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Gus Grissom: The Lost Astronaut (Indiana Biography Series)

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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.

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.

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.

I am very interested in the space program and increasingly over the years have become fascinated by the different biographies, it seems that many times programs that are dramatic and difficult are populated with dramatic and fascinating personalities, bigger than life so to speak, well I was very interested in Gus Grissom from an early age, I watched the Mercury 7 go into space on television as a young boy and thoughly was fascinated by the whole enterprise, I have many books on the other astronauts and this is one person that I had almost nothing from a biography aspect, this book was very interesting and I feel as though I met another Gus Grissom that the right stuff didn't do justice to, While reading I was reminded of Gus's engineering background and his flying experience, both exemplary and as I was reading I realized that from the astronauts point of view to be the first to fly was incredibly important not just from the pride point of view but it is a mark of your fellow astronauts and the management of the programs confidence in you, Gus was tapped to fly the second mission which says that among the astronauts his abilities set him apart as possibly the second most competent of the 7, ahead of the famous and popular John Glenn, so among 7 high achievers among the finest pilot/engineers available in the nation this almost unknown man was #2, this is a fact that isn't highlighted but becomes obvious to a person reading about the man, I was very pleased to get to know Mr. Grissom through this book and I enjoyed it very much, the book was written in a style that seems to me to underplay just how amazing Mr. Grissom was but I suppose it kind of reflects the personality of this man who seems to be on the quiet side, kind of black and white approach to things, all business and serious, I recommend this book to anyone who would like to find out more about this underrated and important pioneer of the American space program.

I hope all of those who saw "The Right Stuff" and based their opinions of Gus Grissom on that movie/book, read THIS one. Grissom was the best pilot (and I am a huge Chuck Yeager fan) and an all around good guy. I was so glad when the Liberty Bell was brought to the surface and people finally knew what this book tells the reader, and those of us who had faith in Gus all along already knew. He did NOTHING WRONG when his spacecraft sank. Having seen the Apollo Launch pad where Grissom, White and Chafee died, mourned along with the rest of the nation when the fire happened, and the memorial in Arlington, it was great to read this biography and bring Gus back for a little while. Certainly one of America's and Indiana's finest! A good book about a great man.

Virgil "Gus" Grissom is most commonly remembered by casual "space historians", as the only Mercury Astronaut to lose his spacecraft and for his death along with Robert Chafee and Edward White in the Apollo 1 fire. Most of these same historians think of him as a bit of a screwup as well, who may have been responsible for the loss of Friendship 7, when he in a panicked state blew the hatch while most of the spacecraft was still submerged, but for the loss of Apollo 1 as well due his insistence on not using explosive hatch bolts in later NASA programs such as Gemini and Apollo. The theory being that if NASA had developed the Apollo spacecraft with the explosive hatch, Grissom, Chafee, and White would have been able to blow the hatch and escape the fire which killed them. A minority of these folks even go so far as to blame him for the fire itself, saying that it was his movements which caused wires to short and to start the fire that killed the three of them.

A more dedicated researcher however finds himself quickly at odds with these assumptions. If Grissom was the screwup the majority of people seem to think he was, then why did NASA not only select him to be the second American in space, but listened to his input to the point that they incorporated so many of his design idea's and requirements into the Gemini program that other astronauts referred to the spacecraft as the "Gusmobile" and complained that the spacecraft were tailored to fit his 5'6 140 pound frame, or why was he on the fast track to become the first American to walk on the moon? The logical conclusion is that Grissom wasn't the screw up people thought him to be. The problem facing the dedicated researcher is the lack of compiled information about Virgil Grissom.

Yes, the data exists in various forms, but due to his untimely death (which results in the loss of any direct autobiographical information) and the common perception that he was a screwup no one had much interest in gathering all this information and putting it in one place.

For Christmas last year among the stack of books that was so tall and so heavy I nearly broke a bone when I stubbed my toe against it, was a copy of Boomhower's "Gus Grissom - The Lost Astronaut", a part of the Indiana Biography Series.

First, a word about Astronaut histories, be they biographies or autobiographies.

Its often said, about the Mercury 7, that they were made heros before they had ever done anything. This statement has always bothered me, because these men were heroes long before they were selected to the space program. Six of them were combat veterans, most of them were combat aces (five or more confirmed kills) and some of them were double aces, having earned five or more kills in both World War II and Korea. Each of them had also been a test pilot, where they strapped themselves into several tons of experminental steel, weapons, and jet fuel and took the skies with the intention of breaking their aircraft. Most of them served as pilot instructors at some point in their careers meaning they strapped themselves into several tons of steel, weapons, and jet fuel and took to the skies with a guy who knew next to nothing about what they were doing. Some of them took it one step further and became instructors at test pilot school.

All of them, were college graduates and many of them held multiple degrees and in the course of their career published doctorate level papers about the nature of flight, weapons, carrier landings, and combat operations long before they were ever accepted into the space program.

In other words, "Pretty damn big hero stuff".

The problem is, these "pretty damn big heroes" came with some pretty damn big ego's. Each of them thought they were the best (or in the case of Alan Shepard, knew they were the best) and as a result biographies (and autobiographies in particular) tend to be strongly slanted in favor of the subject. This slant is compounded by the sanitized "Life" coverage of the Astronauts and their stories, with the result being anyone who spends any time reading these books will find conflicting accounts of stories and events, where each Astronaut sees himself as the hero or the center piece of the story being told.

The biographer's job (or the ghost writer in the case of many of the autobiographies) is not to eliminate or even minimize this slant, but should be to remove those stories which conflict with factual, and confirmable data.

For example, who came up with the idea to wire Ralph Morse's jeep with a smoke flare1? Alan Shepard or Gus Grissom? The answer is, that in the context of other events it doesn't matter. That the even occurred is far more relevant than who's idea it was.

Compare that with the question of "Who was the first American in space?" John Glenn's biography ("John Glenn: A Memoir") leaves you with the impression that he was. The reality is that while Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth he was actually the third American into space, behind Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom.

It is this second type of slant that should be unacceptable and is the reason why I've never managed to struggle all the way through Wolfe's "The Right Stuff" (either the book or the movie), Cooper's "Leap of Faith", and M. Scott Carpenter's "For Spacious Skies".

That said, I looked forward to Boomhower's book since it came out in 2004 and was very pleased to find it under the tree this Christmas.

I can't help but feeling a bit disappointed with the book. Boomhower spends most of the preface talking not about Grissom or his family but about himself, his family's distant ties to the space program and how much effort he put into writing the book. The first three chapters are devoted, or rather would be seemingly devoted to Grissom's life before joining NASA if Boomhower didn't spend so much time skipping around in the timeline. He addresses events out of order, skips back, skips forward, and often leaves you with the impression that events in Grissom's life tied in with key events in history, when in fact the events were separated by years. It makes it tough to keep everything straight.

Boomhower also uses other astronaut biographies as source material, something that should be obviously dangerous given the super charged egos involved.

That said, I do feel like I know more about Gus Grissom5 than I did before I started reading...I do not feel like I know Gus Grissom like I knew Shepard after reading "Light this Candle" or like I knew Pete Conrad after reading "Rocket Man". After reading those books, I felt like Shepard and Conrad were old friends, after reading "Gus Grissom: The Lost Astronaut" I feel Grissom is like that second cousin third removed on your step mothers side...

This book is a very quick read. It contains some interesting stories. The comments of Grissom's sons, brothers, parents, and childhood friends shed some light on his true personality. The book does not dwell on Grissom's two spaceflights and death during a test. Instead, the narration focuses on his life journey to those public milestones.

Books about Mr. Grissom are hard to come by. Glad I found this book. Well written, not boring read about a man who is underrated.

I ordered this book for my father for his birthday and he really liked it.
The family is waiting in line to read the book when he is done.

Finally! A book that tells the story of Gus Grissom, one of the pioneers of the space race, that does not focus solely on the tragic Apollo 1 fire. This is a well-written book that really gives you a good sense of not only Gus Grissom the astronaut, but also Gus Grissom the husband, father and friend. I loved this book and am so glad it's part of my 'library!'