Gus Grissom flew his Mercury mission today — MR-4, Liberty Bell 7 — and the flight itself was fine. He went up to 118 miles, flew for fifteen minutes like Shepard, did his job competently. But then, after splashdown, something went wrong with the hatch.

The explosive hatch cover blew prematurely — they’re not sure if Grissom hit the trigger accidentally or if it malfunctioned — and the ocean started flooding in. Grissom got out, but he couldn’t get back to the recovery helicopter quickly enough, and Liberty Bell 7 sank. Grissom nearly sank too; his suit flooded, which apparently shouldn’t have happened, and he was struggling in the water by the time the recovery swimmers got to him.

He’s fine. He’s fine, but he’s visibly shaken in the photographs, and there are already people in the press suggesting he panicked and blew the hatch himself. I find that infuriating. The man flew into space. He did everything he was asked. If the hatch blew prematurely — which seems like the most likely explanation for a man as disciplined as Grissom — that’s an engineering problem, not a character problem.

The capsule is on the bottom of the Atlantic. They couldn’t recover it. Which means we’ve lost our data and our hardware. That’s a real loss.

But Grissom is alive, and the flight itself was a success. I want to say that clearly, because I think the coverage over the next few days is going to be unkind to him.

The space program moves on. John Glenn’s orbital mission is being prepared. The pressure is enormous — Gherman Titov orbited the Earth seventeen times last week in Vostok 2. Seventeen times. Shepard and Grissom did fifteen minutes. Titov spent more than a full day in space. The gap between us is not closing as fast as I would like.

Glenn is next. If anyone can answer Titov, it’s Glenn.

I think about Grissom treading water in the Atlantic with his suit flooding, knowing his capsule was going down behind him. That’s a lousy way to end a spaceflight. He deserves better from the commentary I’m already hearing.