Virgil “Gus” Grissom was an American astronaut and one of the original Mercury Seven, a group of military test pilots selected by NASA to be the first Americans in space. Grissom was the second American to fly in space, and the first American to fly in space twice.
Grissom was born on April 3, 1926, in Mitchell, Indiana. He served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, and later attended Purdue University on the GI Bill. After graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering, Grissom joined the United States Air Force, where he became a test pilot.
In 1959, Grissom was selected to be part of the Mercury Seven, a group of military test pilots who were chosen to be the first Americans in space. Grissom made his first space flight on July 21, 1961, aboard the Mercury-Redstone 4 spacecraft, becoming the second American in space. He made his second space flight in December 1965, as the commander of the Gemini 3 mission.
Tragically, Grissom died in a fire during a pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission in January 1967. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978. Grissom is remembered as a pioneering astronaut and a hero of the American space program.