Gus Grissom, a native of Mitchell, Indiana, became just the second American to reach space on July 22, 1961. He was born April 3, 1926, and perished with two colleagues on the launch test-pad on January 27, 1967. His Mercury capsule, Liberty Bell 7, sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after splashdown of his completed mission on July 22, 1961.

Wikipedia says:

“Following the splashdown of “Liberty Bell 7″, the hatch, which had explosive bolts, blew off prematurely, letting water into the capsule and into Grissom’s suit. Grissom nearly drowned but was rescued by helicopter, while the spacecraft sank in deep water. Grissom maintained he did nothing to set off the explosives to blow the hatch, and NASA officials agreed. The craft was recovered in 1999 but there was no evidence of how the hatch had been opened. However, later experience showed that the force necessary to trigger the initiator for the explosive egress system would leave a major bruise, and Grissom had no such injury.”

Recommended Reading:

• Gus Grissom: The Lost Astronaut by Ray E. Boomhower

Recommended Links:

• Liberty Bell 7 capsule raised from ocean floor, CNN article

According to Wikipedia:

Virgil Ivan “Gus” Grissom (April 3, 1926 – January 27, 1967) was a United States Air Force pilot and a NASA astronaut. A native of Mitchell, Indiana, he was the second American to fly in space. He was killed during a training exercise and test for the Apollo One mission on January 27, 1967 at Launch Complex 34, Cape Kennedy, along with fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger Chaffee. Grissom was a posthumous recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Although the ignition source of the fire was never determined their deaths were attributed to a wide range of lethal design hazards in the early Apollo command module such as its highly pressurized 100% oxygen atmosphere during the test, many wiring and plumbing flaws, flammable materials in the cockpit, a hatch which might not open at all in an emergency and even the flightsuits worn by the astronauts. Despite repeated requests from his widow Betty Moore Grissom and other members of his family, no independent inquiry has ever been carried out into the Apollo 1 incident.

The Mercury Seven was the name given to the first group of NASA astronauts in April 1959. Wikipedia says, “This was the only astronaut group with members that flew on all classes of NASA manned spacecraft of the 20th century, from Mercury, through Gemini and Apollo, and ending with John Glenn’s flight on the STS-95 Space Shuttle mission.”

The group included: (Back row, L-R: Shepard, Grissom, Cooper; Front row, L-R: Schirra, Slayton, Glenn, Carpenter).

Quotes:

Dee O’Hara, the official Nurse for the Mercury Seven (edited)

“They were a hell of a group. They were the cream of the crop. They were thhe best America had to offer. You’ve got to hand it to these guys; they put their backsides on the line because it was such a new program – new everything – and they stepped up to the plate and did it. Those first seven led the way. They really are the true pioneers, if you will, of the space age. They are national treasures.”
- Quoted in Into that Silent Sea (p. 41).

Recommended Reading:

• We Seven – by the Astronauts themselves.
• For Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey Of A Mercury Astronaut. Scott Carpenter.
• Schirra’s Space. Wally Schirra.
• Leap of Faith: An Astronaut’s Journey into the Unknown. Gordon Cooper.
• Deke!: An Autobiography by Donald K. Slayton.
• Gus Grissom: The Lost Astronaut by Ray E. Boomhower
• John Glenn: A Memoir by John Glenn

According to Wikipedia:

“Virgil Ivan “Gus” Grissom (April 3, 1926 – January 27, 1967) was a United States Air Force pilot and a NASA astronaut. A native of Mitchell, Indiana, he was the second American to fly in space. He was killed during a training exercise and test for the Apollo One mission on January 27, 1967 at Launch Complex 34, Cape Kennedy, along with fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger Chaffee. Grissom was a posthumous recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Although the ignition source of the fire was never determined their deaths were attributed to a wide range of lethal design hazards in the early Apollo command module such as its highly pressurized 100% oxygen atmosphere during the test, many wiring and plumbing flaws, flammable materials in the cockpit, a hatch which might not open at all in an emergency and even the flightsuits worn by the astronauts. Despite repeated requests from his widow Betty Moore Grissom and other members of his family, no independent inquiry has ever been carried out into the Apollo 1 incident.”

Quote by Grissom just weeks before the fatal fire:

“We’re in a risky business and we hope if anything happens to us, it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life. Our God-given curiosity will force us to go there ourselves because in the final analysis only man can fully evaluate the moon in terms understandable to other men. “
- Time, 3 Feb. 1967: Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Gemini: A Personal Account of Man’s Venture into Space, ed. Jacob Hay (New York: Macmillan, 1968), p. 175.

You’re saying that The Gas Company people were in Oklahoma City in ‘68 when you guys set the drag strip record?

PETE FARNSWORTH: Right, and we signed a letter of intent with the natural gas company contingent upon the fact that we could get tires from Goodyear that were capable of very high speeds.

The Blue Flame was designed to go 1000 miles an hour structurally and aerodynamically, we thought. You know, that’s speculation…

You start getting into and beyond transonic and supersonic regions and all kinds of…

PETE: Well, we wind tunnel tested the model, at Ohio State University’s wind tunnel. (We did) subsonic, transonic, supersonic (tests). And uh, so anyway we signed this letter of intent. Suba was going to be the driver. He was a super personable guy, very knowledgeable, smart as a whip, this guy was General Manager of the repair department of the biggest Buick dealership in Evanston, Illinois when he was 19 years old. Really sharp.

But anyway, two weeks after he set the 1/4 mile ET record, he jumped into a friend of his top fuel car at Rockford Dragway, to try to figure out why they had a handling problem. They couldn’t straighten it out and he got out on the edge of the drag strip and they had a 55 gallon barrel marking the end of 1/4 mile – marking the edge of the track and he clipped that with the front wheel and then totaled it.

That’s asinine.

PETE: Asinine of him to run the car that way. He didn’t know, it was only a couple of days or weeks or so after that that we got the okay about the land speed record driving and he never knew about, I mean he knew about it, he was part of the idea but the fact that we had actually gotten it.

That is so brutal. So now, so now the search is on for somebody to shoe the car and you’re thinking target speed, 850 to 1000 miles an hour.

LEAH: And the gas industry at that time, when Chuck died they wanted to pick out a driver, someone who would do TV interviews and be Mr. Gas America, it had to be someone dynamic that was going to be in favor of, they really did cooperate in the search for someone else.

Okay, so Reaction Dynamics was kind of an umbrella corporation that would exempt you guys from liability if something weird happened with a car and also maybe tax reasons too…

PETE: Tax reasons too. But um…

So the search is on for a driver, how did that go?

PETE: Well, we Dick Keller and I, both knew (Top Fuel racer) Don Garlits real well. You couldn’t ask for someone who was more knowledgeable or observant of things that was going on with a car, so he was the first choice – he was the only choice at that time, we never even thought about anybody else and Don agreed to drive it, so months went by and we got further along with the design and we were going to have a press conference with the Gas Industry in Los Angeles for the announcement – the driver and the project – and just before that happened Don called us up and said he had to back out of the deal. He said he had sponsor pressures or something, that they didn’t want him to risk his life driving this car and he was making pretty good money at that time with his various sponsorship deals and as I remember it that was mostly why he had backed out if it.

So all of a sudden here we had the press conference scheduled and nobody to drive so we quick made up a list of people who we thought might be acceptable and Danny Ongais who raced for Mickey Thompson at that time was the first one that we thought of, he was pretty versatile and a nice guy. Art Malone was on the list and Craig Breedlove and we made up a list of ten, Gabelich who we had met because he flew out from Los Angeles, he wanted to run the X-1 rocket car, after we weren’t going to run it anymore.

After we interviewed him we realized he had done an awful lot as well and he explained he worked at North American Aviation as a test astronaut and had done high altitude sky diving with the power capsule, done all sorts of stunt stuff, you know diving off Hoover Dam. He was a genuine…

… Was diving off Hoover dam was that part of his duties with North American?

PETE: No, no that was strictly a…

He had a weekend off?

(laughter)

PETE: He was an adventurer. In fact he drove the Beach City Chevrolet funny car, (note: which burned to the ground.)

He drove the Valkyrie (jet dragster).

PETE: The Valkyrie. He had run the Moon Eyes Invader, I believe at that time, the Allison-powered car that belonged to that guy who could port headwork, Jocko’s Porting Service…

Jocko Johnson – yeah.

PETE: Yeah, he drove that car out on the Salt Flats. So he had this tremendous background of experience behind him and that tying in with the Space thing, he was (Mercury Seven astronaut) Wally Schirra’s exact size and he did a lot of space checkout for Wally Schirra.

It was explained to me by somebody basically that if Gabelich survived it then it was okay for the astronauts to try it. (laughter)

PETE: Well, that may have been.

I mean, you can’t have one of the Mercury Seven getting killed before lift off…

PETE: Gabelich was a very personable fellow. Good with people, likable and uh, not a bad looking guy either. He was on the Dating Game TV show, the kind that gets the girl and he did get the girl.

LEAH: He was his own product.

PETE: Later on he became the subject on the Dating Game and the girls vied for him. So he’s already in with the TV stuff and all that stuff. We personally went to Breedlove and figured he had the experience out there. He didn’t want anything to do with it because he didn’t build it and I’m the same way…

That’s just the confirmation I’m looking for because Craig told me that you guys went to him and somebody else said that he was not even in the loop.

PETE: Oh no, (after Garlits) he’s the first one we went to.

Excellent. So was his Goodyear sponsorship a conflict of interest?

PETE: Well, the way he explained it that he didn’t design and build the car, he didn’t want to drive it. And we had no idea what he would want in the way of money cause he had already been running you know, he had held the record at that time, why should he break his own record, you know there was all sorts of reasons.

But that was part of Shell Oil and Goodyear’s thing, too, you know “you’re the first to go 400, 500, 600 mph; you haven’t reaped the benefits of the 400, 500, 600 yet.” He explained to me it would be prudent for him, because he wanted to go Mach 1, his car was called Sonic One at the time and – it would be beneficial for him to have an adversary who took the record away – and then…

LEAH: He could get the sponsorship to come back with his own glory instead of ours…

PETE: So anyway he basically turned it down. Next we went to Mickey Thompson to talk to (funny car driver) Danny Ongais and uh, Mickey wouldn’t even let us talk to Danny.

“My guy.”

PETE: That’s right, he never contacted me, you know, that’s it – so we never did talk to Danny and so here we are, we’re out there in Los Angeles, no driver, so we called Gabelich. Gabelich was just tickled pink. He loved to do it. Didn’t take him long to accept and so we presented that to the Gas Industry and they met him. They decided yeah, this guy can handle the job as far as the p.r. end of it, from there we had our press conference and we all went back to work and Gary was our driver.

I remember the Purple Gang Top Fueler that he drove with the big purple plumes and kind of the feathers coming out of the crash helmet.

(laughter)

PETE: Say if you don’t mind I’m going take a couple of more pieces…

(TAPE ROLLS OUT)

]]> http://bigmikescience.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/chimps-whales-bush-an-old-goat/ Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:41:22 +0000 glabwrites http://bigmikescience.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/chimps-whales-bush-an-old-goat/

Let’s start the week off with a little digest of recent news in science.

~ Researchers have discovered that human infants and chimpanzees have the instinct to help another in need. It’s proof that altruism is innate within both us and our nearest relatives (no, not my brother Joey; although I have a hard time distinguishing him from a simian.)

A study released by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany asserts that toddlers and as well the species that gave us Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp, reflexively reach out to help a human in need.

In these days when our economy is going all to hell and wars are raging here, there, and seemingly everywhere, many people are falling into a rather discouraged mindset. Human beings are worse than beasts, some say. We’re gonna wipe ourselves out, others moan. Maybe. But it’s more likely we won’t because the urge to help others, that sense of altruism, is an inescapable part of our genetic makeup.

You ever hear someone complain about the big city and to illustrate the point, he or she tells an anecdote about how an old lady fell down on the sidewalk on Wabash Avenue and people just stepped right over her? A million times? Well, I’ve spent about a million days on Wabash Avenue and I’ve seen old ladies, middle-aged men, and children kiss the concrete. Never have I seen people step right over these unfortunate souls. In fact, people usually elbow each other out of the way to get to them.

That doesn’t sound like a society that’s going to wipe itself out any time soon.

~ Remember those glorious days back in the 1980s and 90s, when, thanks to popular self-help gurus like Robert Bly and John Bradshaw, we could blame our parents for every shred of guilt, shame, and selfish asshole-iness we detected within ourselves? Thank Zeus those days are over.

But our parents aren’t quite off the hook. Since the Human Genome Project published its complete genetic map in 2003, medical researchers have established that at least 40 diseases have been traced to genetic dispositions, according to a study in this month’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

So don’t let out a sigh of relief just yet, Ma and Dad. You’ve still got a lot to answer for.

~ Yet another huge chunk of the ice shelf in Antartica has fallen into the sea. The collapse of a 160-square-mile piece of the Wilkins Ice Shelf this month and last will adversely affect the population of krill in that area.

Krill are tiny crustaceans that larger sea species like whales feed on. If krill become scarce, more enormous creatures will be, you’ll pardon the pun, in hot water.

Scientists blame the Wilkins and other ice shelf collapses on Global Warming. You know, that thing President George W. Bush and his pals spent years denying. Lots of people still subscribe to the Global Warming-is-a-lie line that even the Bush Administration now has abandoned.

A friend of mine swears her father refuses to watch The Weather Channel because it’s too “liberal.” Why? Says Daddyo: TWC’s meteorologists take this Global Warming nonsense seriously.

Fair enough, Pops. Stick with Fox News.

Anyway, Bush’s ludicrous head-in-the-sand stance on Global Warming probably did more for the environmental movement than a hundred Al Gore movies would have. The Commander-in-Chief’s intransigence on the effect humans have on the air, the water, and the rest, galvanized environmentalists and even lit a match under minivan moms and high school principals.

So, thanks, George. Knucklehead.

~ Just don’t start giving Bushie Boy any awards. His anti-environment policies still hold sway. The Prez could have used his influence to convince American automakers to develop greener cars.

It was as likely he would have attempted to sway Ford, GM, and Chrysler to start making cars that don’t depend on the whims of oil sheiks as it would have been for him to issue an executive order exempting me from income taxes. I’d like him to do both things. He ain’t gonna do either.

So, in keeping with the tone set by our Peerless Leader, California has drastically reduced the number of zero-emission cars that must be sold in that state by 2014.

Automakers are jumping for joy. Environmentalists are not.

George W. Bush, by the way, is still a knucklehead.

~ Two more quickies. I just downloaded Adobe’s new free Photoshop Express. May as well take advantage of it so I can start submitting crop circle pix to the proper authorities. Also, 2008 is NASA’s 50th anniversary. Imagine that! Of those impossibly young and daring pilots who comprised the Mercury Seven, the original astronaut crew, five are gone. The remaining two, John Glenn and Scott Carpenter, are now old men. What does that make me?

Next time,

Big Mike

Walter Marty Schirra, Jr. (March 12, 1923 – May 3, 2007) was one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts chosen for the Project Mercury, America’s first effort to put men in space. He was the only man to fly in all of America’s first three space programs (Mercury, Gemini and Apollo). He flew on Mercury 8, Gemini 6A and Apollo 7.

Wikipedia says:

“On December 15, 1965, Schirra flew into space a second time in Gemini 6A with Tom Stafford, rendezvousing with astronauts Frank Borman and James Lovell, Jr. in Gemini 7. This was the first rendezvous of two manned spacecraft in earth orbit. The two vehicles, however, were not capable of actually docking. Gemini 6 landed in the Atlantic Ocean the next day, while Gemini 7 continued on to a record-setting 14-day mission.

While on the Gemini mission, Schirra attracted notoriety for playing “Jingle Bells” on a four-hole Hohner harmonica he had smuggled on board, and a “Wally Schirra” commemorative model was later produced.

Image credit: NASA

Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. was born November 18, 1923. He was the second person and the first American in space. He later commanded the Apollo 14 mission, and was the fifth person to walk on the moon.

Wikipedia says:

“On May 5, 1961, Shepard piloted the Freedom 7 mission and became the second person, and the first American, to travel into space. He was launched by a Redstone rocket on a ballistic trajectory suborbital flight—a flight which carried him to an altitude of 116 statute miles and to a landing point 302 statute miles down the Atlantic Missile Range. Unlike Gagarin’s flight, Shepard remained in control of his craft at all times. The flight, return from space and subsequent collection by helicopter were seen live on television by millions.

On his successful return to Earth, Shepard was celebrated as a national hero, honored with parades in Washington, New York and Los Angeles and meeting President John F. Kennedy.”

American astronaut John Glenn, Jr., was born on July 18, 1921 in Cambridge, Ohio. [Wikipedia] During his service in the Marines he was a fighter pilot. He was also an ordained Presbyterian elder, corporate executive, and politician. He was the third American to fly in space and the first American to orbit the Earth, aboard Friendship 7 in 1962.

After retiring from NASA, he served as a United States Senator (D-Ohio) from 1974 to 1999. He received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978. He became the oldest person to fly in space when, at the age of 77 in 1998, he flew aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-95).

Wikipedia says:

“Three decades later, after serving 24 years in the Senate, Glenn lifted off for a second space flight on October 29, 1998, on Space Shuttle Discovery’s STS-95, in order to study the effects of space flight on the elderly. At age 77, Glenn became the oldest person ever to go into space. Glenn’s participation in the nine-day mission was criticized by some in the space community as a junket for a politician. Others noted that Glenn’s flight offered valuable research on weightlessness and other aspects of space flight on the same person at two points in life thirty-five years apart — by far the longest interval between space flights by the same person. Upon the safe return of the STS-95 crew, Glenn (and his crewmates) received another ticker-tape parade, making him the ninth (and, as of 2007, final) person to have ever received multiple ticker-tape parades in his lifetime (as opposed to that of a sports team).”

Walter Marty Schirra, Jr. (March 12, 1923 – May 3, 2007) was one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts chosen for the Project Mercury, America’s first effort to put men in space. He was the only man to fly in all of America’s first three space programs (Mercury, Gemini and Apollo). He flew on Mercury 8, Gemini 6A and Apollo 7.

Wikipedia says:

“On October 11, 1968, Schirra became the first man to fly in space three times on his final flight as commander of Apollo 7, the first manned flight in the Apollo program, which occurred after a fatal fire during tests of Apollo 1. The three-man crew, including Donn Eisele and Walter Cunningham, spent eleven days in earth orbit, performed rendezvous exercises with the upper stage of the Saturn 1-B launch vehicle that rocketed them into space and provided the first live television pictures from inside a U.S. manned spacecraft (other than an experimental broadcast during the flight of Gordon Cooper) for which he received an Emmy.

During the Apollo 7 mission, Schirra caught what was perhaps the most famous cold in NASA history.[1] He took Actifed to relieve his symptoms upon the advice of the flight surgeon. His grumpy behaviour served as a distraction to the flight controllers and this behaviour may have led him to never fly in space again. His crew never flew in space again as well. Years later, he became a spokesman for Actifed and would appear in television commercials advertising the product.”

Walter Marty Schirra, Jr. (March 12, 1923 – May 3, 2007) was one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts chosen for the Project Mercury, America’s first effort to put men in space. He was the only man to fly in all of America’s first three space programs (Mercury, Gemini and Apollo). He flew on Mercury 8, Gemini 6A and Apollo 7.

Wikipedia says:

“On October 3, 1962, Schirra became the fifth American in space, piloting the Mercury 8 (Sigma 7) on a six-orbit mission lasting 9 hours, 13 minutes, and 11 seconds. The capsule attained a velocity of 17,557 miles per hour and an altitude of 175 statute miles, and landed within four miles of the main Pacific Ocean recovery ship.”

Gus Grissom, a native of Mitchell, Indiana, became just the second American to reach space on July 22, 1961. He was born April 3, 1926, and perished with two colleagues on the launch test-pad on January 27, 1967.

Wikipedia says:

“Following the splashdown of “Liberty Bell 7″, the hatch, which had explosive bolts, blew off prematurely, letting water into the capsule and into Grissom’s suit. Grissom nearly drowned but was rescued by helicopter, while the spacecraft sank in deep water. Grissom maintained he did nothing to set off the explosives to blow the hatch, and NASA officials agreed. The craft was recovered in 1999 but there was no evidence of how the hatch had been opened. However, later experience showed that the force necessary to trigger the initiator for the explosive egress system would leave a major bruise, and Grissom had no such injury.”

Recommended Reading:

• Gus Grissom: The Lost Astronaut by Ray E. Boomhower

American astronaut John Glenn, Jr., was born on July 18, 1921 in Cambridge, Ohio. [Wikipedia] During his service in the Marines he was a fighter pilot. He was also an ordained Presbyterian elder, corporate executive, and politician. He was the third American to fly in space and the first American to orbit the Earth, aboard Friendship 7 in 1962.

After retiring from NASA, he served as a United States Senator (D-Ohio) from 1974 to 1999. He received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978. He became the oldest person to fly in space when, at the age of 77 in 1998, he flew aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-95).

Wikipedia says:

“In April 1959, Glenn was assigned to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as one of the original group of Mercury astronauts for the Mercury Project. During this time, he remained an officer in the Marine Corps. He piloted the first American manned orbital mission aboard Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962, on the “Mercury Atlas 6″ mission, lasting 4 hours, 55 minutes, and 23 seconds. During the mission there was concern that his heat shield had failed and that his craft would burn up on re-entry but he landed safely. Glenn was celebrated as a national hero, and received a ticker-tape parade reminiscent of Lindbergh.”

American astronaut Donald Kent ‘Deke’ Slayton was born on March 1, 1924. He was one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts. Slayton was initially grounded because of a heart condition but eventually flew on the Apollo-Soyuz Test on July 15, 1975.

Wikipedia says:

“When NASA grounded him, the Air Force followed suit. Slayton resigned his Air Force commission in 1963 and worked for NASA in a civilian capacity as head of Astronaut selection. Unofficially called “Chief Astronaut,” he had the decisive role of choosing the crews for the Gemini and Apollo programs, including the decision of who would be the first person on the moon. In 1972, Slayton was awarded the Society of Experimental Test Pilots James H. Doolittle Award.

A long medical program led to him being restored to full flight status in 1972, when he was selected as docking module pilot for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, designed to allow a docking between the American Apollo spacecraft and the Soyuz spacecraft of the Soviet Union. On July 17, 1975, the two craft joined up in orbit, and astronauts Slayton, Thomas Stafford and Vance D. Brand conducted crew transfers with cosmonauts Aleksey A. Leonov and Valeriy Kubasov.”

This model sits in the National Air and Space Museum

Malcolm Scott Carpenter, one of the original seven astronauts selected by NASA in the early 1960s, was born on May 1st, 1925. He flew aboard the Aurora 7 spacecraft on May 24, 1962.

Wikipedia says:

“Working through five onboard experiments, Carpenter helped among other things to identify the mysterious ‘fire fly’ particles of frozen liquid around the craft, first observed by John Glenn. Carpenter was the first American astronaut to eat solid food in space.”

Quotes:

“I am frequently asked if I was afraid [regarding being launched into space]. Yes, I was afraid. But fear is neither shameful nor to be feared, it is to be respected; it does a lot of good things for you when things get dirty. It improves your vision, extends you peripheral vision, reduces reaction time, makes you stronger, and improves your endurance. It is a very valuable companion. What people, I think, are chary about here is that fear is the same as panic. But panic is uncontrolled fear – and that is deadly. But if you use fear, and control it, it can save your life. It can be a pistol!”
- Scott Carpenter, quoted in Into that Silent Sea (p. 154).

Walter Marty Schirra, Jr. (March 12, 1923 – May 3, 2007) was one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts chosen for the Project Mercury, America’s first effort to put men in space. He was the only man to fly in all of America’s first three space programs (Mercury, Gemini and Apollo). He flew on Mercury 8, Gemini 6A and Apollo 7.

Wikipedia says:

“On October 3, 1962, Schirra became the fifth American in space, piloting the Mercury 8 (Sigma 7) on a six-orbit mission lasting 9 hours, 13 minutes, and 11 seconds.

“On December 15, 1965, Schirra flew into space a second time in Gemini 6A with Tom Stafford, rendezvousing with astronauts Frank Borman and James Lovell, Jr. in Gemini 7.

“On October 11, 1968, Schirra became the first man to fly in space three times on his final flight as commander of Apollo 7, the first manned flight in the Apollo program, which occurred after a fatal fire during tests of Apollo 1.”

Quote:

Fellow American astronaut Scott Carpenter (Mercury-Atlas 7) said this about Shirra’s passing (May 3, 2007):

” . . . it makes you realize the fact that the grim reaper waits for us all. And while we’re all accustomed to that end and we’re accustomed to losing our comrades in the aviation game, it’s still a shock and it brings your own mortality finally into view.”
- Quoted in Launch Magainze, November/December 2007: page 56.

American astronaut Donald Kent ‘Deke’ Slayton was born on March 1, 1924.  He was one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts. Slayton was initially grounded because of a heart condition but eventually flew on the Apollo-Soyuz Test on July 15, 1975.

Wikipedia says:

“When NASA grounded him, the Air Force followed suit. Slayton resigned his Air Force commission in 1963 and worked for NASA in a civilian capacity as head of Astronaut selection. Unofficially called “Chief Astronaut,” he had the decisive role of choosing the crews for the Gemini and Apollo programs, including the decision of who would be the first person on the moon. In 1972, Slayton was awarded the Society of Experimental Test Pilots James H. Doolittle Award.

A long medical program led to him being restored to full flight status in 1972, when he was selected as docking module pilot for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, designed to allow a docking between the American Apollo spacecraft and the Soyuz spacecraft of the Soviet Union. On July 17, 1975, the two craft joined up in orbit, and astronauts Slayton, Thomas Stafford and Vance D. Brand conducted crew transfers with cosmonauts Aleksey A. Leonov and Valeriy Kubasov.”

American astronaut John Glenn, Jr., was born on July 18, 1921 in Cambridge, Ohio. [Wikipedia] During his service in the Marines he was a fighter pilot. He was also an ordained Presbyterian elder, corporate executive, and politician. He was the third American to fly in space and the first American to orbit the Earth, aboard Friendship 7 in 1962.

After retiring from NASA, he served as a United States Senator (D-Ohio) from 1974 to 1999. He received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978. He became the oldest person to fly in space when, at the age of 77 in 1998, he flew aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-95).

Wikipedia says:

“In April 1959, Glenn was assigned to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as one of the original group of Mercury astronauts for the Mercury Project. During this time, he remained an officer in the Marine Corps. He piloted the first American manned orbital mission aboard Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962, on the “Mercury Atlas 6″ mission, lasting 4 hours, 55 minutes, and 23 seconds. During the mission there was concern that his heat shield had failed and that his craft would burn up on re-entry but he landed safely. Glenn was celebrated as a national hero, and received a ticker-tape parade reminiscent of Lindbergh.”

Quotes:

“When we were flying John Glenn, we did not know if we were going to have the third bad rocket, or the fourth good one! It was 60/40, if you look at the odds. Unheard of – in American society at least.”
- Gene Krantz, then assistant flight director for NASA, quoted in Into that Silent Sea (p. 139).

Heritage Auction auctioned off a signed poster of the Mercury program astronauts on September 19, 2007 for $15,535.00.