Mercury-Atlas 6

Mercury - Atlas 6 (MA -6 ) was a manned space flight within the U.S. Mercury program. The pilot John Herschel Glenn was the first American astronaut in orbit.

Crew

On November 29, 1961 after the successful flight of Mercury - Atlas 5 with a chimpanzee on board, NASA announced that the next Mercury flight by John Glenn would take place. In contrast to the flights of Alan Shepard and Virgil Grissom, this time should be brought the Mercury spacecraft into orbit.

As a replacement pilot Scott Carpenter was provided.

Glenn chose the name for the Friendship 7 spacecraft.

Preparation

Mercury - Atlas 6 was the first manned flight, which should be carried out with the Atlas rocket. The previous manned flights Mercury - Redstone 3 and Mercury - Redstone 4 suborbital flights had been with the Redstone rocket.

After Mercury - Atlas 5, the last test flight was successful, finally the real goal of the Mercury program could now be envisaged: a U.S. citizen to get into orbit. For Mercury - Atlas 6 three orbits were provided.

The spaceship with the serial number 13 was delivered on 27 August 1961 in Cape Canaveral and on January 2, 1962 mounted on the launcher. In the weeks and months before the start of Glenn and the ground crew practiced again and again the flight, partly in the simulator and partly on the launch pad.

The flight was first scheduled for 27 January, but had to be postponed several times because of the overcast sky did not allow filming of the launch. In addition, a defect in a tank was found, which required a major repair.

History of the flight

Mercury - Atlas 6 was finally launched on 20 February, ten minutes later Friendship 7 was in orbit.

During the second mission in orbit signaled the landing capsule that the heat shield was no longer sitting correctly. When this indicator is true, Friendship 7 would burn up on re-entry. The control center therefore decided that the braking rockets would not be thrown off as usual after being fired. Thus, the loose heat shield in position should be held until he was pressed by the increasing air pressure.

After the flight, resulted in the inspection of the space capsule that a defective microswitch had the signal " Landing Bag Deployed " is triggered. The heat shield that is not sitting loose. The landing bag was an air bag with many small holes between the heat shield and capsule, which was intended to cushion the impact of the capsule on the water surface. Once the landing bag was gone, which usually only happened after the parachute opens, the heat shield would only loose at the bottom of the air bag dangling instead of being fixed to the capsule as it was designed for orbital flight and re-entry.

There was confusion on the part of Glenn about the fact that you initially kept from him the condition of his space capsule. He took the view that the astronaut should always have all the information about his vehicle, even in the event that the radio contact breaks off the ground. Flight Director Chris Kraft, however, countered that Glenn nothing could have done anyway, the heat shield would have been really loose.

During the decline of the Friendship 7 fluctuated greatly, and the fuel for the position control was entirely consumed. The auxiliary parachute broke out earlier than planned, however, and stabilized the landing capsule.

As Friendship 7 was easier than expected to the conclusion that the calculated landing point was missed by 60 kilometers. The destroyer USS Noa (nickname " Steelhead " ) hoisted the landing capsule together with the astronauts on board. Glenn blew the hatch and pulled it generates a small injury to the hand. Glenn was immediately medically examined, but showed else besides exhaustion and thirst no complaints.

Importance for the Mercury Program

With this full-fledged manned space flight, the U.S. had caught up with the Soviet Union, however, led to the number and duration of space flights. Glenn was celebrated as a hero. With this flight, the objectives of the Mercury program were met, further launches of the Mercury spacecraft with Atlas missile should follow soon, however, for Mercury - Atlas 7 Deke Slayton had already been announced as a pilot.