, Grissom received an unexpected message labeled "Top Secret," which told him to report to
Washington D.C. in civilian attire. He figured it was instructions from the Air Force, but when he
arrived at the specified location, he found out that he was one of the 110 test pilots invited
to learn more about the space program. Grissom was interested in the experience and endured
rigorous training and a battery of examinations. He didn't have high expectations, but nevertheless
tried his best. As time passed, the number of candidates diminished, and the list of seven
astronauts chosen for NASA's Project Mercury was announced in April 1959. One of them was Grissom.
Grissom piloted the Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft in 1961 on a suborbital Mercury test flight. In 1965,
he became the command pilot for the Gemini mission, which made Grissom the first astronaut
from NASA to travel to space twice. Thereafter, he was named part of the AS-204 mission,
the three-man flight also known as Apollo 204; the name was later changed to Apollo 1. It was
the first manned Apollo mission, and the goal was to test the launch operations and facility
as well as the performance of the spacecraft. The mission was scheduled to last up to two weeks,
and Grissom was chosen together with Roger Chaffee and Edward White II.
"There's always a possibility that
you can have a catastrophic failure, of course, it’s gonna happen on any flight."
The Apollo mission was slated to launch on February 21st, 1967. On January 27th,
Gus Grissom, Edward White II, and Roger Chaffee held a test
launch at Launch Complex 34 in Cape Kennedy. Preliminary tests were done,
and the astronauts went into the Command Module. They encountered communication problems with a
microphone and did troubleshooting. At 6:31 p.m., however, a transmission from one of
the astronauts suggested they had detected a fire. Communications ceased a few seconds later.
Emergency responders were quick to act, but the three astronauts most likely died in the cabin
less than a minute after the fire started. The module was shut tightly with clamps,
and pressure had to be released from the module before it could be fully opened. About 5 minutes
had passed before rescuers were able to get to the astronauts. Their bodies were transported
to a medical facility where pathologists conducted examinations and autopsies.
According to the review board's official report, the hatches of the Command Module were opened
at 6:36 p.m., and there were no signs of life. Physicians inspected the bodies at the scene and
determined that resuscitation efforts would be futile, but the exact time of death couldn't be
determined. Based on the autopsy and investigation of the spacecraft, it was concluded that Grissom
and his two companions fell unconscious due to gasses inside the cabin and that "death
occurred rapidly." Multiple factors caused their deaths, including the carbon dioxide,
carbon monoxide, oxygen, and irritant levels inside the spacecraft. The lack of oxygen
in the heart and brain resulted in the loss of consciousness and led to cardiac arrest.
The report also noted that the spacesuits of all three astronauts were burnt to some degree,
and that they wouldn't have protected their bodies from a fire of that magnitude. Grissom
suffered burns on 60% of his body, and soot was found in his trachea, oral cavity, and
nose. His cause of death was noted as "asphyxia due to inhalation of toxic gasses due to fire."
Grissom is buried at the Arlington National Cemetery,
and NASA posthumously awarded him the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.