NASA-UAP-D014: Mercury-Redstone 4 (Liberty Bell 7) Audio Excerpt — Gus Grissom, July 21, 1961
Date
July 21, 1961
Document Type
Audio
Authentication
Official PublicationRedaction Status
✓ Fully ReleasedIssuing Authority
NASA — Mercury Program / Department of War (PURSUE Release 2)
Summary
Audio excerpt from the Mercury-Redstone 4 (Liberty Bell 7) mission released by the Department of War as part of PURSUE Release 2. The recording captures mission audio from Gus Grissom's suborbital Mercury flight on July 21, 1961 — the second American in space. Liberty Bell 7 was a 15-minute 37-second suborbital flight reaching an apogee of 118 miles. Grissom's flight preceded John Glenn's first orbital flight by seven months and was the earliest dated record in the entire PURSUE Release 2 NASA audio series. Grissom was one of the Mercury Seven and subsequently flew Gemini 3 before his death in the Apollo 1 fire (January 27, 1967).
Significance
The earliest-dated record in the entire PURSUE Release 2 corpus: July 21, 1961. The inclusion of a 15-minute suborbital flight in the PURSUE UAP corpus raises questions about what anomalous observation — if any — is the basis for its inclusion, given the extremely limited observation time available during a suborbital trajectory. Grissom's subsequent death in the Apollo 1 fire and his stature as one of the most respected test pilots of the era give this record particular historical weight.