In Search of Liberty Bell 7, Discovery Channel, December 12, 1999

On December 12, 1999, the Discovery Channel aired a two-hour documentary about Gus Grissom's suborbital launch aboard Liberty Bell 7 on July 21, 1961, the spacecraft's loss in the Atlantic Ocean, its eventual recovery and restoration. Liberty Bell 7 is now on display at the Kansas Comosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas.
Project Mercury pad leader Günter Wendt was part of the recovery team.

[@zaraandrade]

Back when discovery channel’s documentaries were awesome! Thank you for posting

[@allengilby3054]

Thats a fact! Last I watched Discovery it was ghost hunters and Aliens living on earth stuff.

[@geoffreyashcroft3774]

Back when it was an actual documentary, and not just reality tv shows with no history or science dialogue

[@tylerhuse1379]

Thanks for this upload!

[@kewrock]

I had bought this VHS from Discovery channel. I remember watching it on TV, at the end there was an ad "You can own this program on VHS". No computer yet. I had to call the 800# with my credit card. Over 21 years ago.

[@customsongmaker]

I bought the Jazz documentary the same way, 10 DVDs for $200

[@colinbarnard6512]

This is a real time capsule. Somebody pulled an old VHS tape casette with this doc on it. It was recorded in real time with all the commercials intact every 8 minutes. At the same time, it plays like yesterday. It's also 25 years old, and feels like it, too. An essential bit of Space Age history, with new, or at least, rarely aired facts making for compelling viewing. Enjoy!

[@kewrock]

I saw this TV show at the time. I called the Discovery 800# and ordered the VHS tape by phone.

[@cdubois13]

I’m feeling nostalgic with the commercials. Web TV? Talk about a blast from the past. I was a senior in high school when this first aired.

[@heyitsvos]

Man for a second I thought my YT premium sub failed. Then realized it was actual TV commercials 😂

[@JLange642]

Re- watching this in 2024- thinking about how much has changed since 1999- this was pre- 9/11, 2 decades pre- Covid, and so much has happened in the area of space exploration since then. Shuttle retired, SpaceX has emerged as the premier private launch provider and landing /reusing its' boosters! Really quite amazing!

[@stephenperkins5644]

I loved the end with Gus 's brother that was a great tribute to his long lost brother.😢

[@ROOKTABULA]

If this issue with the hatch hadn't happened to Grissom, he and the other 2 astronauts would have been able to escape the fire 6 years later. Because the internal hatch release was removed after the 1961 incident and only an external hatch release remained, there was no way for Grissom and the others to escape in 1967. That is some _seriously_ cruel irony.

[@arianebolt1575]

Nearly killed by water, the fix kills you by fire.

[@ronaldtartaglia4459]

I walked on that same gantry at KSC. You can feel their presence. I tore me up.

[@allengilby3054]

When discovery channel made the kind of shows that made me like discovery Channel.

[@dizbeefpvdizbeliefdizzy3612]

Love the end with his younger brother

[@dizbeefpvdizbeliefdizzy3612]

Thank you

[@marktufts7756]

awesome video

[@knightavenger4601]

When I watched the right stuff back when it came out and seen the scene where the capsule sunk I looked at my dad and I said I would love to find that and bring it up. I thought about doing that for 10 years and actually began a plan to do so then life happens and now someone beat me to it! Which is cool. But wished I had found it

[@arkonaut7725]

Settle down, Francis. They're moving.

[@bagoistvan3182]

👍🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺 Thanx for the upload.😁😁😁

[@joseimpact]

bro i never knew in 1999 we had vcr . my mexican family didnt get it or probably knew about til late 2010 maybe

[@bruce92106]

169 views? Jeeeesh. Kinda disheartening nobody cares about history.

[@progrocker2112]

We have fastened every belt, we cannot float out of our seat, how enormously frightening when our tail reaches super heat!

[@owenmerrick2377]

The newsbreak subject at 11:00 is very fitting, nowadays....hmmmmm.

[@cdubois13]

Did they ever recover the Magellan ROV?

[@goldenretriever6440]

Isn’t it funny that they got James Earl Jones aka DARTH VADOR to narrate this

[@Zoomer30_]

April 12 1961 First man in space April 12 1981 First Space Shuttle launch (Columbia STS 1)

[@bevnfred]

July 20, 1969. Just over 8 years to get to the moon.

[@Zoomer30_]

Heheh, Lehman Brothers

[@dominicking5181]

Discovery Channel 🇺🇲 Discovery "Inc." (Nasdaq: DISCA.) Pre-9/11 stuff.😎