Grissom’s first flight assignment was piloting Liberty Bell 7, which flew a 15-minute, 37-second suborbital hop on July 21, 1961. It was the second manned flight of the single-astronaut Mercury spacecraft, and used explosive bolts on the door so that the astronaut could leave the spacecraft quickly after landing.

The flight proceeded without incident, but when Grissom landed, something prematurely triggered the hatch and caused the door to blow open. Grissom ended up in the water with a sinking spacecraft beside him. The recovery helicopter tried in vain to retrieve Liberty Bell 7 for a few minutes before picking up an exhausted Grissom. (The spacecraft was later retrieved in 1999 and is now on display at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center.)

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