FURTHER THOUGHTS

Samuel T. (‘Sam’) Beddingfield was an aeronautical engineer who was involved in testing airplanes for the U. S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB before linking up with NASA at Langley Field, Virginia. At first he wanted to become involved in air­plane testing once again, but the NASA interviewer suggested he might instead find better work with the rocket people, who were in need of experienced engineers. Beddingfield drove around to that area of the field and the first person he bumped into was Gus Grissom, with whom he had tested airplanes at Wright-Patterson, and the recently selected astronaut convinced him to join the rocket team. As he told inter­viewer Lori Walters in 2001. “I was at Langley Field, Virginia two weeks and they told me they needed me to go on a temporary trip. And so they sent me down here to Cape Canaveral to help get Project Mercury started down here and that was very early October 1959 and I’ve been here ever since.”

Beddingfield helped establish NASA’s engineering facilities at the Cape as well as administering the setting-up of Hangar S as a work area and crew quarters for the astronauts. He then became involved as a mechanical engineer in the early Redstone launches of unmanned production Mercury spacecraft, and the 5 May 1961 launch of Alan Shepard aboard Freedom 7.

Asked if he had talked over the loss of Liberty Bell 7 with Grissom, Beddingfield said they had discussed it at length. “Yes, I talked to him quite a bit after the flight because a lot of people thought he must have fired the explosive that blew the hatch off. I knew if he had done that he’d tell me. We had tested airplanes enough together in the Air Force that when anything went wrong we knew we had to tell each other about it. And they put me on a team to go interview Gus as to what happened. And he told me he did not fire that hatch.”

Beddingfield stated that during Mercury tests of the explosive hatch, and on the subsequent Mercury manned flights, the blowing of the hatch caused noticeable deep bone bruising on the back of the hand of the astronauts involved. Mercury astronaut Deke Slayton agreed. “No one should have the idea that Gus was going around being defensive about this hatch thing,” Slayton remarked. “But he told me, sure, there was a possibility he had banged the thing by mistake…. All I know is that when Wally Schirra blew the hatch on his [MA-8] flight, he wound up with a big bruise on his hand. Gus never had one.”21

Schirra had ridden inside his Sigma 7 spacecraft as the recovery helicopter lifted it out of the ocean and flew it to the deck of the USS Kearsarge (CV-33). He blew the hatch only when he was ready to exit the capsule. He had to hit the plunger with five or six pounds of fist force; so hard that he injured his hand. He was not slow to show the tell-tale impact bruising and cut on his hand at his medical debriefing.

As Schirra wrote in his autobiography, Schirra’s Space, which was co-written with Richard Billings, “I blew the hatch on purpose, and the recoil of the plunger injured my hand – it actually caused a cut through a glove that was reinforced by metal. Gus was one of those who flew out to the ship and I showed him my hand. ‘How did you cut it?’ he asked. ‘I blew the hatch,’ I replied. Gus smiled, vindicated. It proved he hadn’t blown the hatch with a hand, foot, knee or whatever, for he hadn’t suffered even a minor bruise.”22

Beddingfield concurs. “Gus did not have [a bruise] in his hand. And when we got the spacecraft back we found out that the hatch could have done something that we don’t even understand. But Gus did not fire it. We were fairly comfortable in that.” Sam Beddingfield worked hard trying to determine the cause of the blown hatch. Grissom assisted by participating in extensive tests where he intentionally bumped against the plunger, but failed at all times to blow the hatch. The design engineers tried everything, but could not replicate whatever malfunction had caused the hatch to blow. According to a Project Mercury Status Report for the period ending 31 October 1961:

During a period between August 5, 1961 and October 12, 1961 a series of envi­ronmental tests were conducted on the explosive hatch. Individual pieces of the mild detonation fuse (MDF) cord, detonator caps, and RDX lead cups were subjected to simulated altitudes of 118 miles and 135 miles and subjected to 2,000-volt +1.2 to 2.0 milliampere static discharges. No inadvertent ignition occurred.

The units were then assembled into igniter assemblies and fired by pulling the lanyard. Full-order ignition occurred. Additional MDF cord was subjected to varying exposure in hydrogen peroxide. One condition resulted in a low-order detonation without igniting the full length of 12 inches. Two repeats of the same condition failed to induce any detonation. The MDF was reduced to puddles of lead in all of these tests.

Three inert igniter assemblies were subjected to push tests with the shear pin removed, with and without vacuum, and with and without the ‘O’ ring. The mini­mum push force was 2.63 pounds. The assembly with the minimum push force was subjected to vibrations of 0.03 to 10 G at frequencies from 5 to 2,000 cycles per second with no displacement of the plunger noted. A loaded hatch assembly which was subjected to a saline solution soak, with vacuum, electrostatic shock and vibration was degraded to the point of “no fire” due to salt concentration degrading the detonator caps. This hatch assembly was then disassembled, reloaded and subjected to a simulated launch, three orbits, and reentry tempera­ture test conditions. The pressure altitude during the test was 240,000 feet.

Upon removal from the test chamber, the hatch was subjected to a saline solu­tion soak and repeated electrostatic discharges. No detonation occurred. The hatch was then fired by lanyard pull and normal operation occurred.23

In 1965 Dr. Robert Voas, who was serving as the astronauts’ training officer at the time of MR-4, remained convinced that Grissom did not blow the hatch, either inten­tionally or accidentally. “When John Glenn completed his [MA-6] flight, he egressed from the capsule by actuating the explosive mechanism that exploded off the hatch. When he was later examined a bruise was found on his hand, caused by a pin that jumps back. On the next flight, Scott Carpenter climbed out of the top of the capsule and didn’t use the hatch. Wally Schirra and Gordon Cooper both exploded the hatch and both suffered bruises on their hands. Everyone who has actuated that explosive hatch has gained a bruise. The fact that Gus did not have a bruise is final demonstra­tion that he did not inadvertently actuate the mechanism. Although it has never been explained what did cause the accident, he has been completely absolved of the responsibility.”24