Gus Grissom

[BigRIJoe]

Another squirmin' hatch blower!

[brihath]

Rusty_Barton - 24/3/2008  9:33 PM
We have seen people fly again that may have "screwed the pooch" if they had friends in high places. An example is Cernan and the Banana River training helicopter crash.

I was speaking specifically about perceived mishandling of a space mission not earthly missteps.
Carpenter, Eisele, Cunningham, Pogue, Carr, Gibson...

True, but there is also evidence that if George Abbey liked you, you got flight assignments, and if he didn't, you were benched.  It is believed that happened with Rusty Schweickhart after Apollo 9.  The time period of Gus' flight was before the leadership of the Astronaut Office under Deke Slayton and Alan Shepherd, who also put their own stamp on flight assignments, although, from all that I have read, Abbey made the final call.

[Lancer525]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't there something published recently about the cause of the hatch explosive bolts activation being the result of the parachute shroud lines becoming entangled in the external detonation handle?

I know I read that somewhere recently...

[Rusty_Barton]

Here are screen captures of the interior of the Mercury hatch from the Mercury explosive hatch test video on YouTube.

Mercury Explosive Hatch Test
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/x_YVQe0gULY&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/x_YVQe0gULY&rel=1</a>

This series of photos shows the arming of the explosive hatch by removing the detonator cover and removing the protective pin from the detonator plunger. Notice how close the survival knife holder is to the right of the detonator plunger. I have rotated the photos 180-degrees from that shown in the video. The orientation of the hatch is shown as the astronaut would see it from inside the capsule.

The detonator cover and survival knife were both found inside the recovered Liberty Bell 7.

Here's a link to a picture of the recovered knife:
http://www.lostspacecraft.com/work/Restoration/Restoration_22.html

[SpaceCat]

That's an interesting little video, although the poster's choice of background music is.... strange, to say the least.  The guitar instrumental almost works (anybody know who that is?)... but it would be another 6 or 7 years from the time of Project Mercury for "Daydream Believer" to hit the charts.

Interesting side note though, while made popular by The Monkees, that song was actually written by former Kingston Trio member, John Stewart- who sadly died last January.  John Stewart was a good friend of Scott Carpenter's- as a matter of fact he was the entertainment for the Astronaut Hall Of Fame gala banquet a few years ago.

So in that way, I guess it's distantly related to Project Mercury after all.

[rsp1202]

That's an interesting little video, although the poster's choice of background music is.... strange, to say the least.  The guitar instrumental almost works (anybody know who that is?)... but it would be another 6 or 7 years from the time of Project Mercury for "Daydream Believer" to hit the charts.

Interesting side note though, while made popular by The Monkees, that song was actually written by former Kingston Trio member, John Stewart- who sadly died last January.  John Stewart was a good friend of Scott Carpenter's- as a matter of fact he was the entertainment for the Astronaut Hall Of Fame gala banquet a few years ago.

So in that way, I guess it's distantly related to Project Mercury after all.

Stewart also wrote the song "Armstrong," the lyrics of which can be read here:
http://music.yahoo.com/John-Stewart/Armstrong/lyrics/23880806