Calculated Risk

George Leopold

Description

Unlike other American astronauts, Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom never had the chance to publish his memoirs. Killed along with his crew in a launch pad fire on January 27, 1967, Grissom also lost his chance to walk on the moon and return to describe his journey. Others went in his place. The stories of the moon walkers are familiar. Less appreciated are Grissom's contributions.

The international prestige of winning the Moon Race cannot be understated, and Grissom played a pivotal and enduring role in securing that legacy for the United States. Indeed, Grissom was first and foremost a Cold Warrior, a member of the first group of Mercury astronauts whose goal it was to beat the Soviet Union into space and eventually to the moon.

Drawing on extensive interviews with fellow astronauts, NASA engineers, family members, and friends of Gus Grissom, George Leopold delivers a comprehensive and corrective account of Grissom's life that places his career in the context of the Cold War and the history of human spaceflight.

Calculated Risk: The Supersonic Life and Times of Gus Grissom adds significantly to our understanding of that tumultuous and ultimately triumphant period in American history.

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Pure Oxygen

1. 1926

2. Work

3. Purdue

4. Wingman

5. Test Pilot

6. Mercury Seven

7. Extracurricular Activities

8. The Flight of Liberty Bell 7

9. Down a Peg

10. Apogee

11. Risk and Reward

12. How Astronauts Talk

13. Front of the Line

14. Death at 218 Feet

15. Abandon in Place

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• 20th Century
• Histoire
• History of the Americas
• United States
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Purdue University Press
• Date de parution: 15 juin 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781612494593
• Langue: English

Extrait

P RE- AND POST-PUBLICATION PRAISE FOR C ALCULATED R ISK : T HE S UPERSONIC L IFE AND T IMES OF G US G RISSOM
“On July 21, 1961, in the middle of a family vacation, my parents stopped to let me watch Gus Grissom’s historic fifteen-minute mission in Liberty Bell 7 , the second manned Project Mercury flight. At thirteen, I was already very excited about space exploration. I could only imagine that someday I might follow in the footsteps of my hero who was born at the opposite end of the state from my northern Indiana home. Gus Grissom came from a rural, hardworking background just like me, and my later path mirrored his as I earned mechanical engineering degrees from Purdue University and went on to fly with the US Air Force and then NASA. We both pursued bold dreams. Through grit and determination, Grissom rose from the pastoral Midwest to achieve those dreams, his life ending tragically while Gus was still in his prime.
“George Leopold’s well-researched and inspiring biography of Grissom details an imperfect man willing to risk his life for a chance to explore the unknown. This book is a must-read for every space enthusiast.”
—J ERRY R OSS , Astronaut, Author of Spacewalker: My Journey in Space and Faith as NASA’s Record-Setting Frequent Flyer
“Gus Grissom was one of the original seven astronauts. A few of us can still remember the impact they had on our nation, and the pride we took in their extraordinary and exciting achievements. They lifted us all and made us proud to be Americans. Gus Grissom radiated a quiet, determined competence in all that he did. He understood and accepted the danger of his job but also knew its immense value to our knowledge and understanding of the planet we all inhabit. This readable and compelling biography superbly relates the life of this proud son of Indiana and America.”
—L EE H. H AMILTON , Former Indiana Congressman, Vice Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, and Distinguished Scholar with the School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University
“ Calculated Risk fills an important space history gap. Most books covering the Apollo 1 fire—a turning point in the Cold War and the Space Race in many ways—get a lot of detail wrong. This book is one of the best ever written on it in terms of accuracy.”
—F RANCIS F RENCH , Director of Education, San Diego Air & Space Museum
“George Leopold’s Calculated Risk: The Supersonic Life and Times of Gus Grissom rescues its subject’s reputation by presenting his life and career in full. The book is fascinating and haunting, and its impressive research exonerates Grissom from the charge of being a hapless astronaut who, in his peers’ parlance, ‘screwed the pooch’ … thrillingly told, taking readers into the cosmos with Grissom, conveying the sense of wonder and danger that accompanied these early voyages.”
—R YAN L. C OLE , The Wall Street Journal
“As much a product of the Cold War as his working-class roots in small town Indiana, Grissom brought a test pilot’s rigor and an engineer’s analytical skills to NASA’s formative years. But that focus came with its own burdens and cost to his personal relationships. Leopold reminds us that the hagiography of astronauts, while often deserved, can mask the fact that they are more often than not, ordinary people who achieve extraordinary things through hard work and dedication.”
—M ATTHEW G OODMAN , Aerospace Magazine
CALCULATED RISK
THE SUPERSONIC
LIFE AND TIMES OF GUS GRISSOM
REVISED AND EXPANDED
CALCULATED RISK
THE SUPERSONIC
LIFE AND TIMES OF GUS GRISSOM
REVISED AND EXPANDED
BY GEORGE LEOPOLD
PURDUE UNIVERSITY PRESS / WEST LAFAYETTE, INDIANA
Copyright © by George Leopold 2016. First printing in paperback, 2018.
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-55753-829-1
The Library of Congress has cataloged the earlier hardcover edition as follows:
Names: Leopold, George, 1955- author.
Title: Calculated risk : the supersonic life and times of Gus Grissom / by George Leopold.
Description: West Lafayette, Indiana : Purdue University Press, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016008567| ISBN 9781557537454 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781612494586 (epdf) | ISBN 9781612494593 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Grissom, Virgil I. | Astronauts-United States--Biography.
Classification: LCC TL789.85.G7 L46 2016 | DDC 629.450092 [B] --dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016008567
Cover credit: Ralph Morse/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
For my father, who taught me to look up .
Robert George Leopold Sergeant 301st Bombardment Group Fifth Bombardment Wing 15th Air Force US Army Air Corps
CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Beginnings
2 Purdue
3 Wingman
4 Test Pilot
5 Mercury Seven
6 The Flight of Liberty Bell 7
7 Down a Peg
8 Letting Off Steam
9 Apogee
10 Front of the Line
11 Death at 218 Feet
12 Abandon in Place
13 Remembrance
Afterword
Notes
Bibliography
Index
PREFACE
B y the end of the 1960s, twelve human beings had traveled to the moon; four had walked on its barren, previously untouched surface. Eight more American astronauts would reach the lunar highlands in the early 1970s. The American people and NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) had accomplished what they said they would. And it was done in front of the entire world. When asked what it all meant a few weeks after his return from the moon in July 1969, Apollo 11 command module pilot Michael Collins commented, “I think it [was] a technical triumph for this country to have said what it was going to do a number of years ago, and then by golly do it just like we said we were going to do.” 1
In the decades since the final US moon landing, most of America’s early astronauts have recorded their stories for posterity in one form or another, mostly with the help of professional writers or aerospace journalists who covered their exploits. (Notable exceptions include Collins, undoubtedly the finest writer ever sent into space, and Walter Cunningham, who chronicled the early years of NASA along with his own career as an Apollo astronaut. 2 ) From Alan Shepard to John Glenn, Neil Armstrong to Eugene Cernan, these men shaped the public’s perception of their lives and careers. In contrast, most of what we know or think about Virgil Ivan “Gus” Grissom, the third human being to fly in space, if we think of him at all, has been shaped by press accounts, documentary snippets, and a few interviews given by the press-shy Grissom to trusted newspaper and television reporters, although he did coauthor one book about his role in the Gemini program (completing a draft manuscript weeks before his death). In the early days of the Space Race, inhabited as it was by ultracompetitive men with enormous egos, Gus Grissom was often a footnote in the press, overshadowed by Shepard, the first American in space, and Glenn, the first astronaut to orbit the Earth.
Aside from a 1968 self-published tribute by the Grissom family’s pastor and a 2004 biography that focuses heavily on Grissom’s Indiana years, 3 no comprehensive survey exists of this simultaneously simple and complex man, his supersonic life, and his tragic and unnecessary death. This volume is intended to fill that gap in the historical record, to examine his life and career, to reconsider his place in the annals of space exploration as well as in the history of the Cold War struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union.
No geopolitical rivalry better defines this period of human history than the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union for supremacy in space exploration. The goal was a manned lunar landing. Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev and US president John F. Kennedy understood this. America, Kennedy concluded early in his administration, could not survive if the Soviet Union controlled outer space.
By hanging their hides out on the line, Grissom and his fellow Mercury astronauts became the instruments of US Cold War strategy. Grissom was an eager, willing participant, agonizing over every Soviet space spectacular and then redoubling his own efforts to keep pace with and eventually pass the Soviets in the race to the moon. By the mid-1960s, with planning for lunar missions well under way and technological development moving at a breakneck pace, Grissom had emerged from the pack as the odds-on favorite to be the first human being to walk on the moon. He would focus all of his energies on that goal. The reticent test pilot and astronaut from downstate Indiana was more than willing to do the tedious testing and other unglamorous engineering work required to reach the moon by the end of the 1960s. He was utterly uninterested in tickertape parades and White House ceremonies, unimpressed with personal prestige. 4 Grissom just wanted to fly. And the best place to go was 238,000 miles from Earth.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
C harles Watkinson, former director of Purdue University Press, launched this project. Charles took a chance on a first-time author, ably pointing me in the right direction until his departure to the University of Michigan Press in 2014. Charles embodies the ideal of the gentleman and scholar.
Special thanks go to editors Katherine Purple and Kimberly Miller, who repeatedly saved me from myself. Editors do the unglamorous wor