Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #220109 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 393 pages

Customer Reviews

Well written biography, underpinned by tragedy.
A biography of Gus Grissom - one of America's first astronauts - was long overdue when this book first appeared in 2004. It traces Grissom's life from his childhood through his pioneering Mercury and Gemini flights, his tragic death in the Apollo 1 disaster, and right up to the successful quest to recover his famous Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft from the depths of the ocean in 1999.

Grissom was renowned for being a no-nonsense man of few words, but the author finds a good number of quotes from him to include. There is an undercurrent of unease in much of the book, though: the details of the Apollo 1 fire are harrowing and the reader is left in no doubt about the ongoing ill feeling between the Grissom family and the Apollo programme's protagonists.

That is not to detract from the quality and importance of this book, however. It is sympathetic, interesting and fills many gaps in the public's knowledge of a genuine space pioneer.

Good review of real space hero
As a young boy Gus Grissom was one of my heros. The second Amercian in space - flying a sub orbital mission after Alan Shepherd. Gus flew Gemini 3 with John Young and performed the fist obrital change in manned spaceflight.

Gus Grisson was killed in the Apollo 1 pad fire during January 1967. Hard to believe that is 40 years ago now.

This great book fills in many of the gaps in Gus's life. A real good read.