Max Ary, Kansas Cosmosphere: It really was considered at that point in time, Liberty Bell 7 as the most important American space artifact that had yet to be recovered.
Narrator: The second U.S. manned spacecraft, Liberty Bell 7 part of the Mercury series, was launched in July of 1961, with Gus Grissom in command. It was a completely successful flight until splashdown.
Max: And as they were sitting in the ocean and going through a post-flight check list and calmly waiting for rescue crews to get to him to recover him. The hatch blew off and water began immediately pouring into the spacecraft and he barely got out with life and limb. And so, the spacecraft then sunk and in over 16,000 feet of water and obviously, especially in 1961 there was no feeling that anyone would ever see that spacecraft again. In the late 1970's, the cosmosphere became interested in Liberty Bell 7 and for a very simple reason, we were trying to complete our collection of spacecraft. The one spacecraft we knew we were going to have the most difficulty in obtaining was the Mercury, because it was the rarest. As we looked around and saw that the spacecraft was pretty much positioned in a permanent home we thought, well the only chance we were going to have in getting a Mercury was to try to figure out a way to recover Liberty Bell. In the early 1990's we were able to go out and do two very short expeditions to try out the hardware, the technology but to also find out if we our research was correct in finding Liberty Bell. Well, we didn't find anything because we had technological problems. But, finally, last fall with the aid of the Discovery Channel, they came forward and put together a great package and went out this last spring in April and tested all twelve years worth of research. They spent many weeks out doing sonar scanning, found about eighty-eight contacts in the area we thought the Liberty Bell might be and when they put the POV over it, with the cameras on, it to start looking, contact number one was Liberty Bell 7.
Narrator: The retrieved space capsule was carefully packed and shipped to the Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas, where restoration work began.
Max: Liberty Bell 7 has created a challenge for us like we've never had in previous restoration projects. The Cosmosphere has conducted over fifty major space artifact restorations projects in the past, including more than ten spacecraft. This shouldn't have been that big of an issue, except this one presented a completely different challenge. Unlike past spacecraft that we were either just putting parts back together, or whatever, this one had been on the bottom of the ocean for thirty-eight years, had been at 16,000 feet to where the pressures had been in excess of 7,000 pounds per square inch. And that just created a whole bunch of problems that we have never dealt with before. So, we kind of each day has been a new archeological project for us and also a new science project as we figure out how to deal with conditions that have never been dealt with before. The pressure by itself was a tremendous challenge of how some of the equipment was crushed, how water was able to permeate sealed components that water shouldn't normally be able to permeate. So there are some real mysteries involved here that we've never had to deal with before. We've had to disassemble the entire spacecraft and we estimate to about twenty-five to thirty thousand pieces.
Then work on each one of them, clean them, restore them, preserve them and then reassemble the spacecraft and that is what we're doing here today, in fact, we are starting to reassemble the Liberty Bell 7.
Gregg Buckingham, Restoration Specialist: Many of the parts don't work like they did originally, to date we've probably collected and retrieved probably two hundred pounds of debris that at one point was organic life, ocean bottom, that sort of thing. Then there is the debris that comes from the corrosion process, aluminum, beryllium, and that sort of thing. And then finding all the individual tiny little parts and pieces although they won't be used in the restoration it is still important to retain every piece of the capsule that we can recover.
Narrator: There were many unique finds within the vessel. On the floor were a number of dimes, reportedly brought on board by Grissom, as well as, five silver certificates.
Max: he labor effort is tremendous on restoration projects like this probably ninety percent of the cost is actually labor. And we have a tremendous restoration crew here, but we have also been blessed with the fact that we have a wonderful volunteer force. So we have even had some of our volunteers working on some of the various components here too. But we are talking about thousands and thousands of man hours of restoration time. By the time we are completed in will be in excess of a quarter of a million dollars, that will have been spent on the restoration. When the spacecraft is completed here, the Discovery Channel will take the craft and place it in a wonderful big traveling exhibition that they are building right now. It will go on a three year tour of the United States. Then it will come back here after three years to the Cosmosphere and this will be its final and permanent home.
Narrator: A unique aspect of this restoration is that it is being performed in front of the crowds that tour the Kansas Cosmosphere every day. It can even be viewed on-line.
Max: This has been a process we've used several times prior and we've found the public really enjoys watching this activity happening in front of it because most people have no concept of what it takes to do a restoration project like this and I think they come away with an even greater sense of awe and wonder when they see what these people are doing to save this spacecraft. It is an extraordinary endeavor.
Gregg: We actually did Apollo 13 in public view also, it was one of the things I discussed with Max early on before we even began the project and thought it would be significant to share just what it takes to bring an artifact up to museum quality.
Narrator: The controversy as to whether or not astronaut Gus Grissom blew the hatch of the Liberty Bell 7 himself in a panic, or it blew accidentally, has risen from the Tom Wolfe book "The Right Stuff". Wolfe who heavily researched his book, may have received the story from a fellow astronaut who is not entirely sympathetic to Grissom. The recovery of the capsule does not answer this question since the hatch itself is still at the bottom of the ocean. According to Max Ary recovery of the hatch would only yield a fifty-fifty chance of gaining further evidence to support or disprove Grissom's claim. Ary maintains Grissom was a well trained pilot with more hazardous missions to his credit than the space mission. Also, all of the pilots after Grissom bruised their hands blowing the hatch of the spacecraft. There were no bruises on Grissom's hands. Ary thinks he may have even bumped the hatch device with his space helmet. Either way, Ary feels that retrieving the Liberty Bell hatch which could cost millions would probably not be worth the risk or the effort.