Virgil Gus Grissom

Virgil Ivan Grissom, Lt Col USAF (born April 3, 1926, Mitchell, Indiana, USA – January 27, 1967, Cape Kennedy, Florida, USA) widely known as Gus Grissom, was one of the original NASA Project Mercury astronauts, a mechanical engineer and a United States Air Force pilot. He was the second American to fly in space, and the first member of the NASA Astronaut Corps to fly in space twice. He and two other astronauts died when the Command Module interior caught fire and burned during a pre-launch test.