While the film took liberties with certain historical facts as part of "dramatic license", criticism focused on one: the portrayal of Gus Grissom panicking when his "Liberty Bell 7" spacecraft sank following splashdown. Most historians, as well as engineers working for or with NASA and many of the related contractor agencies within the aerospace industry, are now convinced that the premature detonation of the spacecraft hatch's explosive bolts was caused by mechanical failure not associated with direct human error or deliberate detonation by Grissom. This determination had been made long before the film was completed. Many astronauts, including Schirra, Cooper and Shepard, were critical of "The Right Stuff" for its treatment of Grissom, who was killed in the Apollo 1 launch pad fire in January 1967 and thus unable to defend himself when the film was being made. The recovery of the Liberty Bell spacecraft in 1999 proved that Grissom did not intentionally blow the hatch.