Liberty Bell 7

 
This spacecraft doesn't look so bad for its having sat at the bottom of the ocean for 38 years. Gus Grissom became the 2nd American in space when he repeated Alan Shepard's flight in this spacecraft on MR-4. A Redstone rocket lobbed him 118 miles high and 302 miles downrange from Cape Canaveral during a 15 minute and 37 second flight. Unfortunately, a malfunction caused the hatch to blow prematurely and it was all Gus could do to get out of the Liberty Bell and save his own life. The spacecraft became too heavy with seawater for the helicopter to lift it and they had to cut it loose. It's location was unknown until Curt Newport used the Magellan 725 Remotely Operated Vehicle to search the ocean floor and to bring it back to the surface once it had been found. This image was taken with the kit lens on my 20D at 18mm focal length. The exposure was 1/60 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 100 with a flash.