A letter written by Gus Grissom confides that he and the other Mercury 7 astronauts were angry when John Glenn was picked to be the first American to orbit the Earth.
The letter is being sold in an online auction by RR Auction of Amherst, N.H.
When he wrote to his mother on Oct. 7, 1961, Virgil "Gus" Grissom was still stinging from his Liberty Bell 7 flight in July of that year. The flight had ended with a blown hatch, a sunken space capsule and suspicions that the former Air Force fighter pilot had panicked.
He writes to Cecile Grissom that he's been "feeling pretty low" and says of his fellow astronauts "all of us are mad" at Glenn's selection.
The letter came from Grissom's brother, Lowell.