Chris Calle (American, B. 1961) "Gus Grissom - Second U.S. Manned Space Flight" Signed lower right. Mixed Media on Illustration Board.
Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation.
This painting was originally published on the Fleetwood First Day Cover of the Niue 25th Anniversary of the Moon Landing stamps issued July 20, 1994. On February 21, 1961, NASA announced that, of the seven astronaut-trainees of Project Mercury, three had been chosen to prepare for flight into space. Among them was 33-year-old military test pilot Captain Virgil "Gus" Grissom. So intent was Grissom on making the flight that he gave up water-skiing and became acutely observant of traffic laws to assure that nothing happened to make him ineligible. Finally, on July 21, 1961, only a few weeks after Alan Shepard's 15-minute suborbital flight in Freedom 7, it was Grissom's turn. He had named his Mercury 4 spacecraft Liberty Bell 7 because of its shape, even going so far as to paint a large crack on the vessel similar to the crack in the real Liberty Bell. At 8:20 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, a Redstone rocket blasted Mercury 4 off from Cape Canaveral. Grissom slightly exceeded the distance and speed of Shepard's earlier flight, traveling to an altitude of 118 miles at over 5,000 miles per hour. After splashdown, the spacecraft's escape hatch blew off prematurely. While Grissom escaped unharmed, Liberty Bell 7 sank permanently to the ocean floor. Jokingly, Grissom named his next spacecraft "Molly Brown" after the popular Broadway musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Reluctant NASA officials agreed to the name after hearing Grissom's back-up choice: "Titanic."
Image Size: 7 x 6.25 in.
Overall Size: 11.5 x 10.5 in.
Unframed.
(B14795)
Condition
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