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ImageL Astronaut Virgil Grissom has found his wife, Betty, and their sons, Scott (left) and Mark, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after his flight on three orbits in 1965. He was killed in the US. fire from a launch pad less than two years later. Later.CreditCreditAssociated PressBetty Grissom, the widow of astronaut Virgil Grissom, who died Saturday in a launching pad during a NASA shootout, died Saturday at her home in Houston. She was 91 years old. His son Mark confirmed the death. He said the neighbors had noticed that Mrs. Grissom had picked up her morning paper but not her afternoon mail and had gone to watch her. She was dead sorting the laundry, he said, and the cause of death was not known. Virgil Grissom, said Gus, one of the first seven Mercury astronauts immortalized by Tom Wolfe in his book "The Right Stuff," was the second American in space, according to Alan Shepard. He was also commanding pilot of Apollo 1, which was to test the Apollo capsule to take off for the Moon. But during a routine test at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, an electric fire swept the control module, killing the three astronauts on board – Mr. Grissom, Edward H. White II and Roger B. Chaffee. This was the first fatal accident in the history of the US space program. Mr. Grissom was 40 years old. Several investigations followed. Although they never identified the source of the fire, they concluded that several design flaws, including a pure oxygen atmosphere inside the cabin, had exacerbated it. In addition, the hatch was difficult to open, preventing the crew from escaping. NASA subsequently made significant changes to the design, materials and procedures, including the fabrication of non-flammable space suits. The combustible materials in the cabin have been replaced by self extinguishing versions. Grissom, Edward H. White II and Roger B. Chaffee posed for a photo at Launch Complex 34 in Cape Kennedy, 10 days before their assassination when the space module was catching fire.NASAN Creally four years after the fire The widow of Grissom, who was raising two sons herself, brought a multi-million dollar unjustified death action against the main contractor of the Apollo program, North American Rockwell. (The government itself can not be sued.) The statute of limitations for unlawful deaths of survivors was two years and had expired, said Ronald D. Krist, Houston's attorney who represented Ms. Grissom. But the general law of negligence was four years old and had not expired, which allowed him to continue for the pain and suffering of Mr. Grissom. She spent $ 350,000, about $ 2.2 million today. His action caused much grief to Ms. Grissom, with unknowns accusing her of being unpatriotic and the welded space community fleeing her. The experience embittered the family, said Mark Grissom, whose father died at the age of 13. "We had the dark side of NASA," he said in a phone interview Thursday. "The people who were my friends were no longer my friends. Many people turned their backs on us and mom received a lot of hate mail. They said, "How dare you sue NASA?" We were no longer part of the NASA family. Krist said that NASA had sent her a note from a critic who claimed that Ms. Grissom should not sue because her husband had taken some risk by being an astronaut.But Mr. Krist, a lawyer in charge because of the products, said the astronauts were entitled to expect that their capsule was well designed and all the careful precautions that would be taken to protect them. "The capsule was anything but fireproof" In any case, Mr. Krist said that the prosecution made it easier for the families of the other two astronauts killed, who received compensation without having to go to court. Has never flinched, "said Mr. Krist about Ms. Grissom." She has never regretted the lawsuit and has never hesitated to commit to carrying it through. " Betty Lavonne Moore was born on August 8, 1927 in Mitchell, Ind., De Claude and Pa uline (Sutherlin) Moore His father worked in a cement factory. She grew up in Mitchell and met with Mr. Grissom in high school. They get married quickly and she gets a late night telephonist job for Indiana Bell, while he is studying mechanical engineering at Purdue University on the G.I. Bill.ImageMs. Grissom has been entertaining with friends and guests at a memorial event at Cape Canaveral on January 27, 2017, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the ApolloCreditScott McIntyre disaster for the New York TimesIn addition to her son Mark, Mrs. Grissom is survived by another son, Scott; two grandchildren; and a great-grandchild. His sister, Mary Lou Fosbrink, has died. In the film adaptation of "The Right Stuff," Ms. Grissom was described by Veronica Cartwright and Mr. Grissom by Fred Ward. When she heard of the death of her husband in 1967, Mrs. Grissom was at a friend's house for their weekly poker game. She said at the time that she was "already dead of 100,000 deaths" by being married to an astronaut. In July 1961, Mr. Grissom, second American in space, became frightened by successfully completing a suborbital flight of 15 minutes Program Mercure. He nearly drowned when his capsule landed in the Atlantic Ocean and sank after the hatch burst prematurely. On January 27, 2017, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo disaster, Mrs. Grissom and her family attended a small memorial ceremony in Cape Canaveral. on the 34 launch complex, the ruined concrete site where her husband's capsule had been devastated by the flames.The site was decorated with three red, white and blue floral crowns provided by the Grissom family to honor the three men who had perished. She and her family had come annually to the anniversary of the fire, but she had felt like it was her last time. Contrary to what she had fled from her beginnings, Mrs. Grissom was the center of attention. She told an interviewer that her husband's sacrifice had helped pave the way for future missions in which other astronauts would have traveled to the moon. Still, she said, "I'm pretty sure that it happened to the moon before. "Of course, he did not survive," she added, "but in the spirit, I think he was already there.
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