What caused Liberty Bell 7 sink?

Liberty Bell 7: Unraveling the Mystery of a Sunken Spacecraft

July 21, 1961: picture this. The US was neck-and-neck with the Soviets in the space race, and all eyes were on Gus Grissom as he climbed into Liberty Bell 7. His mission? A quick, 15-minute suborbital hop, almost a repeat of Alan Shepard’s flight. Everything seemed to go off without a hitch, until splashdown. What happened next turned a successful mission into a near-disaster: the hatch blew, water rushed in, and Liberty Bell 7 plunged to the bottom of the Atlantic. So, what really happened?

A Souped-Up Spaceship and a Smooth Ride… Almost

Liberty Bell 7 wasn’t just a carbon copy of Shepard’s ride. NASA had made some tweaks, including a bigger window (for better views, naturally) and a fancy explosive hatch. This hatch was designed for a quick escape – pop it manually from inside, or yank a lanyard from the outside. Seems straightforward, right? This explosive hatch was held in place by 70 bolts .

The flight itself? Textbook. Grissom got his five minutes of weightlessness, played around with the controls, and brought it home. Re-entry was smooth, and the capsule splashed down, bobbing in the Atlantic, waiting for the rescue chopper. What could go wrong?

Splashdown Turns to Submarine Duty

Well, almost as soon as Liberty Bell 7 hit the water, things went sideways. The hatch… just blew. No warning, no apparent reason. Seawater flooded the capsule in seconds. Grissom, caught completely off guard, scrambled out, now fighting for his life as his suit started filling up with water. Imagine the chaos!

A Marine Corps helicopter arrived, ready to haul the capsule back to safety. But Liberty Bell 7, now full of water, was too heavy. The chopper crew had to make a tough call: cut the capsule loose or risk going down with it. They cut it loose, and Liberty Bell 7 sank like a stone, ending up nearly three miles down. Grissom, thankfully, was rescued, but the spacecraft was a goner.

The Million-Dollar Question: Who Popped the Hatch?

The big question, of course, was why the hatch blew. Did Grissom accidentally trigger it? Did something else cause the explosion?

Grissom swore he didn’t touch a thing. He was just floating there, waiting for the chopper, when BAM! The hatch blew. But without the capsule to examine, it was just his word against… well, against the laws of physics, maybe?

The rumors started flying. Some whispered that Grissom panicked and hit the wrong button. “Hatch-gate,” as it became known, stuck to him like glue for years. Fair? Probably not.

Other Suspects: Static Electricity and Lingering Doubts

Over time, other theories emerged. One intriguing idea? Static electricity from the rescue helicopter. The theory goes that as the crew tried to cut the antenna, they might have generated a static charge that zapped through the spacecraft and detonated the hatch.

And get this: some folks even analyzed the old recovery films and found movement near the hatch right before the explosion. Could it have been an external force? Maybe.

Lost and Found: The Liberty Bell 7‘s Comeback

Liberty Bell 7 spent 38 long years on the ocean floor. Then, in 1999, a Discovery Channel-funded expedition, led by Curt Newport, finally found her and brought her back to the surface.

The recovered capsule offered some clues, but no smoking gun. The hatch mechanism was too corroded to say for sure what happened. Still, the recovery helped change the narrative.

Most people now believe Grissom didn’t cause the sinking. NASA certainly seemed to think so, putting him in charge of the Gemini and Apollo programs. It’s a tragic irony that he later died in the Apollo 1 fire in 1967.

Today, you can see Liberty Bell 7 at the Cosmosphere in Kansas. It’s a powerful reminder of the daring (and dangerous) days of early space exploration, and a mystery that still sparks debate. While we may never know exactly what triggered that hatch, the evidence leans towards an external cause, not a panicked astronaut. And maybe, just maybe, that’s the truth that Gus Grissom deserved all along.