Beschreibung:

A flown component from the Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft, the Mercury-Redstone 4 mission, being a ¾ inch long bolt. Encased in an 4 ½ by 5 by 1 ½ inch lucite block with a description of: "This is an original component from Liberty Bell 7 Mercury spacecraft, recovered from the Atlantic Ocean on July 20, 1999, from a depth of 16,043 feet." An image of the refurbished Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft is to the left of the bolt. With original presentation box. Included is a 3 by 4 inch dual leaf Certificate of Authenticity from the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center (KCSC) which reads in part: "On July 21, 1961, with a 15-minute suborbital flight of the Mercury spacecraft Liberty Bell 7, Gus Grissom became the second American in space. The flight was by-the-book until splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean when the explosive-powered hatch jettisoned prematurely, flooding the capsule. Grissom scrambled out of the spacecraft and nearly drowned in the swells. With the spacecraft full of water, the weight was too much for the recovery helicopter. Liberty Bell 7 was released and the spacecraft sank three miles to the bottom of the ocean floor.... The preservation of Liberty Bell 7 represented one of the biggest restoration challenges to date for the Cosmosphere. Every one of the nearly 25,000 parts of Liberty Bell 7 had to be removed, disassembled, cleaned and then put back together. The item you have acquired could not be reinstalled in the spacecraft because of the corroded condition of the component to which it was originally attached."