Gus Grissom
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50 free Gus Grissom trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Gus Grissom packed more drama into three spacecraft than most astronauts see in a whole career. He was the second American in space, the commander of the first two-person American flight, and the man chosen to lead the first crewed Apollo mission. This quiz turns the best Gus Grissom fun facts into questions. It covers his small-town boyhood, his combat flying in Korea, the Mercury capsule that sank beneath him, the joke he built into the name of his next spacecraft, and the tragedy that changed how NASA built its ships. Along the way come the films, television shows and landmarks that carry his name. It suits space-history fans, students working on a report, and anyone who enjoys a good story about one of the original seven astronauts. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which fruit did Gus Grissom hang on the Apollo 1 simulator to show what he thought of it?
A lemon
A lemon, picked from a tree in his own back yard, was Grissom's verdict on a trainer that could not keep pace with the spacecraft's constant changes.
Q 02NASA disliked Gus Grissom's Gemini 3 nickname, Molly Brown, so which alternative name did he offer?
Titanic
Titanic was the cheeky counter-offer, so NASA gave in and let Molly Brown stand. The joke was aimed at his Mercury capsule, which had sunk in the Atlantic in 1961.
Q 03Which contraband snack did Gus Grissom's Gemini 3 crewmate pull from a pocket and offer him in orbit?
Corned beef sandwich
Corned beef sandwich crumbs could have fouled the electronics, so both men were reprimanded after a few bites. Grissom still called the gag a highlight of the flight.
Q 04Which condition nearly cost Gus Grissom his place among the Mercury astronauts during medical screening?
Hay fever
Hay fever almost disqualified him, until Grissom argued that it would not matter because there is no ragweed pollen in space.
Q 05Flight crew chief Deke Slayton wrote that Gus Grissom would have been his top pick for which role?
First man on the Moon
First man on the Moon was the role Slayton had in mind, because he wanted a Mercury veteran to take those steps. Two senior NASA managers backed his choice of Grissom.
Q 06Which CBS drama named its lead investigator after astronaut Gus Grissom at its star's request?
CSI
CSI star William Petersen, a great admirer of the astronaut, asked for the change. His character had been scripted as Gil Sheinbaum before becoming Gil Grissom.
Q 07Which future Breaking Bad actor played Gus Grissom in the Tom Hanks film That Thing You Do!?
Bryan Cranston
Bryan Cranston went on to play a second real astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, in the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.
Q 08What did Gus Grissom have painted on his Liberty Bell 7 capsule to match its namesake in Philadelphia?
A crack
A crack, drawn as a jagged painted stripe, completed the tribute. Colleagues teased him about it after the capsule sank at the end of the flight.
Q 09Gus Grissom got his nickname from a misread scorecard, so what was the astronaut's real first name?
Virgil
Virgil Ivan Grissom became Gus when a friend read a scorecard upside down and took the abbreviation Griss for Gus.
Q 10Gus Grissom raced fellow Mercury astronauts around Cape Canaveral in which sports car, leased for a dollar a year?
Chevrolet Corvette
Chevrolet Corvette leases at a dollar a year were a car dealer's marketing coup, and six of the seven Mercury astronauts signed up. Only John Glenn declined.
Q 11Which gas, filling the sealed Apollo 1 cabin at high pressure, fed the fire that killed Gus Grissom?
Oxygen
Oxygen at above sea-level pressure made even ordinary materials burn fiercely, including the nylon netting and Velcro that lined the cabin.
Q 12The fire that killed Gus Grissom broke out during what kind of activity at Cape Kennedy?
A launch rehearsal
A launch rehearsal known as the plugs-out test was under way, and it had been rated non-hazardous because the rocket carried no fuel.
Q 13Where was Gus Grissom buried, at a service attended by President Lyndon Johnson?
Arlington National Cemetery
Q 21Commanding Gemini 3 made Gus Grissom the first NASA astronaut to reach which milestone?
Fly in space twice
Fly in space twice was a feat only one American had managed before him: Joe Walker, at the controls of the X-15 rocket plane.
Q 22As Liberty Bell 7 sank, what was dragging Gus Grissom under while helicopters hovered overhead?
His leaking spacesuit
His leaking spacesuit lost buoyancy because he had forgotten to close an inlet valve, and the downwash from two helicopters made staying afloat harder still.
Q 23A later Mercury astronaut who blew his own capsule hatch on purpose suffered what injury, one Gus Grissom lacked?
A bruised hand
Arlington National Cemetery holds Grissom beside crewmate Roger Chaffee, while the third member of the crew was buried at West Point, as he had wished.
Q 14Which Apollo 1 crewmate of Gus Grissom had earlier become the first American to walk in space?
Ed White
Ed White floated outside Gemini 4 in June 1965 while Grissom talked to the crew from Houston as the capsule communicator.
Q 15Which journalist wrote The Right Stuff, the 1979 book about Gus Grissom and his fellow Mercury astronauts?
Tom Wolfe
Tom Wolfe wanted to outdo Norman Mailer's book on the first Moon mission, and interviewed test pilots, astronauts and their wives to do it.
Q 16Which actor played Gus Grissom in The Right Stuff, the 1983 film about the Mercury astronauts?
Fred Ward
Fred Ward's Grissom seems to panic at splashdown, a portrayal that drew the film's heaviest criticism and that one fellow Mercury astronaut never forgave.
Q 17Whose inner-ear disorder grounded him and handed Gus Grissom command of the first crewed Gemini flight?
Alan Shepard
Alan Shepard was sidelined by Ménière's disease, which causes dizziness and nausea. Surgery corrected it in 1968, and he went on to command Apollo 14.
Q 18Which astronaut, later a moonwalker and the first Space Shuttle commander, was Gus Grissom's pilot on Gemini 3?
John Young
John Young got the seat in a crew reshuffle, because the head of flight crews judged him a better personality match for Grissom than the original choice.
Q 19Which Mercury veteran commanded Apollo 7, the first crewed Apollo flight, after the fire that killed Gus Grissom?
Wally Schirra
Wally Schirra had led Grissom's backup crew, and the flight made him the only astronaut to fly in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.
Q 20What kind of spaceflight was Gus Grissom's 15-minute trip aboard the Mercury capsule Liberty Bell 7?
A suborbital hop
A suborbital hop took him about 118 miles up and 300 miles downrange, which made him the second American in space without circling the Earth.
A bruised hand came from hitting the stiff release plunger. Grissom had no such mark, which supported his account that he never touched it.
Q 24A 2021 analysis of recovery film suggested what set off Liberty Bell 7's hatch as a helicopter reached Gus Grissom?
Static electricity
Static electricity builds up on a helicopter in flight, and the co-pilot recalled an arc jumping to his cutting pole just before the hatch blew.
Q 25Which coins, hidden aboard as flight souvenirs, were found inside Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 when it was raised?
Mercury dimes
Mercury dimes, tucked into the capsule as souvenirs, were still aboard after 38 years on the seabed, as was Grissom's survival knife.
Q 26Which TV network financed the 1999 expedition that raised Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 from the Atlantic seabed?
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel money backed the end of a 14-year hunt led by Curt Newport, who found the capsule nearly 16,000 feet down.
Q 27In which US state is the Cosmosphere museum, home to Gus Grissom's restored Liberty Bell 7 capsule?
Kansas
Kansas has the Cosmosphere in the city of Hutchinson, whose restorers took the capsule apart, cleaned it and sent it on a national tour.
Q 28Which rocket, adapted from an Army ballistic missile, launched Gus Grissom on his Liberty Bell 7 flight?
Redstone
Redstone was the oldest missile in the American fleet, with years of successful test flights, which is why NASA trusted it with its first astronauts.
Q 29Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 was the first Mercury capsule to fly with which feature astronauts had demanded?
A proper window
A proper window replaced two small portholes, and Grissom found the view so absorbing that he struggled to concentrate on his controls.
Q 30Too short for varsity basketball at Mitchell High School, Gus Grissom joined which team instead?
Swimming
Swimming came after his father urged him to find a sport that suited him better. In class he was an average student who shone only at mathematics.