Crew:
    Virgil I. (Gus) Grissom [1]

Backup:
    John H. Glenn, Jr.

Launch:
    Pad: LC 5/6, Pad 5
    Date: 21 July 1961
    Time: 12:20 UTC

Flight:
    Orbits: Suborbital
    Duration: 15 minutes, 37 seconds
    Altitude: 118 miles

Recovery:
    Location: Atlantic Ocean (302 miles east of Cape Canaveral)
    Vessel: USS Randolph (CVS-15)
    Date: 21 July 1961
    Time: 12:36 UTC

While waiting for rescue, the hatch on the capsule blew. Grissom escaped, but the capsule was lost.   Grissom claimed the hatch "just blew", but many believed he had panicked.   NASA investigated and exonerated him.

The capsule was recovered in 1999.  Although inconclusive, preliminary evidence tends to support Grissom's claim.

Launch vehicle was a Redstone rocket.

This is a very nice photo of the recovered Liberty Bell 7 during it's display at the Kennedy Space Center. (Credit to James Gerard. Used by permission. Check out his Field Guide to American Spacecraft.)

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This is a NASA photo of the attempted recovery of the MR-4 capsule.

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The Liberty Bell 7 capsule is currently on display at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, Hutchinson, KS.