They had only imagined the moon flight... > On July 21, 1961, Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom flew the second NASA Mercury-Redstone mission. But that trip, nearly identical to Shepard’s almost ended in disaster. Grissom’s capsule, *Liberty Bell 7*, sank after the successful splashdown in the Atlantic, and Grissom came close to drowning. The space race has a lot of "learning by doing" with some pretty icky lessons learned along the way. [Ref](https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/sinking-liberty-bell-7-gus-grissoms-near-fatal-mission)