12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Long Overdue Biography Of A Great American, December 18, 2005
This review is from: Gus Grissom: The Lost Astronaut (Indiana Biography Series) (Hardcover)
I have always been interested in the US space program, and Apollo in particular. It amazes me that there has been so little published on Gus Grissom or Apollo 1. There have been scattershot, low distribution books but very little of substance. I am pleased to see that Ray Boomhower has finally written a good biography of one of the overlooked heroes of the space program, Gus Grissom.
The biography is thorough, and as far as I can tell generally quite accurate, although there is little to cross-reference it against. I found the story well written, but occasionally the pace bogged down, particularly in the sections dealing with early military service.
One thing I liked about the book is that it didn't focus exclusively on the space program or Apollo 1, but rather treated them in context with the rest of Grissom's life. I was pleased that the Gemini 3 mission was so thoroughly covered, and enjoyed learning about the interactions with the other astronauts, especially John Young and Wally Schirra. The book met the issue of the blown Mercury hatch head on, and by the end of the book it became clear that Grissom was not at fault for the incident.
The book fills a needed void in the history of space literature, and I am generally quite pleased with it. I give it four stars overall: I am glad we finally have a biography of Grissom, a true American hero.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Read Although Two Dimensional, May 3, 2006
This review is from: Gus Grissom: The Lost Astronaut (Indiana Biography Series) (Hardcover)
If you've never read much about America's space race during the 60's, this is a good read with a lot of solid history and the story of a man who gave his life for his country.
If, however, you are knowledgeable about this era the book adds little insight into Gus Grissom that hasn't already been published. The best source for this insight, Betty Grissom, was interviewed for this book but it appears nothing new was brought to light. With that said, I understand and respect her right to keep certain aspects of his life private. BTW: Her book "Starfall" was outstanding - I learned much more about Gus Grissom from that than any other source. It's a shame it's out of print.
Regardless, I bought it, it's now in my collection and am glad that I did.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Finally, A Step In The Right Direction, November 13, 2007
This review is from: Gus Grissom: The Lost Astronaut (Indiana Biography Series) (Hardcover)
The Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom saga was long overdue for a retelling. For too many years the only thing resembling a biography was the dreadful "Starfall," a superficial patchwork. This work comes from the Indiana Historical Society Press, and while not exhaustive, it is a vast improvement over Grissom's first biography and puts a respectable current biography in schools and libraries.
I have to remind myself over and over that it is nearly fifty years ago since Grissom and six other career military fighter pilots were selected by the fledgling NASA for Project Mercury, the United States' program to put a single astronaut in earth orbit. Many Americans have little or no idea of who this man was, let alone the success and controversy that swirled around his life and into the literature of nearly every retired astronaut's autobiography. If he is remembered by today's younger generations, it may be as a dim reference to "the fire" of 1967, in which Grissom and two other astronauts were killed during rehearsal for the maiden Project Apollo flight.
Author Ray E. Boomhower presents Grissom's life in a rather factual way. The reader does not get unduly bogged down in technology, the Cold War, or in the jocular astronaut life, aside from a few Wally Schirra stories. There is insightful and tasteful observation from Grissom's family and friends in Indiana, including Mrs. Betty Grissom. By rooting this work in Grissom's native community, the author conveys a sense that the hometown boy from the Midwest went off to school, war, and outer space, bringing pride to the folks back home. Boomhower has given us the story of Grissom's life, not Grissom's programs; Neal Thompson's recent biography of Alan B. Shepard has many of the same characteristics.
Grissom devoted much of his career to both flying and engineering, and Boomhower attends to both. Grissom became the second U.S. astronaut to venture into space, a fifteen-minute suborbital flight aboard the "Liberty Bell" in 1961. The flight itself is now long-forgotten, but memory of the events of splashdown may linger for more generations. On live TV the hatch of Grissom's spaceship blew open prematurely, flooding the craft and rendering it too heavy for the helicopter attempting to retrieve it. The craft sank to the bottom of the Atlantic, a major embarrassment more than a scientific loss per se. At the time there was muted criticism of Grissom's performance and a reluctance to accept the astronaut's explanation that "the hatch just blew." Boomhower records that even Mrs. Grissom gingerly asked her husband if he had erred while talking to him by phone after the flight [209] and the astronaut's two sons were harassed in school over the incident.
Grissom would have other reasons for career concerns. He quickly surmised that there would be no more Mercury flights for him as it became clear Mercury would end once earth orbit had been securely achieved. NASA had brought another larger team of astronauts on board. Alan Shepard and later John Glenn would be "made men" in the NASA pecking order. After his Liberty Bell flight, Grissom would speak of himself as not having a job, but anxious to prove himself, he alone of the original astronauts went to work on the design of the next generation Gemini spacecraft. Gradually other astronauts came to deeply appreciate Grissom's efforts to make Gemini a true pilot's spacecraft, and his stock among the brethren rose considerably. He became so identified with the new craft that the interior specifications were crafted to his short stature, no favor to the gangly astronaut Tom Stafford down the road. And yet it took Alan Shepard's misfortune [Meniere's disease] and John Glenn's new horizon [the U.S. Senate] to boost Grissom to the head of the line for the maiden launch of Gemini in March 1965. Grissom and John Young navigated a perfect three orbit test run marred only by later discovery of a contraband corned beef sandwich on board.
His first ride with Gemini would be his last. While colleagues like Jim Lovell, Pete Conrad, and Neil Armstrong were racking up frequent space miles, Grissom began to have doubts about the space program. He considered retirement, and even contemplated flying combat missions in Viet Nam [286] or a run for Congress from Indiana. He speculated to his wife privately that he thought his chances of accidental death in the space program were high if he remained. On the other hand, his auto buddy Jim Rathmann recalled for the author that Grissom hoped to be the first man on the moon.
Boomhower believes that much of Grissom's confusion and pessimism stemmed from his engineering work on the Apollo space craft itself. Gemini had been the product of McDonnell Aircraft, a company widely respected and trusted by the astronaut community. The Apollo contract, on the other hand, was awarded to North American Aviation, perhaps as Schirra surmised, to spread jobs and political good will to California. The author agrees with other researchers that the North American operation was lacking in many respects, particularly quality control. One telling example: changes on the punch list came so frequently that simulators were never adequately programmed for astronauts in training.
Despite months of investigation, no one cause was definitively isolated in the tragic fire of January 27, 1967 that killed Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chafee during a ground test prior to actual flight. NASA and North American came in for harsh criticism. Boomhower tends to agree with the official investigation results which attributed the fire to a zeitgeist of speed, recklessness, poor management, and general faulty design. Grissom's involvement in the design of Apollo, and his dissatisfaction with North American, probably deserved more thorough treatment, not to mention the sometimes bizarre relations between the Grissoms, NASA, and the press. Boomhower's text is probably not the last word on America's second astronaut, but it will be adequate through the foreseeable future.
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