Who were the first 10 people in Space? - Page 3 of 10

#3. Gus Grissom

Donning a spacesuit for the Mercury-Redstone 4 (MR-4) mission, astronaut Virgil I. (Gus) Grissom chats with spaceflight equipment specialist Joe W. Schmidt in the personal equipment room of Hanger S at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Date: 17 July 1961. Author : NASA

Virgil ‘Gus’ Grissom was the third person to reach space. A United States Air Force pilot and member of the original astronaut class, the Mercury Seven.

A WWII and Korean war veteran, Gissom was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor after he died in a fire during a pre-launch test in the Apollo 1. He and astronauts Ed White, and Roger B. Chaffee could not get out of the capsule on time during a fire on January 27, 1967.