page_title: Mercury-Redstone 4
section_title: Hatch blows open
hierarchical_section_title: Mercury-Redstone 4 / Mission description / Splashdown / Hatch blows open
caption_attribution_description: English: Marine helicopter has astronaut Virgil I. Grissom in harness and is bringing him up out of the water. The Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft has just sunk below the water. His Mercury-Redstone 4 launch was the second in the U.S. manned space effort. The helicopter is a Sikorsky HUS-1 Seahorse of Marine medium transport squadron HMR(L)-262 Det. Flying Tigers.
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 logging the panel data, Grissom asked the helicopters to begin the approach for pickup. He removed the pin from the hatch-cover detonator and lay back in the couch. "I was lying there, minding my own business," he said afterward, "when I heard a dull thud." The hatch cover blew away, and salt water swished into the spacecraft as it bobbed in the ocean. The capsule began taking on water and was sinking fast.
  Grissom had difficulty recollecting his actions at this point, but he was certain that he had not touched the hatch-activation plunger. He had earlier unbuckled himself from most of his harness; he now removed his helmet, grasped the instrument panel with his right hand, and climbed though the hatchway.
  The copilot of the nearest recovery helicopter said that as he was preparing, per procedure, to cut off the spacecraft's antenna whip with a squib-actuated cutter at the end of a pole, the hatch cover flew off, struck the water about 5 ft (1.5 m) away, then skipped over the waves. Next he saw Grissom climb through the hatch and swim away.
caption: Grissom is hoisted to safety following the sinking of Liberty Bell 7
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