Indiana state park to mark Grissom's Gemini 3 flight

MITCHELL, Ind. (AP) - A southern Indiana state park that's located in NASA astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom's hometown is marking the 50th anniversary of the Gemini 3 space mission he co-piloted.

Spring Mill State Park will celebrate the Gemini 3's flight with daily guided tours March 21-23 of the park's Grissom Memorial.

Grissom and fellow astronaut John W. Young piloted the March 23, 1965, mission. The pair orbited the Earth during their nearly 5-hour mission aboard a capsule nicknamed "Molly Brown."

The Molly Brown is part of the Grissom Memorial at the park in Mitchell, a small city about 30 miles south of Bloomington.

Grissom was 40 when he died along with two other astronauts in 1967 when a flash fire swept through their Apollo spacecraft during a pre-launch test in Florida.