Lost Spacecraft - The Search For Liberty Bell 7 describes the exploration of two unique and dangerous environments - space and underwater - and how the paths of two men, one living and one dead, crossed in the recovery of the Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft. "Lost Spacecraft" focuses on two periods, one beginning in 1959, the other in 1985, interweaving the stories of Project Mercury, Gus Grissom and his ill-fated Mercury flight, on-going developments in deep ocean exploration, and Curt Newport's 14-year obsession to raise the sunken space-age Titanic from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.
 
Also told is how Newport's team, against staggering odds, managed to find the phone-booth sized space vehicle during his harrowing 1999 expedition, only to see their recovery vehicle and Liberty Bell 7 ripped from their grasp by the forces of nature. Newport later recovered Liberty Bell 7 during what remains the deepest commerical salvage operation in history, reutrning Grissom's craft to Cape Canaveral, Florida thirty eight years to the day after Grissom blasted off his tiny launch pad. However, the prevalent theme running through "Lost Spacecraft" is how simple luck almost rivals technical ability when exploring any deadly environment, whether it be the silent void of low-Earth orbit or the crushing cold of the abyss.
 
"...an interesting contribution to both the history of manned space flight and modern ocean salvage techniques..." - CHOICE

• Pre-order for pick-up at the field only.
• Includes a personalized autograph from Curt

This high-quality four-color print is a reproduction of an original oil painting by talented Boston artist Alfred Mira. The painting was commissioned by Curt Newport, the leader of the 1999 Liberty Bell 7 expedition which successfully located and recovered the Mercury spacecraft flown by astronaut Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom during America’s second manned space mission.
 
Liberty Bell 7 was lost at sea on July 21, 1961 following a premature actuation of its explosive exit hatch and deemed by most space historians as "lost and gone forever." However, against staggering odds, Newport’s team managed to find the phone-booth sized space vehicle during their unprecedented expedition on May 1, 1999. Working in water depths equal to the height of 28 Washington Monuments and using a new underwater vehicle built in only 60 days, Newport returned Liberty Bell 7 to Cape Canaveral, Florida 38 years to the day after Grissom blasted off from his tiny launch pad.
 
The original concept for this work of art began as a pencil drawing (done by Mr. Newport) which was used as the basis for the painting. The idea was to create an authentic and technically accurate reproduction of the exact moment when Liberty Bell 7 was first observed using the Magellan 725 Remotely Operated Vehicle. Given that there were no underwater cameras recording the entire event (other than the ones mounted to the underwater vehicle) the scene was reproduced and based on Mr. Newport’s over twenty years of experience in the underwater environment. Very close attention was paid to details such as the color of the bottom sediments (based on Newport’s personal observations of the area during two dives in the Russian’s Mir I manned submersible in 2001), the configuration of the Magellan 725 underwater vehicle, the unusual hue of HMI (i.e., Hydrargyrum Medium Arc-length Iodide) underwater lighting, and the blackness of the abyssal environment. Overall, this print is the only accurate depiction of the moment that Liberty Bell 7 was discovered 38 years after Gus Grissom’s historical space flight. Each print is hand signed by Curt Newport and Alfred Mira.