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Expedition Sponsor: Discovery Channel
Expedition Leader: Curt Newport
A Photo Gallery
The first section of images were sent to Rick Boos by Guenter Wendt who was among the second crew that set out in 1999 to find, recover and bring back the Liberty Bell 7 capsule to Cape Canaveral after it had spent the past 38 years 15,000 feet below the ocean surface following Grissom's sub-orbital flight in 1961.




Liberty Bell 7 on Ocean Floor


Liberty Bell 7 on the Recovery Ship
The second section of images were sent to Rick Boos by Major James Lewis USMCR who was among the second crew that set out in 1999
to find, recover and bring back the Liberty Bell 7 capsule to Cape Canaveral after it had spent the past 38 years 15,000 feet below
the ocean surface following Grissom's sub-orbital flight in 1961.



Right: Guenter Wendt-Crew at Sea



Below Deck


Interior of Liberty Bell 7 upon loading onto the ship


Liberty Bell 7 Instrumentation

Liberty Bell 7 Interior


Instrumentation under Restoration

Liberty bell 7 under Restoration



Decades after the Liberty Bell hatch incident, Rick Boos finally gets to examine the restored space capsule. He studied and argued for years that Grissom did not blow the hatch intentionally or accidentally. As it turns out, in an interview he conducted with Jim Lewis who was on the recovery team helicopter, Mr. Boos was told that the likely source was a static discharge between the helicopter and the capsule, thus actuating an explosive device that tossed the hatch into the ocean. Liberty Bell sank to a level 15,000 feet below sea level before it was recovered 38 years later in 1999.