The following photos are of "The Lost Spacecraft" exhibition at the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland, Nebraska. The display features Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 space craft and the artifacts recovered in it. It was America's second manned space mission in 1961. It was the only NASA spacecraft lost and never recovered. It sat on the ocean floor for 38 years. Although its watery resting place was deeper than the Titanic's and it is only the size of a refrigerator, Liberty Bell 7 was located and recovered in 1999.

Liberty Bell 7.

View from a different angle.

The landing bag. After Liberty Bell 7 entered the atmosphere, this rubberized canvas landing bag was deployed, hanging between the capsule and its heat shield. When the capsule hit the ocean, the landing bag functioned much like an automobile airbag between the capsule and water, cushioning the impact.

Inside the cockpit.

Gus Grissom and the Mercury 7 astronauts.

Mercury capsule explosive hatch. Liberty Bell 7's hatch remains on the bottom of the ocean.

These gloves were worn by Gus Grissom as part of his Mercury mission training suit.