The sixth panel on the monument. It reads:
On March 23, 1965, Gus Grissom served as command pilot on the first manned Gemini flight. It was the
first time two men had gone into space together. Thus, Gus became the first
person to venture into space twice.
Lt. Col. Grissom piloted his capsule, which he named "The Unsinkable
Molly Brown," for a 3 orbit mission. It traveled at the rate
of 17,000 MPH on a flight which lasted 4 hours and 53 minutes. It was during
this flight that Gus took over the controls, which he had helped design, and
performed the first manual maneuver of a spacecraft, thus making possible a
rendezvous in space.
While strictly true that Gemini 3 was the "first time two men had gone into
space together," the Soviet Voskhod 1 mission of October 1964 was the first
time that three men had gone into space together, making the honor
of being a member of the first two-man crew somewhat less impressive.
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