Virgil I. Grissom
Person TypeIndividual
BiographyVirgil I. Grissom, who went by Gus, was an American astronaut. Before joining NASA, he was a test pilot in the U.S. Air Force. In 1959, NASA selected Grissom as one of the Mercury Seven astronauts. He was the pilot of the second Project Mercury flight. Grissom was the command pilot for the first crewed mission in Project Gemini, Gemini 3. On March 23, 1965, the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid recovered Grissom and John Young after their ocean landing. Grissom died in 1967, along with two fellow astronauts, during a pre-launch test in advance of the Apollo 1 mission. Their command module caught on fire on the launch pad.
