page_title: Mercury-Redstone 4
section_title: Recovery of Liberty Bell 7
hierarchical_section_title: Mercury-Redstone 4 / Mission description / Recovery of Liberty Bell 7
caption_attribution_description: English: A close-up of the Liberty Bell 7 Project Mercury capsule, recovered from the ocean floor, shows the lettering "United States" still clearly visible on its side. Thirty-eight years before, the capsule made a successful 16-minute suborbital flight, with astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom aboard, and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. A prematurely jettisoned hatch caused the capsule to flood and a Marine rescue helicopter was unable to lift it. It quickly sank to a three-mile (5 km) depth. Grissom was rescued but his spacecraft remained lost on the ocean floor, until July 20, 1999. In an expedition sponsored by the Discovery Channel, underwater salvage expert Curt Newport fulfilled a 14-year dream in finding and, after one abortive attempt, successfully raising the capsule and bringing it to Port Canaveral. The capsule was moved to the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, Kansas, where it was restored for public display.
context_page_description: Mercury-Redstone 4 was the second United States human spaceflight, on July 21, 1961. The suborbital Project Mercury flight was launched with a Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle, MRLV-8. The spacecraft, Mercury capsule #11, was nicknamed the Liberty Bell 7. It was piloted by astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom.
  The spaceflight lasted 15 minutes 30 seconds, reached an altitude of more than 102.8 nautical miles, and flew 262.5 nautical miles downrange, landing in the Atlantic Ocean. The flight went as expected until just after splashdown, when the hatch cover, designed to release explosively in the event of an emergency, accidentally blew. Grissom was at risk of drowning, but was recovered safely via a U.S. Navy helicopter. The spacecraft sank into the Atlantic and was not recovered until 1999.
context_section_description: After several unsuccessful attempts in 1992 and 1993, Oceaneering International, Inc. lifted the Liberty Bell 7 off the floor of the Atlantic Ocean and onto the deck of a recovery ship on July 20, 1999, the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. The team was led by Curt Newport and financed by the Discovery Channel.
  The spacecraft was found after a 14-year effort by Newport at a depth of nearly 16,000 ft (4,900 m), 300 nmi (350 mi; 560 km) east-southeast of Cape Canaveral. Among the items found within were part of the flight gear and several Mercury head dimes which were taken to space to be souvenirs of the flight.
  After Liberty Bell 7 was secured on the deck of the recovery ship, the "Ocean Project", experts removed and disposed of an explosive device (SOFAR bomb) that was supposed to detonate in the event of the spacecraft's sinking, but which failed to explode. The spacecraft was then placed in a container filled with seawater to prevent further corrosion. The Cosmosphere, in Hutchinson, Kansas, disassembled and cleaned the spacecraft, and it was released for a national tour through September 15, 2006. The spacecraft was then returned to the Cosmosphere where it is on permanent display. In 2016, it was temporarily lent to The Children's Museum of Indianapolis.
caption: Liberty Bell 7 was recovered in 1999
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