FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0414.PDF
14 FLIGHT International, 15 March 1962 Missiles and Spaceflight (Left) "After a good breakfast I had a brief medical exam and Bill put the biomedical sensors on my body . checks on the switches in the capsule ..." (Above) "We ran through a series of ORBIT BY JOHN H. GLEN N THE night before the launch the weather people gave us only a 50-50 chance to go. Conditions in the recovery areas were perfect, but the Cape itself looked poor. There was a chance the overcast would break up in time for a launch in the morning, but it was more likely that the following day would be the one we'd all been waiting for. I called Annie and the children and then my folks in New Concord and told them not to be disappointed by another delay. Then I wrote Nancy Lowe, our secretary, a note and left it on her desk with my car keys and a cheque which would cover small expenses I'd run up for meals and laundry and things like that. I got to bed about 7. I woke up about 1.30 in the morning, half an hour before I was scheduled to get up. I'd slept fine, and I just lay there for a while running mission procedures over in my mind. It still didn't feel too likely to me for that morning and when Bill Douglas came in to wake me he verified that the weather was still 50-50. I was lying in the top bunk of a double-decker, and Bill rested his arms on the bunk while we talked quietly. The count was moving right along on schedule, he told me. My back-up, Scott Carpenter, who'd got up at midnight to check out the capsule for me, had called back to say that the capsule was ready. The booster was in good shape. Like the fine doctor he is, Bill Douglas just eased into the question: How did I feel ? I told him I was "Okay" and got up to shave and shower. After a good breakfast I had a brief medical exam and Bill put the biomedical sensors on my body. Then we checked the sensors to make sure they would work properly to send back to Earth information on my heart-beat, blood pressure and temperature. Then with the help of Joe Schmitt, our hard-working suit technician, I started to climb into the pressure suit. It was a procedure we'd all been through many times and I must say that I didn't feel there was anything special about it that morning. The launch crews reported that they were right on schedule, so we headed out to the transfer van for the ride to the pad. On the way out I got some further weather briefing and chatted with Douglas and with Deke Slayton, who is scheduled for the next orbital mission and was looking over the course that morning for future reference. We drove through the gate and parked on the pad. I'd drawn up the blinds on the van windows and now looked out. It was a great sight. It was still dark, but the big arc fights shone white on the Atlas booster and on the gantry round it. We stayed in the van a couple of brief holds, and finally, at one minute before six, we all walked to the elevator at the foot of the gantry. I stood there for a few seconds while the crews clapped and waved their good wishes. I nodded my goodbyes to them, and I felt very fine as I realized how much they were with me. Then I got in the elevator and rode up to the capsule. Everybody up there seemed ready to plug me in without further delays. Scott Carpenter had finished his checks on the capsule and reported that everything looked good. The weather people were now forecasting a possible break in the cloud cover by mid- morning. This would allow visual tracking and photography of the launch which was all we needed now. There was a different atmosphere on the gantry. There was less casual talking among the crews. Everyone seemed to sense that we were going for real this time, and they instinctively became more purposeful and businesslike than ever. Scott was standing off to one side out of the way, and I walked over to talk to him again for a minute. I know something about being a back-up pilot, having done the job twice myself. It is hard work and the satisfaction is limited to helping someone else. I eased in and started to get ready. We were held up for a while when the support broke on one of the microphones inside my
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
