Ad Astra
It could’ve happened.
Virgil Ivan (Gus) Grissom was born on April 3, 1926.
As a young man, he joined the U.S. Army Air Force during World War 2 but he was not involved in any combat.
During the Korean war he was a combat pilot who flew one hundred missions in a F-86 Sabrejet. He was not credited with any kills, but his outstanding flying skills were recognized by his superiors and he was assigned to be a flight instructor.
After the Korean war ended, he became a test pilot, where he was able to continue putting his flying skills to use.
After the termination of the Mercury project, Grissom joined the second American manned space program, named Gemini. This phase of the American space program tested new technologies and techniques that would subsequently be used in the Apollo program.
The Apollo program picked up where Gemini had left off, and Grissom joined it as one of its senior astronauts.
The Apollo program was a tremendous success. It sent humans to observe the far side of the moon for the first time ever in 1968, and the next year Apollo 11 successfully landed men on the moon and returned them safely to Earth. In all, six missions landed on the moon, and all returned safely.
Gus Grissom may well have been the first man to set foot on the moon if not for the Apollo 1 tragedy.
Chief Astronaut Donald Kent (Deke) Slayton, who was in charge of Apollo crew assignment, revealed that Grissom would have been his first choice.
A simple plaque at Cape Canaveral memorializes the ill-fated astronauts of Apollo 1:
(a rough road leads to the stars)