Lost Spacecraft: The Search for Liberty Bell 7: Apogee Books Space Series 28
When Gus Grissom’s Mercury spacecraft sank in the Atlantic Ocean, it created a controversy still rippling through NASA’s space program to this day. Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, veteran of the Korean War and professional test pilot, wrote the book on what it took to have the “right stuff.” He also had the unwanted distinction of being the first astronaut to have his spacecraft sink out from under him. Liberty Bell 7, the 11th Mercury capsule built by McDonnell Aircraft, was lost at sea on July 21, 1961, minutes after helping Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom complete the third manned spaceflight in human history. The controversial incident also almost killed an American astronaut when Grissom narrowly escaped death, left to suffer the private accusations concerning how and why Liberty Bell 7 really sank. Beyond the reach of 1961 subsea technology, the Cold War icon sat in waters deeper than the Titanic for almost 40 years, surviving amidst the ice cold temperature and darkness of the deep ocean and waiting to be discovered. Historians declared Liberty Bell 7 as “lost and gone forever” and marine salvage experts said the tiny nine-foot-tall capsule would never be found.
Lost Spacecraft: The Search for Liberty Bell 7, describes the exploration of two unique and dangerous environments, space and underwater, and how the paths of two men, one living and one dead, crossed in the recovery of the Liberty Bell-7 spacecraft. Lost Spacecraft focuses on two periods, one beginning in 1959, the other in 1985, interweaving the stories of Project Mercury, Gus Grissom and his ill-fated Mercury flight, on-going developments in deep ocean exploration, and Curt Newport’s 14 year obsession to raise the sunken space-age Titanic from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. Also told is how Newport’s team, against staggering odds, managed to find the phone-booth sized space vehicle during his harrowing 1999 expedition, only to see their recovery vehicle and Liberty Bell 7 ripped from their grasp by the forces of nature. Newport later recovered Liberty Bell 7 during what remains the deepest commercial salvage operation in history, returning Grissom’s craft to Cape Canaveral, Florida thirty-eight years to the day after Grissom blasted off his tiny launch pad. However, the prevalent theme running through Lost Spacecraft is how simple luck almost rivals technical ability when exploring any deadly environment, whether it be the silent void of low-Earth orbit, or the crushing cold of the abyss.
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