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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0873.PDF
filGHT International, 31 May 1962 871 Missiles and Spaceflight SECOND AMERICAN IN ORBIT THE second Mercury astronaut to accomplish an Earth-orbit mission for the US National Aeronautics and Space Adminis tration is Lt Cdr Malcolm Scott Carpenter, USN, who circled the Earth three times on Thursday, May 24. Minor difficulties were experienced with the systems of his spacecraft, as will presently be described; but the only serious departure from programme was a delay of some 5sec in retrorocket ignition, and a too-shallow re entry, which resulted in a "splash" some 250 miles down-range of the predicted impact point off Grand Turk Island (roughly 800 miles south-east of Cape Canaveral). On the previous day, Walter Williams, operations director of the MA-7 spaceflight programme, announced that it would be "three orbits or nothing." Essentially, the mission was to be a duplicate of MA-6, flown by Col John Glenn on February 20. In view of the trouble experienced by Glenn with the ASCS (automatic stabiliz ation and control system), a number of minor modifications were incorporated in Mercury spacecraft No 18—named Aurora 7, by pilot Carpenter—as was recorded in last week's issue. Also des cribed last week were two of the important new experiments sche duled to be attempted during the MA-7 mission: an investigation of the behaviour of a special liquid under zero-gravity conditions, and an attempt to determine the relative visibility in space of a variety of coloured surfaces (achieved by towing a multi-coloured balloon and releasing a cluster of 0.25in coloured discs). The follow ing is an account of the sequence of events, as they took place, all times being EST (6hr earlier than BST). 0115 Astronaut Carpenter was awakened by Dr Howard A. Minners, and 30min later breakfasted with Dr Minners, Dr William Douglas (chief Astronaut doctor) and John Glenn. Breakfast followed the familiar Astronaut pattern, apart from the fact that Carpenter drank normal coffee instead of postum (coffee substitute with all caffein extracted). 0200 Dr Minners gave the Astronaut his final medical check and reported that he was "in excellent physical condition, and his attitude is perfect." Astronaut Grissom called at Hangar S to wish his colleague good luck before going out to his communications desk at Mercury Control. 0340 Press officer Lt Col "Shorty" Powers emerged from Hangar S to announce "Scottie looks very, very good this morning . . ." The Astronaut had almost raced through his pre-fiight checks, instrumentation, and pressure-suit procedures, and left the hangar only two minutes later; on February 20, Col Glenn did not leave Hangar S until 0502, and Carpenter's schedule caught observers by surprise. 0355 Transfer van completed its four-mile trip to Launch Com plex 14, but Carpenter did not disembark for almost an hour. At this time the liftoff time was scheduled for 0700. 0440 Carpenter entered Aurora 7, having spoken only to B. G. McNabb, Complex 14 base manager, who wished him good luck aj he entered the lift. 0525 McDonnell crew finished working inside Aurora 7, and bolted the hatch. The count had been picked up at 0446 at T minus 2hr 15min. The complete countdown was a model of precision and efficiency, and it is doubtful that any spaceflight count has ever Proceeded at such a pace. There were no technical holds at any time, and the only possible hazard appeared to be a belt of smoke spreading north from a huge swamp fire in the Florida Everglades. Ground mist at the Cape was quickly dispersed as the sun rose. Liftoff of Atlas I07D carrying Mercury spacecraft "Aurora 7,' from Pad 14 at Cape Canaveral on May 24 0650 A 45min hold was ordered while the haze lifted; this was the only interruption in the entire count. 0745 Liftoff. Atlas 107D departed cleanly, and orbital injection and separation took place at approximately 0750. Astronaut Grissom called "we have a better than seven-orbit capability," and Carpenter replied "sweet words." 0800 Canary Islands station contact, Carpenter reporting "All systems are GO in all respects." 0835 Muchea (W Australia) station contact. Carpenter then conversed with Astronaut Slayton at Woomera. Telemetred readings showed excessive temperature in the astronaut's pressure suit, and Carpenter found that, even by increasing the suit airflow, he could not reduce the temperature below 80°F. This trouble eventually righted itself. Atlas I07D was originally assigned to Astronaut Donald Slayton, and is pictured below, left, during final inspection in the General Dynamics plant near Son Diego on March 12. It was airlifted to the Cape in a C-I33B on the same day. When Slayton had to drop out on medical grounds the booster passed to Cdr Scott Carpenter, who was aboard "Aurora 7" when the right-hand picture was taken during a dummy run on May 17
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