John Glenn Friendship 7 First US Orbital Flight "Space Triumph" 1962-02-22 Universal Newsreel 6min

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• published: 23 Mar 2012
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more at http://scitech.quickfound.net/astro/space_news.html "Whole issue on Friendship 7 Mercury space flight of John Glenn; Glenn getting ready, puts on space suit, walks to launch pad, 6 am EST, 10 months after Gagarin, gets into his capsule on top Atlas missile, rocket blastoff, animation of capsule turning around, go for 7 orbits, "actual pictures of Glenn in the capsule" and animations of Glenn's orbit around earth, destroyer Noah lifts capsule aboard, Glenn rests and then lifted aboard helicopter for flight to carrier USS Randolph." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Atlas_6 Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) was a human spaceflight mission conducted by NASA, the space agency of the United States. As part of Project Mercury, MA-6 was the successful first attempt by NASA to place an astronaut into orbit. The MA-6 mission was launched February 20, 1962. It made three orbits of the Earth, piloted by astronaut John Glenn, who became the first American to orbit the Earth... The Mercury spacecraft, named Friendship 7, was carried to orbit by an Atlas LV-3B launch vehicle lifting off from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. After four hours and 56 minutes in flight the spacecraft re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean and was safely taken aboard the USS Noa... John Glenn boarded the Friendship 7 spacecraft at 11:03 UTC on February 20, 1962. The hatch was bolted in place at 12:10 UTC. Most of the 70 hatch bolts had been secured, when one was discovered to be broken. This caused a 42 minute delay while all the bolts were removed, the defective bolt was replaced and the hatch was re-bolted in place. The count was resumed at 11:25 UTC. The gantry was rolled back at 13:20 UTC. At 13:58 UTC the count was held for 25 minutes while liquid oxygen fuel valve was repaired. At 14:47 UTC, after two hours and 17 minutes of holds and three hours and 44 minutes after Glenn entered Friendship 7, engineer T.J. O'Malley pressed the button in the blockhouse launching the spacecraft. At liftoff Glenn's pulse rate climbed to 110 beats per minute (bpm). Thirty seconds after liftoff the General Electric-Burroughs designed guidance system locked onto a radio transponder in the booster to guide the vehicle to orbit. As the Atlas and Friendship 7 passed through Max Q Glenn reported, "It's a little bumpy about here." After Max Q the flight smoothed out. At two minutes and 14 seconds after launch, the booster engines cut off and dropped away. Then at two minutes and twenty-four seconds, the escape tower was jettisoned, right on schedule. After the tower was jettisoned, the Atlas and spacecraft pitched over still further, giving Glenn his first view of the horizon. He described the view as "a beautiful sight, looking eastward across the Atlantic." Vibration increased as the last of the fuel supply was used up. At sustainer engine cut-off it was found that the Atlas had accelerated the capsule to a speed only 7 ft/s (2 m/s) below nominal. At 14:52 UTC, Friendship 7 was in orbit. Glenn received word that the Atlas had boosted the MA-6 into a trajectory that would stay up for at least seven orbits. Meanwhile, computers at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland indicated that the MA-6 orbital parameters appeared good enough for almost 100 orbits... As Friendship 7 crossed Cape Canaveral at the start of its second orbit, a flight controller noticed that "Segment 51", a sensor providing data on the spacecraft landing system, was giving a strange reading. According to the reading, the heat shield and landing bag were no longer locked in position. If this were the case, the heat shield was only being held against the spacecraft by the straps of the retro package. Mercury Control ordered all tracking sites to monitor "Segment 51" closely and advise Glenn that the landing-bag deploy switch should be in the "off" position... Flight Director Chris Kraft and Mission Director Walter C. Williams, decided to keep the retro pack in place during reentry... ...the spacecraft splashed down in the Atlantic at coordinates near 21°20′N 68°40′W, 40 miles (60 km) short of the planned landing zone... The astronaut and spacecraft came through the mission in good shape...