[meteorite-list] [OT] NASA, Grissom Widow Spar Over Spacesuit

From: geoking_at_notkin.net <geoking_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:06:18 2004
Message-ID: <v04220806ba0c074bc01c_at_[65.59.99.186]>

Dear Listees:

A little O.T., but this legal issue will be interesting to some.

Geoff N.


************

  NASA, Grissom Widow Spar Over Spacesuit


 From John Zarrella
CNN Miami Bureau Chief
Monday, November 25, 2002 Posted: 9:44 AM EST (1444 GMT)


http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/11/25/grissom.spacesuit/index.html


TITUSVILLE, Florida (CNN) -- Relatives the late Gus Grissom picked up
more than a dozen of the astronaut's personal belongings from a
Florida space museum, but a legal dispute with NASA prevented them
from reclaiming his spacesuit.

In 1961, Grissom, one of the original seven Mercury astronauts,
became the second American in space. Forty-one years later, the
shimmering silver suit he wore on the Liberty Bell flight is at the
center of an ownership battle.

Since 1991, some of Grissom's personal items had been on loan to the
Astronaut Hall of Fame. But the family decided recently that they
wanted them back after a management change at the Titusville museum,
a private operation near NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Many of the effects were returned last week, including a Stetson hat
given to Grissom by President Lyndon Johnson and the U.S. flag that
draped Gus' coffin.

But the space agency did not give back the spacesuit.

"It's always been valuable to us and now over time it is now valuable
to them (NASA) again," said Scott Grissom, son of the late astronaut.

After bankruptcy proceedings earlier this year, the Hall of Fame was
turned over to Delaware North Park Services, the same business that
oversees the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex for NASA.

"The larger question is one of historical significance. This is
something that is so important that it really belongs to the people,"
said Rick Hensler, spokesperson for the Kennedy Space Center visitor
complex.

Betty Grissom, widow of Gus, believes otherwise.

"Gus did give his life for this space program. And I think he
deserves at least that, or the family deserves the honor of at least
putting their two cents worth into where it is displayed."


The Liberty Bell 7 was salvaged from an ocean depth of 15,000 feet in 1999

NASA officials would not officially comment, but said the suit has
always been government property and they always knew where it was.

But did they? Grissom got the suit from a NASA storage facility in
1962 and it has been in the family's possession for decades.

"Gus brought it home and told us put it in the closet," Betty Grissom said.

NASA never came looking for it. The Grissoms and NASA have always had
a strained relationship, even while Gus was alive.

Grissom's Mercury capsule sank when it splashed down in the Atlantic
in 1961. He didn't receive a hero's parade or an invitation to
Washington to meet the president.

Six years later, Grissom and two other astronauts, Ed White and Roger
Chaffee, died in the Apollo 1 launch pad fire.

If the Grissoms can work out a compromise regarding the suit, they
say it would be the first thawing of the ice between the family and
since Grissom died 35 years ago.
Received on Thu 28 Nov 2002 12:55:23 PM PST