SPACEPHOTOS

(07/21/1999) -- A close-up of the recently recovered Liberty Bell 7 Project Mercury capsule from the ocean floor shows the lettering 'United States' still clearly visible on its side. Thirty-eight years ago, the capsule made a successful 16-minute suborbital flight, with astronaut Virgil 'Gus' Grissom aboard, and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. A prematurely jettisoned hatch caused the capsule to flood and a Marine rescue helicopter was unable to lift it. It quickly sank to a three-mile depth. Grissom was rescued but his spacecraft remained lost on the ocean floor, until now. In an expedition sponsored by the Discovery Channel, underwater salvage expert Curt Newport fulfilled a 14-year dream in finding and, after one abortive attempt, successfully raising the capsule and bringing it to Port Canaveral. The capsule is being moved to the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, Kansas, where it will be restored for eventual public display. Newport has also been involved in salvage operations of the Space Shuttle Challenger and TWA Flight 800 that crashed off the coast of Long Island, N.Y