Gus Grissom Boyhood Home Museum

Mitchell, Indiana

1940s furniture in this humble home gives a sense of what it was like growing up to be America's second astronaut. See Gus Grissom's bed, a shotgun he bought with money he saved from part-time jobs, and a knife he made in high school shop class.

The house back porch has been turned into a small museum of his too-brief outer space career. Gus died in 1967, but his parents lived in the home until the 1990s. If you arrive when the house is closed -- which is most of the time -- you can still pose out front next to a big sign and photo of smiling Gus.