gus 'virgil' grissom. why is his real name in the nickname spot, and his nickname in the real name spot? don't know. this poor sap, although famous, would probably have liked things to have gone differently than it did.during his pre-apollo solo flight, everything was good. 'i am an astronaut, and i'm OK'. things changed when he landed in the pacific ocean. there is a lever, or button, whatever, that you could press to eject the hatch in an emergency.
regardless, his capsule hit the water, the hatch was blown, gus almost drowned, and his capsule sank to the bottom of the ocean. he says he didn't touch anything, nasa felt differently, and his career was never the same.
they actually recovered that capsule years later.
anyway, that didn't ruin his career, the fire did that. he and his two buddies were doing some ground tests atop the saturn v rocket (on the ground remember). there was a spark, the interior of the capsule erupted into flame and they all died.
but because of the air inside the capsule (it was 100 percent oxygen or something), they didn't burn to death, they were asphyxiated (spelling?). sad really. because it took THE HULK to open that hatch, they died. if it took a human, they probably could have gotten out.
the hatch was immediately re-designed for quicker exit. R.I.P. gus.
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