Astronaut Gallery

Astronaut Virgil ?Gus? Grissom receives the NASA Distin?

Astronaut Virgil ?Gus? Grissom receives the NASA Distinguished Service Medal from James E. Webb, NASA Administrator, right, during a news conference at Cape Canaveral, the day after his sub-orbital flight, which had reached an altitude of 118 miles, 22 July 1961. Looking on are Grissom?s wife, Betty, and their two sons Scott and Mark. Date: 1961

© The Royal Aeronautical Society (National Aerospace Library)/Mary Evans Picture Library

Convair JC-131B O-53-7791

Convair JC-131B O-53-7791 (MSN 243), (the letter O denotes Obsolete), modified as JC-131B test-bed. Assigned to Aeronautical Systems Division, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in January 1971 and sed for zero gravity astronaut training, named Sine Gravitate. With windows removed and two Solar T41 APUs in underwing pylon-mounted pods, this JC-131B was the original Vomit Comet. Disposed of to MASDC (Military Aircraft Storage and Disposition Center) at Davis-Monthan Air Base in Arizona, sold and placed on the civil registry as N3782V. The registration was cancelled on 12 August 2003. Date: 1970s

© The Peter Butt Aviation Collection / Mary Evans

Ham - a 37-pound chimpanzee - Americas first astronaut

Ham - a 37-pound chimpanzee - became Americas first astronaut when he was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard the Mercury-Redstone (MR-2) suborbital flight on 31 January 1961. In a memo written the next day, NASAs Warren J. North noted: Ham appeared to be in good physiological condition but sometime later when he was shown the spacecraft it was visually apparent that he had no further interest in co-operating with the space-flight program. Date: 1961

© The Royal Aeronautical Society (National Aerospace Library) / Mary Evans Picture Library