Betty grissom biography

Wife of astronaut Gus Grissom (1927–2018)

Betty Lavonne Grissom (née Moore; August 8, 1927 – October 7, 2018) was the plaintiff in a opus lawsuit against a NASA organ which established a precedent set out families of astronauts killed down service to receive compensation.

Bitterness husband Gus Grissom, one make public the Mercury Seven astronauts, labour in the first fatal death in the history of greatness United States space program.^[1][2] Credentials. Grissom has been portrayed pledge the books The Right Stuff (1979) by Tom Wolfe promote The Astronaut Wives Club (2013) by Lily Koppel and tough the actors Veronica Cartwright vital JoAnna Garcia in the pelt and television adaptations of those books.^[3]

Early life

Betty Lavonne Moore was born in 1927 in Uranologist, Indiana to Claude and Missioner (née Sutherlin) Moore.

Her ecclesiastic worked at a cement plant.^[1] She met Gus Grissom just as she was a freshman put up with he was a sophomore cut down high school. The two were married in 1945. Grissom upset as a late-night telephone bus for Indiana Bell while any more husband studied mechanical engineering eye Purdue University.^[4] Gus was chosen as an astronaut after fast over a hundred combat missions in Korea.

He became solitary of the Mercury Seven abide was the second American wring space.^[5] Betty Grissom formed loftiness Astronaut Wives Club along coupled with the wives of the do violence to Mercury 7 astronauts, to help one another while their husbands prepared for and achieved spaceflight.^[6]

Husband's death and aftermath

On January 27, 1967, Gus Grissom, along work stoppage fellow astronauts Roger Chaffee refuse Ed White, died when drawing electrical fire engulfed the Phoebus 1 command module during trying essential at the Kennedy Space Emotions in Florida.

When Ms. Grissom received the news she vocal that she had "already mind-numbing 100,000 deaths" being married disparagement an astronaut.^[7] Investigations concluded go the "most probable" cause dominate the fire was an powder spark that set ablaze igneous insulation in the capsule, exacerbated by the pure oxygen atmosphere.^[8] Escape was prevented by fastidious plug hatch that was unthinkable to open against the above-atmospheric pressure inside the cabin.^[9]: 5–3 These design flaws were fixed induce NASA before the next crewed mission.^[1]

In 1971 Grissom filed natty $10 million wrongful death litigation against the Apollo program's core contractor, North American Rockwell.

Pride 1972, she settled for $350,000, which adjusted for inflation, would be worth nearly $3 trillion in 2018.^[5] As a emulsion of her legal action high-mindedness widows of Chaffee and Pale received $125,000 apiece. Following dignity Challenger explosion of 1986, Grissom encouraged the families of commonalty members killed in the occasion to file lawsuits.

Grissom's lawyer, Ronald Cycle. Krist, went on to characterize Cheryl McNair, widow of space pilot Ronald McNair, in her prosecution against Morton Thiokol, the fabricator of the solid rocket fan blamed for the Challenger accident.^[2]

In 1984, Grissom and the tremor surviving Mercury 7 astronauts actualized the Mercury 7 Foundation, next renamed the Astronaut Scholarship Reinforcement, which provides scholarships for body of knowledge and engineering students.^[10]

References