MELBOURNE, Fla. - Gus Grissom's 75-year-old widow and eldest son retrieved the fallen astronaut's personal effects yesterday from the Astronaut Hall of Fame.
Among the boxed items was the Stetson hat President Lyndon Johnson gave Grissom, the astronaut's log book and the folded American flag from his funeral at Arlington National Cemetery.
But the artifact his widow and son wanted most - Grissom's Mercury 7 spacesuit - was still sealed in a glass case at the Titusville museum when the pair headed home to Houston.
Although the Grissoms had the suit for nearly 30 years before lending it to the museum a decade ago, NASA says it always belonged to the government.
According to NASA, Gus Grissom borrowed the suit in the early 1960s and never returned it. His family said he took it because he had learned NASA planned to destroy it, a contention the space agency disputes.
"The suit will remain at the Hall of Fame until the ownership issue is resolved," said the Grissoms' Melbourne attorney, Jim Fallace. "We're hoping to find some way of resolving it other than litigation."
Fallace said NASA has been aware since 1965 that the family had the spacesuit.
"It never was an issue until September of this year when Betty Grissom refused to sign a new loan agreement" with the museum, he said.
That month, the once not-for-profit Hall of Fame was taken over by Delaware North Park Services, which also has a contract with NASA to run the visitor center tourist attraction at Kennedy Space Center.
The Grissoms, who have long blamed NASA for the Apollo 1 launch-pad fire that killed Gus Grissom, 41, and two other astronauts, said they didn't want the space agency making money off his artifacts.
"Betty Grissom also is concerned that the Astronaut Scholarship Fund is not getting sufficient money from the use of her husband's artifacts now," Fallace said.
The Grissoms had planned to confront NASA officials Tuesday outside the museum to demand the silver spacesuit. However, shortly before the planned meeting, Fallace asked that it be rescheduled for yesterday morning at his office.
During the one-hour meeting with NASA's chief counsel, Bruce Anderson, and a Delaware North representative, the personal items were returned, ownership of the suit was discussed and the family's lingering questions over the fire were heard, Scott Grissom said.
Laurin Sellers writes for the Orlando Sentinel, a Tribune Publishing newspaper.