1 of 3

Write now Article Tools

Page 3 of 3

That's it. That's the story. Nobody ever got the dimes or other stuff."

As noted earlier, Grissom was killed on January 27, 1967. He would have been delighted to have witnessed the recovery of Liberty Bell 7 in 1999.

Over the years I had remained in touch with several of the astronauts.Shortly after the Liberty Bell 7 recovery, I asked Schirra what he thought of the version of the story that says engineers, not Grissom, had secretly put the Mercury dimes into the space craft.

"Maybe they physically did that. But if so, they did it at Gus' urging. Those were his dimes, no ifs, ands, or buts."

And last year Schirra had this to say about the dimes: "Grissom would not believe that his dimes were being auctioned on Ebay for thousands of dollars. Hell, he wouldn't even know what eBay is!"

Although NASA does not permit the sale of items carried aboard space missions, many items have found their way to market. Eleven Apollo 16 stamps, autographed by the astronauts, sold for $27,000 at auction. But a corned beef sandwich that John Young offered to Gus Grissom during a Project Gemini Mission never returned to earth for obvious reasons.
Gus Grissom's restored Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft, as well as some of the dimes and currency recovered from it in 1999, toured the United States for three years. The artifacts now reside on permanent display at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center museum in Hutchinson, Kansas.
The bottom line here is simple: if you ever come across someone selling Gus Grissom's dimes for $50 you can bet the farm they are not the real McCoy.

Learn more about this author, Timothy Benford.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

• << previous page
• 1
• 2
• 3

Add your voice

Know something about How to become an astronaut?
We want to hear your view. Write now!