This new addition to Springer's series Pioneers in Early Space Flight is the first book solely devoted to the United States' second manned space mission. It includes more than 100 photographs and first-hand accounts by those closely involved with the project.

NASA's Mercury astronauts were seven highly skilled professional test pilots. Each of them seemed to possess the strength of character and commitment necessary to overcome apparently insurmountable obstacles as the United States entered into a Cold War space race with the Soviet Union. This was never more evident than on the epic suborbital MR-4 flight of Liberty Bell 7 with astronaut Virgil ('Gus') Grissom piloting the spacecraft to a successful splashdown, followed by the premature blowing of the craft's explosive hatch. After a hurried exit and struggling to stay afloat, he could only watch helplessly as the recovery helicopter pilot valiantly fought a losing battle to save the sinking capsule. That day NASA not only lost a spacecraft but came perilously close to losing one of its Mercury astronauts, a decorated Korean fighter pilot from Indiana who might one day have soared to the highest goal of them all, as the first person to set foot on the Moon. For the first time, many of those closest to the flight of Liberty Bell 7 and astronaut Gus Grissom offer their stories and opinions on the dramatic events of July 21, 1961, and his later pioneering Gemini mission. They also tell of an often controversial life cut tragically and horrifically short in a launch pad fire that shocked the nation.

New entry in the Pioneers in Early Spaceflight series, following Freedom 7-The Historic Flight of Alan B. Shepard, Jr First book totally devoted to the subject of the second manned U. S. spaceflight, Liberty Bell 7, flown by NASA's Grissom Includes accounts from those intimately involved in the space mission as well as including 120 photographs pertaining to the flight Examines the Mercury program and Grissom's flight in the context of the space race with the former USS Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext

David Shayler has been writing books for Springer-Praxis for over 18 years, with a total of 25 authored or coauthored titles for the series. These have ranged from various aspects of American and Russian manned spaceflight history and operations to topics on women in space, the human exploration of Mars and the development of EVA techniques and operations. He has a passion for recording the lives and careers of the world's space explorers. He has been a member of the British Interplanetary Society for over 40 years and currently is a serving Council Member. He also organized and hosted the annual Sino-Chinese Technical Forum and is currently organizing two extra Forums for next year on the topic of Space Rescue and Safety and 20 years of ISS Operations. Dave is a guest editor of the annual BIS JBIS Space Chronicle issue on Sino and Chinese Technical Forums and has contributed to a number of BIS Publications. His work has been published in the UK in Spaceflight, and Spaceflight News, and in the United States under Macmillan's Who's Who in Space trilogy as well as the Magill Science Survey and the MPress Secrets of the Universe Card Collection. A number of his titles and published articles have been referenced in other books, journals and official NASA publications.Colin Burgess's early books were on the Australian prisoner-of-war experience, before he turned his efforts to writing about his principal interest: human space exploration. Colin has written a number of books on the subject for the University of Nebraska Press and Springer-Praxis. The books he has written or coauthored for Springer-Praxis are "NASA's Scientist-Astronauts," "Animals in Space," "The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team," "Selecting the Mercury Seven," "Moon Bound," "Freedom 7," "Liberty Bell 7" "Friendship 7" and "Aurora 7." More recently, he has written about the Interkosmos program and a history of NASA's Group 5 and 7 astronauts with coauthor David Shayler.

Inhalt
An astronaut named Gus.- The MR-3 mission and spacecraft.- Preparing for launch.- The flight of Liberty Bell 7.- An astronaut in peril.- One program ends, another begins.- From the depths of the ocean.