Grissom and Alan Shepard both lobbied for the contract to go to North American. But a few years earlier, he was also one of the NASA managers most responsible for ignoring the recommendation to award the contract to Martin. I've often thought it ironic how George Low has been so highly lauded for taking over the Apollo Office after the fire and getting the mission back on track. They were simply overruled by the NASA management who were all winged aircraft engineers, former pilots, or otherwise tunnel visioned for North American. The systems engineers were unanimous that Martin was the best choice. When the bids were all evaluated and scored, Martin came out in first place, and North American far down the list.fourth or fifth. North American should have never won the contract to build the Apollo spacecraft. Thomas P.Deke Slayton has written and said many times that Gus Grissom would have been the first man on the moon had he not been killed. Canaveral’s Hidden Treasure: The Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Public Tour.Looking Back: Day of Remembrance Held Marking 10th Anniversary of Columbia Disaster.Gus Grissom: Remembering NASA’s ‘Forgotten’ Astronaut.On January 27, 1967, the crew of Apollo 1 Virgil 'Gus' Grissom, Edward White II, and Roger Chaffee are killed in a fire on the. remains confident it can meet Kennedys challenge. Retro Space Images: The Astronaut’s Astronaut Between 19, the Soviets launch the first woman and the first three-man crew, and do the first space walk.‘Tumbling End Over End’: The Trauma of Gemini VIII (Part 2).

Remembering the Life and Legacy of Roger Chaffee on His 80th Birthday.On Challenger’s 30th Anniversary, NASA Reflects On its Fallen Heroes.The ‘No Sense’ Mission: 50 Years Since the Rise and Fall of Apollo 2 (Part 1).The ‘No Sense’ Mission: 50 Years Since the Rise and Fall of Apollo 2 (Part 2).Grissom, White, and Chaffee: On 50th Anniversary of Apollo 1 Fire, America Remembers.‘Isn’t That Enough?’ Remembering Grissom, White and Chaffee, Fallen Crew of Apollo 1.Remembering The Fire, Project Apollo’s Worst Day.The Slightest Glitch: Remembering Apollo 1, OTD in 1967.Posts associated with the Apollo 1 mission To see the webpage click here: Gus Grissom What few today know is that, according to NASA insiders at the time, had he survived, the first man to set foot on the Moon would not have been named Armstrong he likely would have been named Grissom.

Grissom was a veteran of the Korean War, flying 100 combat missions, and he requested to stay in the war zone for an additional 25 missions. As was the case with most astronauts of the era, Grissom was a highly-experienced test pilot. Grissom was born April 3, 1926, and began flying at an early age. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. He also is remembered for perishing in the Apollo 1 fire. Although some attempted to blame Grissom for the loss, it was later shown that Grissom was likely not to blame. Grissom is remembered primarily as the astronaut who flew the Liberty Bell 7 mission, which saw the capsule sink to the bottom of the ocean (the spacecraft was later recovered and is now on display at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center). In January 1967, during a routine “plugs out” test, a flash fire broke out in the Apollo 1 capsule, killing Grissom and fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger Chaffee. He would go on to fly the first mission of NASA’s Gemini Program, Gemini-3, with John Young and was supposed to fly the first flight of the Apollo Program as well. Grissom joined NASA in 1959 and flew the second manned mission, MR-4 (Mercury Redstone 4), in the one-man Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft in 1961. “Gus” Grissom celebrating the life of one of the space agency’s first astronauts. NASA has opened a page on the birthday of NASA astronaut Virgil I.

Gus grissom first man on the moon