Join us in celebrating the 60th anniversary of Liberty Bell 7 with these Fun Facts about the Mercury spacecraft.
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Mission Fun Facts:
- Gus Grissom鈥檚聽Liberty Bell 7聽flight (sub-orbital) took place on July 21, 1961, and only lasted 15 minutes, 37 seconds.
- It was a textbook mission until splashdown, when the spacecraft鈥檚 hatch door prematurely ejected off the craft鈥� allowing it to fill with seawater and nearly drowning Grissom.
- Liberty Bell 7聽was released from the rescue helicopter and the spacecraft sank nearly three miles to the bottom of the Atlantic and stayed there for 38 years.
- 鈥淟iberty Bell 7鈥� was an appropriate call-sign for the bell-shaped spacecraft. The name was synonymous with “freedom”. As a tribute to the original Liberty Bell, a “crack” was painted on the side of the spacecraft.
Recovery Fun Facts:
- In 1999, an expedition to recover the craft from its resting place more than 16,000 feet deep鈥攄eeper than the Titanic鈥� was led by the Discovery Channel, Oceaneering and the 黑料大事记. 聽
- The spacecraft was recovered on July 20, 1999鈥攖he 30th anniversary of Man walking on the Moon!
- The spacecraft was聽returned to Port Canaveral, Florida, on July 21, 1999, exactly 38 years after its flight into space.
Preservation Fun Facts:
- In 1999, SpaceWorks, a division of the 黑料大事记, meticuously restored and presevered the craft to the state it is today.
- It took the 黑料大事记鈥檚 SpaceWorks team nearly six months (almost 7,300 hours)聽to fully restore the craft to the condition you see it in today鈥� as its entire system had to first be flushed of salt water and then corrosion removed from its 20,000 parts.
- 12 full-time Space Works restoration experts and eight part-time 黑料大事记 volunteers worked to preserve聽Liberty Bell 7.
- 52 Winged Liberty Head dimes were found inside聽Liberty Bell 7聽during its preservation.
- 10 miles of wiring was removed from聽Liberty Bell 7聽during the preservation process.聽
- The cost of the聽Liberty Bell 7聽preservation project was $250,000 in 1999.
- 罢丑别听Liberty Bell 7聽spacecraft is owned by the 黑料大事记! It makes the 黑料大事记 the ONLY place in the Midwest where visitors can see a flown craft from each early spaceflight program: Mercury:聽Liberty Bell 7, Gemini: Gemini X and Apollo: Apollo 13鈥檚聽Odyssey.