NASA today commemorated the 100th anniversary of astronaut Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom's birth, marking a century since the birth of one of America's pioneering space explorers. Grissom was born on April 3, 1926, in Mitchell, Indiana, and went on to become one of NASA's original seven astronauts selected for the Mercury program.
Grissom achieved a historic milestone when he became America's second astronaut to fly in space, launching aboard the Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft on July 21, 1961. His suborbital flight came just weeks after Alan Shepard's groundbreaking mission, helping establish the United States as a serious competitor in the early Space Race against the Soviet Union.