On July 21, 1961, Virgil "Gus" Grissom made history as the second Mercury astronaut launched into space. Grissom's 16-minute suborbital flight in the Liberty Bell 7 space capsule was a success ~~ but a series of surprises after splashdown nearly cost Grissom his life and left NASA's space capsule sinking to the ocean floor.

After Grissom splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean 300 miles from Cape Canaveral, Liberty Bell 7's explosive-powered hatch jettisoned prematurely, flooding the capsule and Grissom's spacesuit. A Marine rescue helicopter, unable to lift the waterlogged capsule, had to let it go. The Liberty Bell 7 quickly sank out of sight. Grissom was rescued in a valiant effort, but his spacecraft remained lost at the bottom of the Atlantic ~~ the only manned spacecraft that NASA never recovered.

Nearly 40 years later, the Discovery Channel funded a Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center expedition to locate, recover, and restore this lost part of American space history.

This is an original piece of film from Liberty Bell 7's pilot observation camera, which was mounted in the main control panel to capture all the actions and movements of astronaut Gus Grissom during his historic July 21, 1961, flight. The images captured on this film were the only in-flight images documenting what took place inside the Mercury capsule during its 15-minute suborbital flight and the harrowing moments when it sank. After 38 years at the bottom of the ocean, corrosion dissolved the camera and left the film exposed to the elements. The content of the film will never be known.