apiece. Following the Challenger explosion of 1986, Grissom encouraged the families of crew members killed in the incident to file lawsuits. Grissom's lawyer, Ronald D. Krist, went on to represent Cheryl McNair, widow of astronaut Ronald McNair, in her lawsuit against Morton Thiokol, the manufacturer of the solid rocket booster blamed for the Challenger accident. In 1984, Grissom and the six surviving Mercury 7 astronauts created the Mercury 7 Foundation, later renamed the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, which provides scholarships for science and engineering students. References 1927 births 2018 deaths People from Mitchell, Indiana Apollo 1 Betty Burials at Arlington National Cemetery