The ride was exhilarating, the view spectacular, but what really put Grissoms flight into history books was its unfortunate finale. For reasons still unknown, after splashdown the capsules hatch door blew off early. As the cabin filled with water, Grissom narrowly escaped with his life. Before a rescue helicopter that was standing by could nab the waterlogged spacecraft, it sank three miles to the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.

For 38 years, Liberty Bell 7 rested undisturbed. Grissom went on to fly the first Gemini mission and later was a member of the Apollo 1 crew that perished in a 1967 launch pad fire. The capsule was all but forgotten until this summer.

During a recent expedition sponsored by the Discovery Channel for an upcoming documentary, the capsule was recovered and sent to a space museum in Kansas to be refurbished. It is to become the centerpiece of a three-year traveling exhibit beginning next spring.

The task before the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, which is contributing about $225,000 for the refurbishment, is daunting. Every nut, bolt, screw, switch and panel is being dismantled, cleaned and reassembled. The museum is nearly finished with the first part of the three-phase effort.

Theyve had a few surprises turn up amidst the relics. Among them -- a cigarette butt and a plastic cup.

It is "highly unlikely" the articles were Grissom's, said museum director Max Ary. Someone who helped build or prepare the spacecraft for flight probably left them behind, he said.

The team, scouring through the 50 pounds of muck that was removed from the spaceship, also found 52 Mercury-head dimes. Ary thinks they were gathered in a roll of paper and stashed in the capsule as souvenirs -- not for Grissom, but for workers, and maybe even other astronauts. Many of the dimes have initials and other notches in them presumably to serve as identifying features.

Arys favored finds are Grissoms world map, his checklist (on which the astronaut carefully recorded the positions of dozens of switches inside the capsule until he was interrupted by the abrupt departure of his door) and the metal cap that covered the hatch detonator.

Expedition organizer Curt Newport prizes Grissoms custom divers knife, which was found between the astronauts seat and the side of the capsule. The team also recovered Grissoms survival kit, with all items intact, including shark repellant, soap and a vial of morphine.

Ary says about 70 percent of the spacecrafts equipment and astronauts gear should be recoverable and included in the permanent display. By December, the museum expects to be well into the second part of the refurbishment -- cleaning and sorting the 25,000-odd components and figuring out where they all go.