 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion Groups General ModelsRailroadsRocketsRadio Controlled Air ModelsHelicoptersLand ModelsWater ModelsModelGeeks.com Contact UsLink To UsSearch & Site Map |
Model Forum / General / Rockets / August 2005For any Gus Grissom fans out there
Fifteen year old Amanda Meyer of Madison, Connecticut is trying to solve a 3-year-old dispute over one of NASA's earliest spacesuits. Read about it at: http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/08/29/space.suit.girl.ap/index.html Visit her site and sign her petition at: http://www.freewebs.com/mercury7savethesuit/ Mario I think her heart is in the right place but US taxpayers paid for the suit, so it belongs in the Smithsonian. > Fifteen year old Amanda Meyer of Madison, Connecticut is trying to solve > a 3-year-old dispute over one of NASA's earliest spacesuits. Read about [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > Mario > I think her heart is in the right place but US taxpayers paid for the suit, so it belongs in the Smithsonian. That suite was discarded by NASA after Gus' Mercury flight. Gus retrieved it from the trash with the full knowledge of the people at NASA at the time. I has been on display at the Gus Grissom Memorial since the Memorial was built except for short periods when it was on loan to other museums. It belongs in the Gus Grissom Memorial. Mario > I think her heart is in the right place but US taxpayers paid for the > suit, so it belongs in the Smithsonian. That suit was paid for in blood. Let the family decide what to do with it. And I still hate Tom Wolfe.  SignatureTweak >>I think her heart is in the right place but US taxpayers paid for the >>suit, so it belongs in the Smithsonian. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > And I still hate Tom Wolfe. Maybe someone could confirm this? I thought I read somewhere that to blow the hatch on the Mercury capsule the astronaut had to pull at an awkwardly placed handle and the backlash was so great that it couldn't be accomplished without sustaining significant bruising of the arm. I also remember that it was mentioned that when Gus' arm was examined in the post flight physical, there was no bruising. I thought I might have read this in Air & Space but I distinctly remember that I felt Tom Wolfe may have had the story wrong if this was true. Also could any conclusion be gleaned when they recovered the Liberty Bell 7 from its' resting place on the ocean floor? The information I read above was in an article written before the capsule was recovered. Kurt Savegnago > Maybe someone could confirm this? I thought I read somewhere that to > blow the hatch on the Mercury capsule the astronaut had to pull at an [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > I also remember that it was mentioned that when Gus' arm was examined > in the post flight physical, there was no bruising. I have personally asked Chris Kraft, Gordon Cooper, Thomas Stafford, and Scott Carpenter whether they felt Gus had blown the hatch. Without reservation, and unequivocally, they ALL felt that Gus had NOT blown the hatch (to the point of anger, for some of them). For Kraft, Gordo, and Carpenter, if anyone should have known his character, they would have. David Erbas-White >> Maybe someone could confirm this? I thought I read somewhere that to >> blow the hatch on the Mercury capsule the astronaut had to pull at an [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > > David Erbas-White And no matter what, when it comes to emergency egress from a ship, a test pilot always has the last word. Nobody has any right to second guess it. Especially at this late stage. Dave > And no matter what, when it comes to emergency egress from a ship, a test > pilot always has the last word. > > Nobody has any right to second guess it. Especially at this late stage. Here, here!! SignatureJerry Irvine, Box 1242, Claremont, California 91711 USA Opinion, the whole thing. <mail to:01rocket@gte.net> Please bring common sense back to rocketry administration. (too late) Produce then publish. http://www.usrockets.com Ebay. http://tinyurl.com/6wlp8 David very well put. When I was in the military we always had monday morning quarterbacks saying you shoulda. Well I was not there with Gus and neither were they so who knows but Gus? I say out of respect for one of the fallen the suit should stay at the Grissom Memorial. >>> Maybe someone could confirm this? I thought I read somewhere that to >>> blow the hatch on the Mercury capsule the astronaut had to pull at an [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > Dave > David very well put. When I was in the military we always had monday > morning quarterbacks saying you shoulda. Well I was not there with Gus and > neither were they so who knows but Gus? I say out of respect for one of the > fallen the suit should stay at the Grissom Memorial. Actually it should be returned to the Grissom Memorial. It was loaned to NASA and now they won't give it back. Mario > > David very well put. When I was in the military we always had monday > > morning quarterbacks saying you shoulda. Well I was not there with Gus and [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Mario "It's the government. It doesn't have to make sense." - Bob Kaplow Or be legal. - Jerry Irvine SignatureJerry Irvine, Box 1242, Claremont, California 91711 USA Opinion, the whole thing. <mail to:01rocket@gte.net> Please bring common sense back to rocketry administration. (too late) Produce then publish. http://www.usrockets.com Ebay. http://tinyurl.com/6wlp8 > Maybe someone could confirm this? [snip] Heres a link to a pretty good summary... http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missions/liberty_bell_000617.html Mario >> Maybe someone could confirm this? [snip] > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > Mario And reading this reminded me that I've also personally asked Guenter Wendt about this, as well (I KNEW I was forgetting someone...) David Erbas-White > And reading this reminded me that I've also personally asked Guenter Wendt > about this, as well (I KNEW I was forgetting someone...) ...and the reply was... ? > > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Sorry -- thought it was obvious -- the same as the others -- though Guenter was far and away the most polite man of any of the ex-NASA guys I've spoken with. Not that the others were impolite, it's just that he is a very old-world charming type of guy, very very friendly and outgoing. Must have just sat and chatted with him for an hour or so (frankly, mostly about family and raising kids). David Erbas-White Thanks David and everyone else who answered. Glad I stuck my "recollection" out there as everyone filled in the blanks. I'd like to point out one thing else that was even highlighted in the Right Stuff movie. All the astronauts had to withstand being shut into a confined space and subjected to various stresses. Remember the scene with Gordon Cooper wired in a test capsule and the other person goes bonkers while nurse "Ratchet" looks into the chamber? It makes no sense if Gus had to pass this type of training. He did go on in Gemini 3 with no problems. After reading the replies I'm 99.9999% sure it was a malfunction. Thanks. Kurt Savegnago >>> Maybe someone could confirm this? [snip] >> [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > David Erbas-White > Thanks David and everyone else who answered. Glad I stuck my > "recollection" out there as everyone filled in the blanks. [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > Kurt Savegnago All of the references to Tom Wolfe's book, and the film version, make me want to provide just a *little* defense for him. Reading the book, I was left with the impression that it was those "outside the fraternity" who were quick to blame Gus. His fellow astronauts did not feel he did anything wrong. In the film version, Sam Shepard's "Yeager" even comes to Gus' defense. I think all this is just part of Wolfe's writing about the "brotherhood", or "fraternity" of astronauts and test pilots....and how they are the "true believers" and the "true understanders"; guys whose grit, determination, and experience make them able to see and understand things that the "suits" could never understand. SignatureGreg Heilers Registered Linux user #328317 - SlackWare 10.1 (2.6.10) ..... Always remember that you're representing our country. I guess what I'm saying is, don't mess up France the way you messed up your room. -- Homer Simpson The Crepes of Wrath I have to disagree with part of this article. It says there was no evidence found to either clear or convict Grissom. That's not true. I saw the Liberty Bell 7 on it's tour around the country. Grissom always maintained that he was busy marking his splashdown checklist when the hatch blew. That checklist, and the grease pencil he was marking it with, were found inside when the capsule was recovered. It was on display with the capsule. Partially filled out. While it's no smoking gun, it is evidence that Gus wasn't B-S'ing about filling out his splashdown checklist. And no bruise on his arm pretty much clears him. Either way, that doesn't matter. What matters is this: Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee gave their all for the American Space Program. They gave their lives. There was an article on local news a while back about the Smithsonian. Said they have too much stuff. So much, in fact, that they are having trouble rotating the material for display and finding places to store it. I know where they can stash one item. Grissom's suit. Put it where it belongs. In the Grissom Memorial. That family paid for that suit. They paid the _maximum_ price. They paid with Gus' life. Let's honor a true American hero. Let's give 'em back the suit. Beats leaving it in a box, stashed in some storage locker, gathering dust. James L. Marino SAS, LUNAR, TCC, AEROPAC, NAR #75764 L3 TRA #9489 L3 (@ @) ---o00-(_)-00o--- Will Work for AP > > Maybe someone could confirm this? [snip] > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > Mario > I have to disagree with part of this article. It says there was no > evidence found to either clear or convict Grissom. That's not true. I saw [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > > James L. Marino What he said. SignatureTweak > >>I think her heart is in the right place but US taxpayers paid for the > >>suit, so it belongs in the Smithsonian. [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Maybe someone could confirm this? What, that I hate Tom Wolfe? Ask anybody. ;-) > I thought I read somewhere that to > blow the hatch on the Mercury capsule the astronaut had to pull at an [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > Bell 7 from its' resting place on the ocean floor? The information > I read above was in an article written before the capsule was recovered. Wolfe did the legacy of Grissom a disservice. Nothing was accomplished by the portrayal in that film/book except to provide future generations a skewed and diminished view of Grissom. In my mind, even if Grissom was as bad or worse than portrayed, it accomplishes nothing to "speak ill of the dead". But hey, if it makes good cinema... SignatureTweak > I think her heart is in the right place but US taxpayers paid for the > suit, so it belongs in the Smithsonian. Then why didn't they ask for it back in the 60s, 70s, 80s, or 90s. It was thrown in the trash by its previous owner. That terminates ownership. I'd have filed a theft report the instant this "confiscation" went down. At a bare minimum, the family is owed a day in court where each side can make their claim for the suit. Worse, who is going to loan an artifact to a government museum if that government might turn around and sieze the irem and never return it. This government theft is much larger than one space suit. SignatureBob Kaplow NAR # 18L >>> To reply, there's no internet on Mars (yet)! <<< Kaplow Klips & Baffle: http://nira-rocketry.org/Document/MayJun00.pdf www.encompasserve.org/~kaplow_r/ www.nira-rocketry.org www.nar.org They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -- Benjamin Franklin Historical Review of Pennsylvania. 1759 >> I think her heart is in the right place but US taxpayers paid for the >> suit, so it belongs in the Smithsonian. [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > government might turn around and sieze the irem and never return it. This > government theft is much larger than one space suit. You mean like this? http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/27/pf/gold_coins.reut/index.htm -- David > You mean like this? > http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/27/pf/gold_coins.reut/index.htm Yup. I'm surprised Fred doesn't hae a stash of these. Government theft is still theft. Someone should go to jail for stealing millions from a private citizen. Once government employees that break laws or violate citizens rights are treated as the common criminals that they are, the abuse will stop. Doesn't matter if it's a NASA museum, the mint, a congressperson, an ATF agent, or the president. Violate my rights, break the law, go to jail. SignatureBob Kaplow NAR # 18L >>> To reply, there's no internet on Mars (yet)! <<< Kaplow Klips & Baffle: http://nira-rocketry.org/Document/MayJun00.pdf www.encompasserve.org/~kaplow_r/ www.nira-rocketry.org www.nar.org "For as adamant as my country has been about civil liberties during peacetime, it has a long history ... of failing to preserve civil liberties when it perceived its national security threatened." -- former Supreme Court Justice William Brennan > > You mean like this? > > http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/27/pf/gold_coins.reut/index.htm [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Government theft is still theft. Someone should go to jail for stealing > millions from a private citizen. Yes. The guy who threw the space suit into the trash bin should be hunted down and killed. ALL the resources of the new facist Homeland Security department should be used. > Once government employees that break laws or violate citizens rights are > treated as the common criminals that they are, the abuse will stop. My own DOT case has proven that day has not arrived. They had to lie to get where they did. Fact. I said what I said and nothing more. > Doesn't > matter if it's a NASA museum, the mint, a congressperson, an ATF agent, or > the president. Violate my rights, break the law, go to jail. Under what statute? Jerry Seriously. SignatureJerry Irvine, Box 1242, Claremont, California 91711 USA Opinion, the whole thing. <mail to:01rocket@gte.net> Please bring common sense back to rocketry administration. (too late) Produce then publish. http://www.usrockets.com Ebay. http://tinyurl.com/6wlp8 I have to disagree, Cliff. The American people paid to have the suit made, there's no doubt about that. But the Grissom family paid a slightly higher price. They paid with Gus' life. Would there be any skin off someone's a.s if they gave the suit back to the Grissom Memorial? I think not. It would be one less dust gatherer for the Smithsonian to store. And it would honor a true American hero. James > I think her heart is in the right place but US taxpayers paid for the > suit, so it belongs in the Smithsonian. [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > > > Mario |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.