Shepard is the first American to reach space on the 15-minute sub-orbital flight of Mercury-Redstone 3, on May 5, 1961. He and his wife are given a White House visit, meeting the president and first lady, John and Jackie Kennedy. After Grissom's similar flight of Mercury-Redstone 4 on July 21, the capsule's hatch blows open upon splashdown and quickly fills with water. Grissom escapes, but the spacecraft sinks. Many accuse him of opening the hatch prematurely and panicking, a personal smirch, not on the program. The Grissoms don't get a parade, and Betty Grissom is distraught as she won't get to meet Jackie, which was her dream and feels is her due for all the years of being a test pilot's wife. Meanwhile test pilots at Edwards mock the Mercury program, saying Gus Grissom should have been washed out. Yeager states that "it takes a special kind of man to volunteer for a suicide mission, especially when it's on national TV." They then recognize the courage it takes, irrespective of flying skill.