FLIGHT SUIT WORN BY GUS GRISSOM ACROSS HIS NASA CAREER - photo 1
FLIGHT SUIT WORN BY GUS GRISSOM ACROSS HIS NASA CAREER - photo 2
FLIGHT SUIT WORN BY GUS GRISSOM ACROSS HIS NASA CAREER - photo 3
FLIGHT SUIT WORN BY GUS GRISSOM ACROSS HIS NASA CAREER - photo 4
FLIGHT SUIT WORN BY GUS GRISSOM ACROSS HIS NASA CAREER - photo 5
FLIGHT SUIT WORN BY GUS GRISSOM ACROSS HIS NASA CAREER - photo 6

FLIGHT SUIT WORN BY GUS GRISSOM ACROSS HIS NASA CAREER

Lot 20
10.09.2024 00:00UTC +01:00
Classic
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1279152
Lot 20 | FLIGHT SUIT WORN BY GUS GRISSOM ACROSS HIS NASA CAREER
Estimate value
$ 10 000 – 15 000
FLIGHT SUIT WORN BY GUS GRISSOM ACROSS HIS NASA CAREER
FOSTERWEAR, STYLED BY LOU FOSTER, 1961
One-piece blue flight suit, with original NASA “meatball” patch affixed to chest.

Gus Grissom’s flight suit worn post-Mercury flight and during Project Gemini. In its recognizable sky blue and with the iconic NASA “meatball” patch on its chest, Grissom’s flight suit bears witness to the pivotal history of our earliest adventures into the final frontier.

Virgil Ivan “Gus” Grissom (1926-1967) was the third human to go to space, blazing the trail as part of NASA’s very first program. One of the original Mercury Seven selected by NASA to become the first American astronauts, Grissom had a distinguished career in the US Air Force before his pioneering journeys into space. After completing his 15½-minute MR-4 suborbital mission and surviving a complicated splashdown recovery on 21 July 1961, Grissom was then selected for Project Gemini, wherein he with John Young tested the maneuverability of new spacecraft.

During preparations for Grissom’s Mercury flight, a month before blast-off as all were preparing to double their results and send their second man into space, President John F. Kennedy made his famous Moonshot speech to a special joint session of Congress on 25 May 1961: “Now it is time to take longer strides—time for a great new American enterprise—time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on earth […] I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” With an eye on what lay ahead for NASA after its first decade, Grissom recalls that moment in his posthumously published autobiography, questioning, “What would the state of the art have to be in order to land a man on the moon? In 1961 the answers were far from encouraging” (Grissom, Gemini (1968), p. 11). Nonetheless, following his successes on the Mercury and Gemini flights, Grissom was chosen to lead the way once more on the program dedicated to achieving JFK’s challenge: Project Apollo.

Having put a man into space with Mercury and successfully controlled multi-crew spacecraft with Gemini, Apollo’s mission was clear: land and return a crew of US astronauts on the Moon. Tragically, we all know the catastrophic result of the first Apollo mission. But we also know where the work of Grissom and his Apollo 1 crewmates Ed White and Roger Chaffee ultimately lead to—Apollo 11's landing in the Sea of Tranquility.

The present flight suit accompanied Grissom from his post-Mercury recuperation, through Gemini 3 and to Apollo 1. Grissom can be seen wearing this flight suit while inspecting the Gemini 3 spacecraft “aboard the USS Intrepid following their successful Gemini-Titan 3 flight.” (NASA ID: S65-18713).
62 in. (157.5 cm.)




Provenance

Virgil Ivan “Gus” Grissom (1926-1967),
Joe Garino, Jr., NASA Physical Conditioning Supervisor, c.1967.
Sold by the above, with letter of authenticity; Profiles in History, Beverly Hills, 8-9 October 2009, lot 1182.
Acquired at the above sale by the late owner.
Auction house category:All other types of objects
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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10.09.2024 – 10.09.2024
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