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Liberty Bell 7

Liberty Bell 7

Mercury 4 was a Mercury program manned space mission launched on July 21, 1961 using a Redstone rocket. Its capsule was named Liberty Bell 7 and performed a suborbital flight piloted by astronaut Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom. It reached an altitude of over 118.26 statute miles (190 km) and traveled about 300 miles (480 km). The Redstone was MRLV-8 and the spacecraft was Mercury spacecraft # 11, the first one with a centerline window instead of two portholes.

Crew


- Gus Grissom (flew on Mercury 4 & Gemini 3)

Backup Crew


- John Glenn

Mission Parameters


- Mass: 1286 kg
- Maximum Altitude: 190.39 km
- Range: 486.15 km
- Launch Vehicle: Redstone rocket

Liberty Bell 7

Mercury spacecraft # 11, was designated to fly the second manned suborbital flight in October, 1961. It came off McDonnell's St. Louis production line in May 1960. Spacecraft # 11 was the first Mercury operational spacecraft with a centerline window. It was closer to the final orbital version than was Alan Shepard's Freedom 7.

Explosive hatch

Spacecraft # 11 also had a new explosive side hatch. This would allow an astronaut to exit the spacecraft quickly in the event of an emergency. Emergency personnel could also trigger the explosive hatch from outside the spacecraft by pulling on an external lanyard. The original exit procedure was to climb out through the antenna compartment, after removing a small pressure bulkhead. This was a difficult and slow procedure. Removal of an injured or unconscious astronaut through the top hatch would be nearly impossible. The original side hatch was bolted shut with 70 bolts and covered with several spacecraft shingles. It was a slow process to open the original hatch. McDonnell engineers came up with two different quick release hatches for the Mercury spacecraft. One with a latch, used on Ham's MR-2 and Shepard's MR-3 missions. The other design was an explosive release hatch. The quick release latching hatch weighed 69 pounds (31 kg), too much of a weight addition to use on the orbital version of the spacecraft. The explosive hatch design used the 70 bolts of the original design; but each quarter-inch (6.35 mm) titanium bolt had a 0.06 inch (1.5 mm) hole bored into it to provide a weak point. A mild detonating fuse (MDF) is installed in a channel between the inner and outer seal around the periphery of the hatch. When the MDF is ignited, the resulting gas pressure between the inner and outer seal causes the bolts to fail in tension. There were two ways to fire the explosive hatch during recovery. On the inside of the hatch was a knobbed plunger. The pilot could remove a pin and press the plunger with a force of five or six pounds force (25 N). This would detonate the explosive charge which would shear off the 70 bolts and propel the hatch 25 feet (8 m) away in 1 second. If the pin was left in place, a force of 40 pounds (180 N) was required to detonate the hatch. An outside rescuer could blow open the hatch by removing a small panel near the hatch and pull a lanyard. The explosive hatch weighed only 23 pounds (10 kg).

Window

The new rectangular window on spacecraft # 11 replaced the two 10 inch (254 mm) side portholes that were on Freedom 7. The Corning Glass Works of Corning, New York, designed and developed the multilayered panes that made up the new window. The outer pane was Vycor glass was 0.35 inch (8.9 mm) thick. It could withstand temperatures of 1500 to 1800 °F (820 to 980 °C). The inner pane was made up of three inner glass panels bonded to make the inner pane. One panel was a 0.17 inch (4.3 mm) thick sheet of Vycor, the two others made of tempered glass. This new window assembly was as strong as any part of the spacecraft pressure vessel.

Controls

The manual controls for Mercury 4 incorporated a new rate stabilization control system. This allowed fine control of spacecraft attitude movements by small turns of the hand controller. Previously a lot of jockeying of the device was needed to attain the desired attitude. This rate damping or rate augmentation system gave finer and easier handling qualities and a redundant means of firing the pitch, yaw, and roll thrusters. Before the Mercury 4 flight, Lewis Research Center and Space Task Group engineers had determined that firing the posigrade rockets into the booster-spacecraft adapter, rather than in the open, developed 78 percent greater thrust. This achieved a greater spacecraft-booster separation through a kind of "pop-gun" effect. By using this technique, the spacecraft separated at velocity of about 28.1 feet per second (9 m/s) rather than 15 feet per second (5 m/s) using the old procedure. Mercury 4 flight would take advantage of this new procedure. Additional hardware changes to Mercury 4 were a redesigned fairing for the spacecraft-Redstone adapter clamp-ring and additional foam padding was added to the head area of the contour couch. The fairing changes and additional foam were used to reduce vibrations the pilot experienced during the boost phase of flight. The spacecraft instrument panel was rearranged to provide a better eye scan pattern.

Mission description

In January, 1961, NASA's Director of the Space Task Group, Robert Gilruth, told Gus Grissom that he would be the primary pilot for Mercury 4. John Glenn was the backup pilot for the mission. Redstone launch vehicle MRLV-8 arrived at Cape Canaveral on June 8, 1961. A mission review on July 15, 1961 pronounced Redstone MRLV-8 and Mercury spacecraft # 11 ready to go for the Mercury 4 mission. Also, on July 15, 1961 Gus Grissom announced he would name Mercury 4, Liberty Bell 7. Grissom said the name was an appropriate call-sign for the bell-shaped capsule. He also said the name was synonymous with "freedom". As a tribute to the original Liberty Bell, a "crack" was painted on the side of the capsule. The Mercury 4 mission was planned as a repeat of MR-3. It was to reach an apogee of 116 miles (187 km). The planned range was 299 miles (481 km). Grissom would experience a maximum acceleration of 6.33 g (62 m/s²) and deceleration of 10.96 g (107 m/s²). The launch of Liberty Bell 7 was first planned for July 16. The cloud cover was too thick and the launch was postponed until July 18. On July 18, it was again postponed due to weather. Both times, the pilot had not yet boarded the spacecraft. On July 19, 1961, Grissom was aboard the Liberty Bell 7 when the flight was delayed again due to weather. At that point, it had just 10 minutes 30 seconds to go before launch. On the morning of July 21, 1961, Gus Grissom entered the Liberty Bell 7 at 8:58 UTC and the 70 hatch bolts were put in place. At 45 minutes prior to the scheduled launch, a pad technician discovered that one of the hatch bolts was misaligned. During a 30 minute hold that was called, McDonnell and NASA Space Task Group engineers decided that the 69 remaining bolts should be sufficient to hold the hatch in place and blow it at the appropriate time. The misaligned bolt was not replaced. The Liberty Bell 7 was launched at 12:20:36 UTC, July 21, 1961.

Liftoff

Grissom later admitted at the postflight debriefing that he was "a bit scared" at liftoff, but he added that he soon gained confidence along with the acceleration increase. Hearing the engine roar at the pedestal, he thought that his elapsed-time clock had started late. Like Shepard, he was amazed at the smooth quality of the liftoff, but then he noticed gradually more severe vibrations. These were never violent enough to impair his vision. Grissom's cabin pressure sealed off at the proper altitude, about 27,000 feet (8.2 km), and he felt elated that the environmental control system was in good working order. The suit and cabin temperature, about 57.5 and 97 °F (14 and 36 °C), respectively, were quite comfortable. Watching his instruments for the pitch rate of the Redstone, Grissom saw it follow directions as programmed, tilting over about one degree per second. Under a 3 g (29 m/s²) acceleration on the up-leg of his flight, Grissom noticed a sudden change in the color of the horizon from light blue to jet black. His attention was distracted by the noise of the tower-jettison rocket firing on schedule. The pilot felt the separation and watched the tower through the window as it drifted off, trailing smoke, to his right. At two minutes and 22 seconds after launch, the Redstone's Rocketdyne engine cut off after building a velocity of 6561 feet per second (1,969 m/s). Grissom had a strong sensation of tumbling during the transition from high to zero acceleration, and, while he had become familiar with this sensation in centrifuge training, for a moment he lost his bearings. The Redstone coasted for 10 seconds after its engine cut off; then a sharp report signaled that the posigrade rockets were popping the capsule loose from the booster. Although Grissom peered out his window throughout his ship's turnaround maneuver, he never caught sight of his launch vehicle.

Flight

With turnaround accomplished, the Air Force jet pilot for the first time became a space pilot, assuming manual-proportional control. A constant urge to look out the window made concentrating on his control tasks difficult. He told Shepard back in Mercury Control that the panorama of Earth's horizon, presenting an 800 mile (1,300 km) arc at peak altitude, was fascinating. His instruments rated a poor second to the spectacle below. Turning reluctantly to his dials and control stick, Grissom made a pitch movement change but was past his desired mark. He jockeyed the handcontroller stick for position, trying to damp out all oscillations, then made a yaw movement and went too far in that direction. By the time the proper attitude was attained, the short time allocated for these maneuvers had been used, so he omitted the roll movement altogether. The manual controls impressed Grissom as very sluggish when compared to the Mercury procedures trainer. Then he switched to the new rate command control system and found perfect response, although fuel consumption was high. After the pitch and yaw maneuvers, Grissom made a roll-over movement so he could see the ground from his window. Some land beneath the clouds (later determined to be western Florida around the Apalachicola area) appeared in the hazy distance, but the pilot was unable to identify it. Suddenly Cape Canaveral came into view so clearly that Grissom found it hard to believe that his slant-range was over 150 miles (240 km). He saw Merritt Island, the Banana River, the Indian River, and what appeared to be a large airport runway. South of Cape Canaveral, he saw what he believed to be West Palm Beach.

Reentry

With Liberty Bell 7 at an altitude of 118.26 miles (190.32 km), it was now time to position the spacecraft in its reentry attitude. Grissom had initiated the retrorocket sequence and the capsule was arcing downward. His pulse reached 171 beats per minute. Retrofire gave him the distinct and peculiar feeling that he had reversed his backward flight through space and was actually moving face forward. As he plummeted downward, he saw what appeared to be two of the spent retrorockets pass across the periscope view after the retrorocket package had been jettisoned. Pitching the spacecraft over into a reentry attitude of 14 degrees from Earth-vertical, the pilot tried to see the stars out his observation window. Instead the glare of sunlight filled his capsule, making it difficult to read the panel dials, particularly those with blue lights. Grissom felt that he would not have noticed the 0.05 g (0.5 m/s²) light if he had not known it was about to flash on. Reentry presented no problem. Grissom could not feel the oscillations following the acceleration buildup; he could only read them on the rate indicators. Meanwhile he continued to report to the Mercury Control Center on his electric current reading, fuel quantity, acceleration, and other instrument indications. Condensation and smoke trailed off the heatshield at about 65,000 feet (20 km) as Liberty Bell 7 plunged back into the atmosphere. The drogue parachute deployed on schedule at 21,000 feet (6.4 km). Grissom said he saw the deployment and felt some resulting pulsating motion, but not enough to worry him. Main parachute deployment occurred at 12,300 feet (3.7 km), which was about 1,000 feet (300 m) higher than the design nominal altitude. Watching the main chute unfurl, Grissom spotted a six inch (150 mm) L-shaped tear and another two inch (50 mm) puncture in the canopy. Although he worried about them, the holes grew no bigger and his rate of descent soon slowed to about 28 feet per second (9 m/s). Dumping his peroxide control fuel, the pilot began transmitting his panel readings.

Splashdown

A "clunk" confirmed that the landing bag had dropped in preparation for impact. Grissom then removed his oxygen hose and opened his visor but deliberately left the suit ventilation hose attached. Impact was milder than he had expected, although the capsule heeled over in the water until Grissom was lying on his left side. He thought he was facing downward. The capsule gradually righted itself, and, as the window cleared the water, Grissom jettisoned the reserve parachute and activated the rescue aids switch. Liberty Bell 7 still appeared watertight, although it was rolling badly with the swells. Preparing for recovery, he disconnected his helmet and checked himself for debarkation. The neck dam did not unroll easily; Grissom tinkered with his suit collar to ensure his buoyancy if he had to get out of the spacecraft quickly. When the recovery helicopters, which had taken to the air at launch time and visually followed the contrails and parachute descent, were still about two miles (3 km) [373] from the impact point, which was only three miles (5 km) beyond the bullseye, Lieutenant James L. Lewis, pilot of the primary recovery helicopter, radioed Grissom to ask if he was ready for pickup. He replied that he wanted them to wait five minutes while he recorded his cockpit panel data. Using a grease pencil with the pressure suit gloves was awkward, and several times the suit ventilation caused the neck dam to balloon, but the pilot simply placed his finger between neck and dam to allow the air to escape. After logging the panel data, Grissom asked the helicopters to begin the approach for pickup. He removed the pin from the hatch-cover detonator and lay back in the dry couch. "I was lying there, minding my own business," he said afterward, "when I heard a dull thud." The hatch cover blew away, and salt water swished into the capsule as it bobbed in the ocean. The third man to return from space was faced with the first serious emergency; Liberty Bell 7 was shipping water and sinking fast. Grissom had difficulty recollecting his actions at this point, but he was certain that he had not touched the hatch-activation plunger. He doffed his helmet, grasped the instrument panel with his right hand, and scurried out the sloshing hatchway. Floating in the sea, he was thankful that he had unbuckled himself earlier from most of his harness, including the chest restraints. Otherwise he might not have been able to abandon ship. Lieutenant John Reinhard, copilot of the nearest recovery helicopter, reported afterward that the choppers were making their final approach for pickup. He was preparing to cut the capsule's antenna whip (according to a new procedure) with a squib-actuated cutter at the end of a pole, when he saw the hatch cover fly off, strike the water at a distance of about five feet (1.5 m) from the hatch, and then go skipping over the waves. Next he saw Grissom's head appear, and the astronaut began climbing through the hatch. Once out, the pressure-suited spaceman swam away. Instead of turning his attention to Grissom, Lewis completed his approach to the sinking spacecraft, as both he and Reinhard were intent on capsule recovery. This action was a conditioned reflex based on past training experience. While training off the Virginia beaches the helicopter pilots had noted that the astronauts seemed at home in and to enjoy the water. So Reinhard quickly clipped the high-frequency antenna as soon as the helicopter reached Liberty Bell 7. Throwing aside the antenna cutting device, Reinhard picked up the shepherd's hook recovery pole and carefully threaded the crook through the recovery loop on top of the capsule. By this time Lewis had lowered the helicopter to assist Reinhard in his task to a point that the chopper's three wheels were in the water. Liberty Bell 7 sank out of sight, but the pickup pole twanged as the attached cable went taut, indicating to the helicopter pilots that they had made their catch. Reinhard immediately prepared to pass the floating astronaut the personnel hoist. But at that moment Lewis called a warning that a detector light had flashed on the instrument panel, indicating that metal chips were in the oil sump [375] because of engine strain. Considering the implication of impending engine failure, Lewis told Reinhard to retract the personnel hoist while he called the second chopper to retrieve the pilot. Meanwhile Grissom, having made certain that he was not snared by any lines, noticed that the primary helicopter was having trouble raising the submerged spacecraft. He swam back to the capsule to see if he could assist but found the cable properly attached. When he looked up for the personnel line, he saw the helicopter start to move away. Suddenly Grissom realized that he was not riding as high in the water as he had been. All the time he had been in the water he kept feeling air escape through the neck dam. The more air he lost, the less buoyancy he had. Moreover, he had forgotten to secure his suit inlet valve. Swimming was becoming difficult, and now with the second helicopter moving in he found the rotor wash between the two aircraft was making swimming more difficult. Bobbing under the waves, Grissom was scared, angry, and looking for a swimmer from one of the helicopters to help him tread water. Then he caught sight of a familiar face, that of George Cox, aboard the second helicopter. Cox was the copilot who had retrieved both the chimpanzee Ham and Astronaut Shepard. With his head barely above water, Grissom found the sight of Cox heartening. Cox tossed the "horse-collar" lifeline straight to Grissom, who immediately wrapped himself into the sling backwards. Lack of orthodoxy mattered little to Grissom now, for he was on his way to the safety of the helicopter, even though swells dunked him twice more before he got aboard. His first thought was to get a life preserver on. Grissom had been either swimming or floating for a period of only four or five minutes, "although it seemed like an eternity to me," as he said afterward. As the first helicopter moved away from Grissom, it struggled valiantly to raise the spacecraft high enough to drain the water from the impact bag. Once the capsule was almost clear of the water, but like an anchor it prevented the helicopter from moving forward. The flooded Liberty Bell 7 weighed over 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg), a thousand pounds (450 kg) beyond the helicopter's lifting capacity. The pilot, watching his insistent red warning light, decided not to chance losing two craft in one day. He finally cast loose, allowing the spacecraft to sink swiftly. Martin Byrnes, aboard the carrier, suggested that a marker be placed at the point so that the capsule might be recovered later. Rear Admiral J. E. Clark advised Byrnes that in that area the depth was about 2,800 fathoms (5.1 km). Substantial controversy ensued as Grissom reported that the hatch had blown prematurely without his authorization. Engineering teams concluded this was unlikely. Mrs. Grissom was not invited to the White House as per the forming tradition with Shepard's wife upon his successful mission completion. Subsequent independent technical review of the incident has raised doubts as to the veracity of the incident report conclusions that Grissom blew the hatch and was responsible for the loss of the spacecraft. There is strong evidence that the Astronaut Office didn't accept Grissom's guilt in the fact that he was chosen to command the first Gemini flight. Several years later, during an interview on April 12, 1965, Grissom said he thought the hatch may have been triggered because the external release lanyard came loose. On Liberty Bell 7, the external release lanyard was only held in place by a single screw. It was better secured on later flights. Ironically, the inability to open a hatch swiftly contributed to the death of Grissom, as well as Ed White and Roger B. Chaffee, in the Apollo 1 launch-pad fire.

Recovery of Liberty Bell 7

One day shy of the 38th anniversary (July 20, 1999), of Mercury 4's suboribital flight, a team led by Curt Newport and financed by the Discovery Channel, lifted the Liberty Bell 7 capsule off the floor of the Atlantic ocean and onto the deck of a recovery ship. The capsule was found after a 14-year effort by Newport and his team at a depth of nearly 15,000 feet (4.5 km), 300 nautical miles (550 km) southeast of Cape Canaveral and was in surprisingly good condition. Some of the interior aluminium panels showed deterioration but some fabric pieces, including Grissom's personal parachute were perfectly intact. The recovery failed to answer some of the questions surrounding the prematurely blown hatch. The recovery team ran out of time and was not able to continue the search for the hatch itself. A camera that was running during the flight was located but was found broken open and the film inside was damaged beyond repair. After Liberty Bell 7 was secured in the deck of the recovery ship, experts removed and disposed of an explosive device that was supposed to detonate in the event of the capsules sinking but which failed to explode. After the capsule was made safe, it was placed in a container filled with seawater to prevent further corrosion. The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center disassembled and cleaned the capsule and keeps it on display in their museum. Liberty Bell 7 was recovered exactly 30 years to the day after man first landed on the moon.

See also


- Splashdown

External link


- [http://aesp.nasa.okstate.edu/fieldguide/pages/mercury/mr-4.html Field Guide to American Spacecraft] Pictures of Liberty Bell 7 on display after recovery and restoration.

Reference


- [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4201/cover.htm This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury - NASA SP-4201]
- [http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/sc-query.html NASA NSSDC Master Catalog]
- [http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/mission_trans/MR04_TEC.PDF Results Of The Second U.S. Manned Suborbital Spaceflight July 21, 1961 (NASA)]
- [http://techreports.larc.nasa.gov/ltrs/PDF/1999/tm/NASA-99-tm209824.pdf Liberty Bell 7 Recovery Evaluation and Nondestructive Testing - NASA - December 1999 (PDF format)]

Mercury Redstone Sub-Orbital Flight Events


Category:Human spaceflights Category:Mercury program

Mercury program

Project Mercury was the United States first successful manned spaceflight program. It ran from 1959 through 1963 with the goal of putting a man in orbit around the Earth. Early planning and research was carried out by NACA, while the program was officially carried out by the newly created NASA. The name Mercury comes from the Roman god (it is also the name of the innermost planet of the solar system). The Mercury program cost $1.5 billion in 1994 dollars. See NASA Budget.

Spacecraft

__NOTOC__ Mercury spacecraft (also called a capsule or space capsule) were very small one-man vehicles; it was said that the Mercury spacecraft were not ridden, they were worn. Only 1.7 cubic meters in volume, the Mercury capsule was barely big enough to include its pilot. Inside were 120 controls: 55 electrical switches, 30 fuses and 35 mechanical levers. The spacecraft was designed by Max Faget and NASA's Space Task Group. During the launch phase of the mission, the Mercury spacecraft and astronaut were protected from launch vehicle failures by the Launch Escape System. The LES consisted of a solid fuel, 52,000 lbf (231 kN) thrust rocket mounted on a tower above the spacecraft. In the event of a launch abort, the LES fired for 1 second, pulling the Mercury spacecraft away from a defective launch vehicle. The spacecraft would then descend on its parachute recovery system. After booster engine cutoff (BECO), the LES was no longer needed and was separated from the spacecraft by a solid fuel, 800 lbf (3.6 kN) thrust jettison rocket, that fired for 1.5 seconds. To separate the Mercury spacecraft from the launch vehicle, the spacecraft fired three small solid fuel, 400 lbf (1.8 kN) thrust rockets for 1 second. These rockets are called the Posigrade rockets. The spacecraft had only attitude control thrusters. After orbit insertion and before retrofire they could not change their orbit. The spacecraft had three sets of control jets for each axis (yaw, pitch and roll), supplied from two separate fuel tanks. An automatic set of high and low powered jets and a set of manual jets, fueled from either the automatic tank or the manual tank. The pilot could use any one of the three thruster systems and fuel them from either of the two fuel tanks to provide spacecraft attitude control. The Mercury spacecraft were designed to be totally controllable from the ground in the event that the space environment impaired the pilot's ability to function. The spacecraft had three solid fuel, 1000 lbf (4.5 kN) thrust retrorockets that fired for 10 seconds each. One was sufficient to return the spacecraft to earth if the other two failed. The first retro was fired, five seconds later the second was fired (while the first was still firing). Five seconds after that, the third retro fires (while the second retro is still firing). This is called ripple firing. There was a small metal flap at the nose of the spacecraft called the "spoiler". If the spacecraft started to reenter nose first (another stable reentry attitude for the capsule), airflow over the "spoiler" would flip the spacecraft around to the proper, heatshield first reentry attitude. Suborbital Mercury capsules encountered lower reentry temperatures and used beryllium heat-sink heat shields. Orbital missions encountered much higher atmospheric friction and temperatures during reentry and used ablative shields. NASA ordered 20 production spacecraft, numbered 1 through 20, from McDonnell Aircraft Company, St. Louis, Missouri. Five of the twenty spacecraft were not flown. They were, Spacecraft #10, 12, 15, 17, and 19. Two unmanned spacecraft were destroyed during flights. They were Spacecraft #3 and #4. Spacecraft #11 sank and was recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after 38 years. Some spacecraft were modified after initial production (refurbished after launch abort, modified for longer missions, etc) and received a letter designation after their number, examples 2B, 15B. Some spacecraft were modified twice, example, spacecraft 15 became 15A and then 15B. A number of boilerplate spacecraft (mockup/prototype/replica spacecraft, made from non-flight materials or lacking production spacecraft systems and/or hardware) were also made by NASA and McDonnell Aircraft and used in numerous tests, including launches.

Boosters

ablative The Mercury program used three boosters: Little Joe, Redstone, and Atlas. Little Joe was used to test the escape tower and abort procedures. Redstone was used for suborbital flights, and Atlas for orbital ones. Starting in October, 1958, Jupiter missiles were also considered as suborbital launch vehicles for the Mercury program, but were cut from the program in July, 1959 due to budget constraints. The Atlas boosters required extra strengthening in order to handle the increased weight of the Mercury capsules beyond that of the nuclear warheads they were designed to carry. Little Joe was a solid-propellant booster designed specially for the Mercury program. The Titan missile was also considered for use for later Mercury missions, however the Mercury program was terminated before these missions were flown. The Titan was used for the Gemini program which followed Mercury

Astronauts

Gemini program The first Americans to venture into space were drawn from a group of 110 military pilots chosen for their flight test experience and because they met certain physical requirements. Seven of those 110 became astronauts in April 1959. Six of the seven flew Mercury missions (Deke Slayton was removed from flight status due to a heart condition). Beginning with Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 flight, the astronauts named their own spacecraft, and all added 7 to the name to acknowledge the teamwork of their fellow astronauts Mercury had seven prime astronauts, all former military test pilots, known as the Mercury 7. NASA announced the selection of these astronauts on April 9, 1959.
- M. Scott Carpenter (1925-)
- L. Gordon Cooper, Jr. (1927-2004)
- John H. Glenn. Jr. (1921-)
(first American to orbit the earth)
- Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom (1926-1967)
- Walter M. Schirra, Jr. (1923-)
- Alan B. Shepard, Jr. (1923-1998)
(first American in space)
- Donald K. "Deke" Slayton (1924-1993)
(grounded in 1962 due to irregular heartbeat, reinstated in 1972 and later flew on Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975)

Flights

The program included 20 robotic launches. Not all of these were intended to reach space and not all were successful in completing their objectives. The fifth flight in 1959 launched a monkey named Sam (a rhesus monkey named after the Air Force School of Aviation Medicine) into space. Other non-human space-farers were Miss Sam (a rhesus monkey), Ham and Enos, both chimpanzees. The Mercury program used the following launch vehicles:
- Little Joe - Suborbital, robotic, and primate flights. Launch escape system tests
- Redstone - Suborbital robotic, primate and piloted orbital flights.
- Atlas - Suborbital robotic, robotic, primate, and piloted orbital flights.

Robotic


- Mercury-Jupiter - Cancelled in July, 1959 - Proposed suborbital launch vehicle for Mercury. Not flown.
- Little Joe 1 - August 21, 1959 - test of launch escape system during flight
- Big Joe 1 - September 9, 1959 - test of heat shield and Atlas / spacecraft interface
- Little Joe 6 - October 4, 1959 - Test of capsule aerodynamics and integrity
- Little Joe 1A - November 4, 1959 - test of launch escape system during flight
- Little Joe 2 - December 4, 1959 - carried Sam the monkey to 85 kilometres in altitude
- Little Joe 1B - January 21, 1960 - carried Miss Sam the monkey to 9.3 statute miles (15 kilometres) in altitude
- Beach Abort - May 9, 1960 - test of the Off-The-Pad abort system
- Mercury-Atlas 1 - July 29, 1960 - first flight of Mercury spacecraft and Atlas Booster
- Little Joe 5 - November 8, 1960 - first flight of a production Mercury spacecraft
- Mercury-Redstone 1 - November 21, 1960 - Launched 4 inches (100 mm). Settled back on pad due to electrical malfunction
- Mercury-Redstone 1A - December 19, 1960 - first flight of Mercury spacecraft and Redstone booster
- Mercury-Redstone 2 - January 31, 1961 - carried Ham the Chimpanzee on suborbital flight
- Mercury-Atlas 2 - February 21, 1961 - test of Mercury spacecraft and Atlas Booster
- Little Joe 5A - March 18, 1961 - test of the launch escape system during the most severe conditions of a launch
- Mercury-Redstone BD - March 24, 1961 - Redstone Booster Development - test flight
- Mercury-Atlas 3 - April 25, 1961 - test of Mercury spacecraft and Atlas Booster
- Little Joe 5B - April 28, 1961 - test of the launch escape system during the most severe conditions of a launch
- Mercury-Atlas 4 - September 13, 1961 - test of Mercury spacecraft and Atlas Booster
- Mercury-Scout 1 - November 1, 1961 - test of Mercury tracking network
- Mercury-Atlas 5 - November 29, 1961 - carried Enos the Chimpanzee on a two orbit flight

Primate flights


- Little Joe 2 - December 4, 1959 - carried Sam the monkey to 85 kilometres in altitude
- Little Joe 1B - January 21, 1960 - carried Miss Sam the monkey to 9.3 statute miles (15 kilometres) in altitude
- Mercury-Redstone 2 - January 31, 1961 - carried Ham the Chimpanzee on suborbital flight
- Mercury-Atlas 5 - November 29, 1961 - carried Enos the Chimpanzee on a two orbit flight

Piloted

Suborbital


- Mercury-Redstone 3 (Freedom 7) - 5 May 1961 - Alan Shepard
- Mercury-Redstone 4 (Liberty Bell 7) - 21 July 1961 - Gus Grissom

Orbital


- Mercury Atlas 6 (Friendship 7) - 20 February 1962 - John Glenn
- Mercury-Atlas 7 (Aurora 7) - 24 May 1962 - Scott Carpenter (replaced Deke Slayton)
- Mercury-Atlas 8 (Sigma 7) - 3 October 1962 - Wally Schirra
- Mercury-Atlas 9 (Faith 7) - 15 May 1963 - Gordon Cooper
- Mercury-Atlas 10 (Freedom 7-II) - October 1963 - Cancelled June 13, 1963 1963 1963

Piloted Mercury launches

1963

Mercury Flight insignias

Flight patches are available to the public that purport to be patches from various Mercury missions. In reality, these patches were designed long after the Mercury program ended by private entrepreneurs. When genuine flight patches were created by crews in the Gemini program, this caused a public demand for Mercury flight patches, which was filled by these private entrepreneurs. The only patches the Mercury astronauts wore were the NASA logo and a name tag. Each manned Mercury spacecraft, however, was decorated with a flight insignia. These are the genuine Mercury flight insignias. They were approved by the Mercury astronauts and painted on their spacecraft. Each flight insignia is illustrated in the photo above.

Follow-on programs

Miscellaneous

The Mercury astronauts trained, in part, at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia, under Flight Surgeon William K. Douglas and Keith G. Lindell (COL, USAF). Several bridges throughout the city bear the name of the Mercury astronauts, and the main route in the city is named Mercury Boulevard, honoring the Mercury program. The names of five of the Mercury astronauts are also commemorated in the popular 1960s TV show Thunderbirds. In the series, Jeff Tracy, the founder of the fictional International Rescue organisation, is a millionaire ex-astronaut who has named his five sons -- Scott, Virgil, Alan, John and Gordon -- after the real-life Mercury astronauts.

Further reading


- Gene Kranz, Failure is Not an Option. Factual, from the standpoint of a chief flight controller during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs. ISBN 0743200799
- Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff. Sentimental, from the astronaut viewpoint, not meant to be taken as a strict history, but fascinating anyway.
- Schirra, Grissom, Glenn, Slayton, Shepherd, Carpenter, Cooper, We Seven. (ISBN B00005X54G); Simon & Schuster - 1962. Factual; a collection of articles written by the seven Mercury astronauts describing events from their points of view.
- James M. Grimwood, [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4201/cover.htm This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury]
- James M. Grimwood, [http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4001/cover.htm Project Mercury - A Chronology]
- Mae Mills Link, [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4003/cover.htm Space Medicine In Project Mercury]
- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19930074071_1993074071.pdf Results of the first US manned orbital space flight - Feb 20, 1962 (Friendship 7) NASA report - (PDF format)]
- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19620004691_1962004691.pdf Results of the second u.s. manned orbital space flight, May 24, 1962 (Aurora 7) NASA report - (PDF format)]
- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19990026158_1999028570.pdf This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury - NASA report (PDF format)]
- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19630011968_1963011968.pdf Chronology of Project Mercury - NASA report (PDF format)]

See also


- Vostok programme
- Splashdown

External links


- [http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/history/mercury/mercury.htm The Mercury Project (Kennedy Space Center)]
- [http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4001/contents.htm Project Mercury A Chronology (Prepared by James M. Grimwood)]
- [http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4003/cover.htm Space Medicine In Project Mercury By Mae Mills Link]
- [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/diagrams/mercury.html Project Mercury Drawings and Technical Diagrams]
- [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/diagrams/diagrams.htm Technical Diagrams and Drawings]
- [http://www.geocities.com/atlas_missile/mercury.htm Mercury-Atlas Diagrams]
- [http://projectmercury5.moonport.org Project Mercury Simulator for the PC (Orbiter)]
- [http://youarego.com Project Mercury Simulator for the Mac]
- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19670028606_1967028606.pdf The Mercury Redstone Project (PDF) December 1964]
- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740076527_1974076527.pdf Project Mercury familiarization manual (PDF) November 1961]
- [http://www.ibiblio.org/mscorbit/document.html Various PDFs of historical Mercury documents including familiarization manuals.] Category:Manned spacecraft Category:Human spaceflight programmes
- ja:マーキュリー計画

Manned space mission

Human spaceflight is space exploration with a human crew and possibly passengers, which is in contrast to robotic space probes or remotely-controlled unmanned space missions. On occasion, passengers of other species have ridden aboard spacecraft, although not all survived the return to earth. Dogs, not humans, were the first large mammals launched from Earth. The first human spaceflight was Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961; Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made one orbit around the earth. Perhaps the highest of Earth orbits was Gemini 11 in 1966, which reached a height of 1374 km. The Space Shuttle on the missions to launch and service the Hubble Space Telescope has also reached high earth orbit at an altitude of around 600 km. The destination of human spaceflight missions beyond Earth orbit has only been the Moon. On the first such mission, Apollo 8, the crew orbited the Moon. Apollo 10 was the next mission, and it tested the lunar landing craft in lunar orbit without actually landing. The six missions that landed were Apollo 11-17, excluding Apollo 13. On each mission, two of the three astronauts involved landed on the moon; thus, in the late 1960s and early 1970s NASA's Apollo program landed twelve men on the Moon--returning them all to Earth. As of 2005 piloted space missions have been carried out by Russia, the People's Republic of China, and the United States. Missions carried out by the United States are both governmental (NASA) and civilian (Scaled Composites, a California-based company). Canada, Europe, India, and Japan also have active space programs. The Indian Parliament recently sanctioned funds to the Indian Space Research Organization for a human spaceflight by 2008 (although the programme has now been scaled down to start with an unmanned orbiting satellite for surveying--see Chandrayan). Japan has announced a program to place a person on the moon by 2025. Currently the following spacecrafts and spaceports are used:
- International Space Station (includes Soyuz TMA as an emergency lander; normal crew transport with the following two spacecraft)
- Soyuz TMA with Soyuz launch vehicle - Baikonur Cosmodrome
- Space Shuttle - John F. Kennedy Space Center
- Shenzhou spacecraft with Long March rocket - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center
- Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne with Scaled Composites White Knight (the latter does not enter space itself) - Mojave Spaceport In an attempt to win the $10 million X-Prize, numerous private companies attempted to build their own manned spacecraft capable of repeated sub-orbital flights. The first private spaceflight took place on June 21 2004, when SpaceShipOne conducted a sub-orbital flight. With its second flight within one week, SpaceShipOne captured the prize on October 4, 2004. NASA uses the term "human spaceflight" to refer to its programme of launching people into space. Traditionally, these endeavours have been referred to as "manned space missions". The term "manned" is accurate in terms of gender when speaking of all U.S. spaceflight programs before the Space Shuttle program and Soviet spaceflights before Vostok 6. Although it only denotes gender in one of several definitions of the word, the term "manned" is considered sexist by some, and they may prefer to use the term "crewed"' or "piloted space missions."

See also


- List of human spaceflights
- List of human spaceflights chronologically
- List of human spaceflights by program
- List of manned spacecraft
- List of spacewalks
- X-15 program
- Astronaut
- List of astronauts by name
- Timeline of astronauts by nationality
- List of space disasters
- Human adaptation to space
- Space colonization
- Space and survival
- Spaceflight records
- Interplanetary travel
- Monkeys in space
- SpaceShipOne

External links


- [http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/ NASA Human Space Flight]
- [http://www.thespacereview.com/article/352/1 The top three reasons for humans in space]
- [http://www.chrisvalentines.com/sts107/videoessay.html 20 Minute Video Essay on Human Space Exploration] Category:Human spaceflight

July 21

July 21 is the 202nd day (203rd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 163 days remaining.

Events


- 1298 - Battle of Falkirk (1298): King Edward I of England defeats Scottish rebels led by William Wallace.
- 1403 - Battle of Shrewsbury: King Henry IV of England defeats rebels to the north of the county town of Shropshire, England
- 1568 - Battle of Jemmingen: Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva defeats Louis of Nassau
- 1579 - Our Lady of Kazan, a holy icon of the Russian Orthodox Church, was discovered underground in the city of Kazan, Tatarstan.
- 1718 - Treaty of Passarowitz between the Ottoman Empire, Austria and the Republic of Venice is signed.
- 1774 - Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji ending the Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774.
- 1831 - Inauguration of Léopold I of Belgium, first king of the Belgians.
- 1861 - American Civil War: First Battle of Bull Run - At Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the war begins (Confederate victory).
- 1865 - In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots Dave Tutt dead in what is regarded as the first true western showdown.
- 1873 - At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James-Younger gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American West.
- 1877 - After rioting by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers and the deaths of 9 rail workers at the hands of the Maryland militia, workers in Pittsburgh stage a sympathy strike that is met with an assault by the state militia.
- 1925 - Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100.
- 1931 - CBS's New York City station begins broadcasting the first regular seven days a week television schedule in the U. S.
- 1944 - World War II: Battle of Guam - American troops land on Guam starting the battle (ends on August 10).
- 1954 - First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
- 1961 - Mercury program: Gus Grissom piloting the Mercury 4 capsule "Liberty Bell 7" becomes the second American to go into space (in a suborbital mission).
- 1963 - Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini is elected Pope Paul VI by the College of Cardinals.
- 1970 - After 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed.
- 1972 - Bloody Friday bombing by the Provisional Irish Republican Army, (PIRA) around Belfast, Northern Ireland, 22 bomb explosions, 9 people were killed,130 seriously injured.
- 1973 - In the Lillehammer affair in Norway, Israeli Mossad agents kill a waiter whom they mistakenly thought was involved in 1972's Munich Olympics Massacre.
- 1976 - Christopher Ewart-Biggs British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland is assassinated by the Provisional IRA
- 1978 - Big-bust model Francine Dee is born.
- 1984 - In Jackson, Michigan, a factory robot crushes a worker against a safety bar in apparently the first robot-related death in the United States.
- 1994 - Tony Blair is declared the winner of the leadership election of the British Labour Party, paving the way to him becoming Prime Minister in 1997.
- 1995 - Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: The People's Liberation Army begins firing missiles into the waters north of Taiwan.
- 1997 - The fully restored USS Constitution (aka "Old Ironsides") celebrates her 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years.
- 2002 - Telecom giant WorldCom files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the largest such filing in United States history.
- 2003 - The last Volkswagen old-style Beetle rolls off the assembly line at Puebla, Mexico.
- 2004 - The United Kingdom government publishes Delivering Security in a Changing World, a paper detailing wide-ranging reform of the country's armed forces.
- 2005 - Clarence Richard Silva ordained to the episcopate as bishop of Honolulu.
- 2005 - Four terrorist bombings, occurring exactly two weeks after the similar July 7 bombings, target London's public transportation system. All four bombs fail to detonate and all four suspected suicide bombers escape.

Births


- 1414 - Pope Sixtus IV (d. 1484)
- 1515 - Philip Neri, Italian churchman (d. 1595)
- 1620 - Jean Picard, French astronomer (d. 1682)
- 1664 - Matthew Prior, English poet and diplomat (d. 1721)
- 1693 - Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, English statesman (d. 1768)
- 1710 - Paul Möhring, German physician and scientist (d. 1792)
- 1810 - Henri Victor Regnault, French chemist and physicist (d. 1878)
- 1858 - Lovis Corinth, German painter and graphic artist (d. 1925)
- 1870 - Emil Orlik, Czech painter and graphic artist (d. 1932)
- 1893 - Hans Fallada, German writer (d. 1947)
- 1899 - Hart Crane, American poet (d. 1932)
- 1899 - Ernest Hemingway, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)
- 1903 - Roy Neuberger, American financier and art collector
- 1911 - Marshall McLuhan, Canadian author (d. 1980)
- 1920 - Isaac Stern, Ukrainian-born violinist (d. 2001)
- 1923 - Rudolph A. Marcus, Canadian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1922 - Kay Starr, American singer
- 1924 - Don Knotts, American actor
- 1925 - Anne Meacham, American actress
- 1926 - Norman Jewison, Canadian film director
- 1932 - Ernie Warlick, American football player
- 1933 - John Gardner, American author (d. 1982)
- 1935 - Norbert Blüm, German politician
- 1938 - Janet Reno, United States Attorney General
- 1939 - John Negroponte, U.S. Director of National Intelligence
- 1943 - Edward Herrmann, American actor
- 1944 - Tony Scott, British film director
- 1944 - Paul Wellstone, U.S. Senator from Minnesota (d. 2002)
- 1946 - Kenneth Starr, American lawyer and judge
- 1948 - Ed Hinton, American sportswriter
- 1948 - Cat Stevens, English singer
- 1948 - Garry Trudeau, American cartoonist
- 1950 - Ubaldo Fillol, Argentinian footballer
- 1951 - Robin Williams, American comedian
- 1953 - Brian Talbot, English football player and manager
- 1957 - Jon Lovitz, American comedian
- 1960 - Lance Guest, American actor
- 1964 - Jens Weißflog, German ski jumper
- 1968 - Brandi Chastain, American soccer player
- 1968 - Lyle Odelein, Canadian hockey player
- 1978 - Josh Hartnett, American actor
- 1979 - David Carr, American football player
- 1983 - Eivør Pálsdóttir, Faroese singer and composer
- 1983 - Kellen Winslow Jr., American football player
- 1984 - Liam Ridgewell, English footbller

Deaths


- 1403 - Henry Percy, English soldier (killed in battle)
- 1425 - Manuel II Palaeologus, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1350)
- 1688 - James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, English statesman and soldier (b. 1610)
- 1796 - Robert Burns, Scottish poet (b. 1759)
- 1798 - François Sebastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt, Austrian field marshal (b. 1733)
- 1870 - Josef Strauss, Austrian composer (b. 1827)
- 1899 - Robert G. Ingersoll, American politician and military officer (b. 1833)
- 1937 - Louis Vierne, French composer (b. 1870)
- 1938 - Owen Wister, American author (b. 1860)
- 1943 - Charlie Paddock, American athlete (b. 1900)
- 1944 - Claus von Stauffenberg, German army colonel who tried to assassinate Hitler (b. 1907)
- 1948 - David Wark Griffith, American film director (b. 1875)
- 1967 - Jimmie Foxx, baseball player (b. 1907)
- 1967 - Albert Lutuli, South African politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- 1967 - Basil Rathbone, English actor (b. 1892)
- 1968 - Ruth St. Denis, dancer and choreographer (b. 1878)
- 1970 - Bob Kalsu, American football player (b. 1945)
- 1972 - Ralph Craig, American athlete (b. 1889)
- 1982 - Dave Garroway, American television host (b. 1913)
- 1998 - Alan Shepard, astronaut (b. 1923)
- 1998 - Robert Young, American actor (b. 1907)
- 2001 - Steve Barton, American actor (b. 1954)
- 2003 - John Davies, New Zealand Olympic Committee president (b. 1938)
- 2003 - Walter M. "Matt" Jefferies, American film art director (b. 1921)
- 2004 - Jerry Goldsmith, American composer (b. 1929)
- 2004 - Edward B. Lewis, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1918)
- 2005 - Andrzej Grubba, Polish table tennis player (b. 1958)
- 2005 - Long John Baldry, British blues musician (b. 1941)

Holidays and observances


- Belgium: National holiday (1831 - inauguration of Léopold I, first king of the Belgians)
- Bolivia: Martyrs' Day
- Guam: Liberation Day (1944)
- Singapore: Racial Harmony Day

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/21 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050721.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- July 20 - July 22 - June 21 - August 21 -- listing of all days ko:7월 21일 ms:21 Julai ja:7月21日 simple:July 21 th:21 กรกฎาคม

Redstone (rocket)

Redstone

Redstone launching Freedom 7.
Stages1
1Engines1 × A-6
Thrust78,000 lbf (347 kN)
Burn time~155 s
ISP265 s
FuelsAlcohol/LOX
Payload to
185 km
115 mi
1,300 kg
2,850 lb
First launched in 1953, the American Redstone rocket was a direct descendant of the German V-2. It was used for the first live nuclear missile tests by the United States. It was also known as the Redstone MRBM (medium range ballistic missile). A product of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama, under the leadership of Wernher von Braun, it was designed as a surface-to-surface missile for the U.S. Army and was first deployed in 1958. A total of four mobile launchers and equipment, with one reload each, (A total of 8 Redstone MRBM missiles) were deployed in West Germany until 1963. The Redstone was capable of flights up to 200 miles (300 km). It burned alcohol and liquid oxygen. Redstone could be armed with a 1 Mt or 3.75 Mt of TNT (4 PJ or 16 PJ) thermonuclear warhead. The Redstone was used to launch two live nuclear tests that were detonated during the nuclear test series Operation Hardtack in August, 1958, from Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean. On August, 1, 1958, Redstone #CC50 launched nuclear test Teak that detonated at an altitude of 77.8 km. On August 12, 1958, Redstone #CC51 launched nuclear test Orange to a detonation altitude of 43 km. Both thermonuclear devices were 3.75 Mt of TNT (16 PJ) weapons. These were the first live nuclear missile tests by the United States. The Jupiter IRBM (intermediate range ballistic missile) was a direct descendant of the Redstone. Modified Redstone missiles, with solid upper stages added, were used in a series of nosecone development tests for the Jupiter IRBM. These modified Redstone missiles were called Jupiter-C rockets. Many believe the U.S. could have beaten the Soviet Union into space if the ABMA had been allowed to attempt a satellite launch with the Jupiter-C rocket. A satellite could have been launched by a Jupiter-C in August 1956 if given the go ahead by U.S. government officials. The Eisenhower administration, however, wanted the first U.S. satellite to be launched by a civilian developed rocket instead of a military missile. The Vanguard rocket was being developed for this purpose. They ordered Von Braun not to attempt any satellite launches. The Vanguard rocket failed to launch its Vanguard satellite in December 1957. The Eisenhower administration then turned to the U.S. Army. The ABMA and von Braun were asked to launch a backup satellite as soon as possible. When the Jupiter-C was finally used to launch the Explorer I satellite in January 1958, its Jupiter-C launch vehicle was renamed the Juno I. Redstone MRBM and Jupiter IRBM propellant tanks were clustered together along with eight Jupiter IRBM engines to form the first stage of the Saturn I and Saturn IB rockets. First developed by the ABMA, the Saturn rocket was later adopted by NASA. These were America's first large launch vehicles. The first of these was launched in 1961. Redstone was also responsible for the following suborbital launches in the United States Mercury program:
- Mercury-Redstone 1, Launched 4 inches (100 mm)
- Mercury-Redstone 1A, Successful unmanned flight
- Mercury-Redstone 2 (Carrying Ham the chimpanzee)
- Mercury-Redstone BD Booster Development - final test before manned flight
- Freedom 7 (Mercury-Redstone 3), America's first human in space, Alan Shepard.
- Liberty Bell 7 (Mercury-Redstone 4), America's second human in space, Gus Grissom. Redstone production was halted in late 1964 and the Redstone missile was replaced by the Pershing missile in the U.S. Army arsenal. In the late 1960's as series of surplus modified Redstone MRBM missiles were launched in Australia as part of a military test program of reentry vehicles. These Redstone missiles had solid fuel upper stages added to them. One of thse Redstone missiles was used to launch Australia's first satellite, Wresat, in 1967. These series of Australian modified Redstone missiles were called Sparta rockets.

Mercury Redstone Sub-Orbital Flight Events


External link


- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19670028606_1967028606.pdf The Mercury Redstone Project (PDF) December 1964]
- [http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/redstone.htm Redstone] from Encyclopedia Astronautica
- [http://www.geocities.com/redstone_mrbm/index.html Redstone MRBM] History Website
- http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/systems/redstone/welcome.html

Redstone family of missiles and launch vehicles

Sparta rockets See also: List of missiles ja:レッドストーン Category:Medium-range ballistic missiles Category:Space launch vehicles Category:Mercury program

Virgil Grissom

Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom (April 3, 1926 – January 27, 1967) was a U.S. Air Force pilot who became one of the first American astronauts and one of the first to die in the U.S. space program.

Background

Grissom was born in Mitchell, Indiana and graduated from Mitchell High School. He earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Purdue University in 1950. He had two children, Scott and Mark, with his wife Betty Moore Grissom.

Career

Military

Grissom was a United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel. He received his wings in March, 1951. Over his Air Force career he flew 100 combat missions in Korea in F-86s with the 334th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. Upon returning from Korea, he became a jet instructor at Bryan, Texas. In August 1955, Grissom entered the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, to study aeronautical engineering. In October 1956, he entered the Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and returned to Wright-Patterson in May 1957 as a test pilot assigned to the fighter branch.

NASA

In 1959, after physical and psychological tests, Grissom was chosen as one of the seven Project Mercury astronauts, along with:
- Lieutenant Malcolm Scott Carpenter, U.S. Navy
- Captain LeRoy Gordon Cooper, Jr., U.S. Air Force
- Lieutenant Colonel John Herschel Glenn, Jr., U.S. Marine Corps
- Lieutenant Commander Walter Marty Schirra, Jr., U.S. Navy
- Lieutenant Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr., U.S. Navy
- Captain Donald Kent Slayton, U.S. Air Force He was pilot of Mercury-Redstone 4 ("Liberty Bell 7"), the second American (suborbital) spaceflight. Following the Splashdown of "Liberty Bell 7", the hatch ejected prematurely, letting water into the capsule and into Grissom's suit. Grissom nearly drowned but was rescued by helicopter, while the spacecraft sank in deep water. After Alan Shepard was grounded, Grissom was designated command pilot for the first manned Project Gemini mission (Gemini 3), making him the first man to return to space, in addition he was named as backup command pilot for Gemini 6.

Death

Grissom was made commander of Apollo 1, intended to be the first manned Apollo flight. He was killed along with fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger B. Chaffee in the Apollo 1 fire at Cape Kennedy on January 27 1967. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. NASA management wanted one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts to be the first man to eventually walk on the moon. Had Grissom lived, he would very likely have been that man. He logged a total of 4,600 hours flying time, including 3,500 hours in jet aircraft.

Awards and honors


- Posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor
- Posthumously made Honorary Mayor of the City of Newport News, Virginia
- Distinguished Flying Cross for his service in Korea
- Air Medal with cluster for his service in Korea
- Two NASA Distinguished Service Medals
- The NASA Exceptional Service Medal
- The Air Force Command Astronaut Wings
- Honorary Doctorate, Florida Institute of Technology

Tributes


- Grissom Air Reserve Base in Indiana is named after him.
- The Virgil I. Grissom Library in the Denbigh section of Newport News, Virginia is named after him.
- The Virgil I. Grissom High School in Huntsville, Alabama is named after him.
- The Virgil I. Grissom Middle School in Mishawaka, Indiana is named after him.
- The now defunct V.I. Grissom Elementary School in the former Clark Air Base, Philippines was named after him.
- CSI character Gil Grissom is named after him.
- Thunderbirds character Virgil Tracy is named after him.
- Grissom Hall at Purdue University is named after him.
- Grissom Hall at Florida Institute of Technology is named after him.
- The star Epsilon Cassiopeiae was named Navi, "Ivan" backwards, in his honor. Grissom and his crew used the star to calibrate their equipment and recorded the name as a joke, though it eventually stuck.

Film and television

Grissom was depicted in the movie The Right Stuff (1983) by Fred Ward and in the TV mini-series From the Earth to the Moon (1998) by Mark Rolston. In the movie Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, the Federation starship sent to survey the newly formed Genesis Planet was named USS Grissom.

References


-
-
- [http://amfcse.org/honor/grissom.htm Astronaut Memorial Foundation webpage]
- http://www.space.com/spacewatch/star_names_030829.html
- [http://www.fit.edu/walkingtour/memorial.html Florida Institute of Technology - Walking Tour - Challenger Memorial]
- [http://www.floridatoday.com/columbia/columbiastory2A9379A.htm Florida Today, August 17, 2004]

External links


- [http://www.afrc.af.mil/434arw/ Grissom Air Reserve Base]
- [http://www.datamanos2.com/apollo_burning.html Apollo Burning], a tribute to the Apollo 1 astronauts Grissom, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Virgil "Gus" Category:Space Program Deaths Grissom, Virgil "Gus" ja:ガス・グリソム

Statute mile

A mile is a unit of distance (or, in physics terminology, length) currently defined as 5,280 feet, 1,760 yards, or 63,360 inches. Today, one mile (often called "statute mile") is equal to about 1,609 m on land and one nautical mile to exactly 1,852 m at sea and in the air. The term has also been used to describe other lengths--see below for the details. Abbreviations for mile are "mi." in the U.S., and "ml" and "m" in the UK. The mile was first used by the Romans and originally denoted a distance of 1,000 (double) steps ("mille passuum" in Latin), which amounted, at approximately 0.75 m per (single) step, to 1,500 metres per mile. In modern usage, there are various miles:
- The statute mile, or more specifically
  - The international mile is the one typically meant when the word mile is used without qualification. It is defined to be precisely 1,760 international yards (by definition, 0.9144 m each); it is therefore exactly 1,609.344 m. (1.609344 km) It is used in the United States and the United Kingdom as part of the Imperial system of units. The international mile is equivalent to 8 furlongs, or 80 chains, or 5,280 international feet.
  - The U.S. survey mile is precisely equal to 5,280 U.S. survey feet or 6,336/3,937 km or, approximately 1,609.347 m. One international mile is precisely equal to 0.999 998 survey mile. The survey mile is used by the United States Public Land Survey System.
  - The statute mile simply means "a mile of 5,280 feet", without specifying which foot is used. The term is therefore ambiguous.
  - The obsolete Scottish and Irish miles, longer than the English (nautical mile) by about a half.
- The international nautical mile is defined to be exactly 1,852 m. It is used universally for aviation, naval and maritime purposes and originated from the geographical mile.
- In Norway and Sweden, a distance of 10 km is most commonly referred to as a mile or metric mile, see mil.
- In sports such as athletics and speedskating, the term metric mile is used to denote a distance of 1.5 km.
- The German mile was reckoned to be the 15th part of a degree (and thus about four nautical miles in length).
- The Danes, Swedes, and Hungarians had long miles, which were about a German mile and a half.
- The Dutch mile, was nearly the 19th part of a degree. The Polish mile was nearly equal to the Dutch mile.
- The Italian mile was a thousand paces of 5 Roman feet each (the Roman foot being one fifth of an inch less than the London foot). One mile is precisely 80 chains long. See Edmund Gunter.

See also


- League
- Imperial units
- U.S. customary units
- Ancient weights and measures
- Medieval weights and measures
- Fibonacci sequence application: convert to kilometers

Reference

[http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0108&L=nisus&T=0&F=&S=&P=42289 'Of Divers Measures'], in Laurence Echard, 1741, The Gazetteer's or Newsman's Interpreter, London: Ballard et al. (first published 1703)

External links


- [http://ts.nist.gov/ts/htdocs/230/235/appxc/appxc.htm NIST General Tables of Units of Measurement] Category:Ancient Rome Category:Units of length Category:Imperial units Category:Customary units in the United States ja:マイル simple:Mile

Gemini 3

Gemini 3 was a 1965 manned space flight in NASA's Gemini program. It was the first manned Gemini flight, the ninth manned American flight and the 17th manned spaceflight of all time (includes X-15 flights over 100 kilometres).

Crew


- Virgil I. Grissom (flew on Mercury 4, Gemini 3, & Apollo 1), Command Pilot
- John W. Young (flew on Gemini 3, Gemini 10, Apollo 10, Apollo 16, STS-1, & STS-9), Pilot

Backup crew


- Walter M. Schirra, Command Pilot
- Thomas P. Stafford, Pilot

Mission parameters


- Mass: 3,236.9 kg
- Perigee: 161.2 km
- Apogee: 224.2 km
- Inclination: 32.6 degrees
- Period: 88.3 minutes
- First orbital maneuver by manned spacecraft On March 23, 1965 at 15:57:00 UTC, at the end of the first orbit, over Corpus Christi, Texas, a 1 minute 14 second burn of the Orbit attitude and maneuvering system (OAMS) engines gave a delta-V of 15.5 meters per second. The orbit was changed from 161.2 km x 224.2 km, period 88.3 minutes to an orbit of 158 km x 169 km, period 87.8 minutes.

Objectives

This first manned flight of the Gemini spacecraft was very much a test flight. In a playful reference to the Broadway hit The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Grissom nicknamed the Gemini 3 spacecraft "Molly Brown," hoping that it would not duplicate his experience with Liberty Bell 7. (It was the last Gemini to be named by an astronaut. All subsequent flights in the program were designated by a Roman numeral.) The mission's primary goal was to test the new, maneuverable Gemini spacecraft. In space, the crew fired thrusters to change the shape of their orbit, shift their orbital plane slightly, and drop to a lower altitude. Other firsts were achieved on Gemini 3: two people flew aboard an American spacecraft; the first manned re-entry where the spacecraft was able to produce lift to change its touchdown point.

Flight

The only major incident during the orbital phase involved a contraband corned beef sandwich that Young had snuck on board. The crew each took a few bites before the sandwich had to be restowed. The crumbs it released could have wreaked havoc with the craft's electronics, so the crew were reprimanded when they returned to Earth. Other crews were warned not to pull the same type of stunt again. corned beefTwo small failures occurred in-orbit. The first was an experiment testing the Synergistic Effect of Zero Gravity on Sea Urchin Eggs. A lever essential to the experiment broke off when pulled. The second involved the photographic coverage objective. It was only partially successful due to an improper lens setting on the 16mm camera. The crew made their first orbit change an hour and a half into the flight. The burn lasted 75 seconds and moved them from a 122 by 175 kilometer orbit to a nearly circular one with a drop in speed of 15 metres per second. The second burn was 45 minutes later when the orbital inclination was changed by 0.02 degrees. The last burn came during the third orbit when the perigee was lowered to 72 kilometres. This meant that even if retrorockets had failed, they would still have reentered. When reentry finally occurred, crew commented that even the colours matched ground simulations. On descent, the capsule shifted from a vertical to horizontal attitude under its parachutes. The change was so sudden that Grissom cracked his faceplate on the control panel in front of him. The craft landed eventually 84 kilometers short of its intended splashdown point. Wind tunnel testing incorrectly predicted the craft's ability to compensate for course deviation. When the crew discovered the error, they decided to stay in the capsule, not wanting to open the hatch before the arrival of the recovery ship. The crew spent an uncomfortable half an hour in a spacecraft never designed to be a boat. The Gemini 3 mission was supported by the following United States Department of Defense resources: 10,185 personnel, 126 aircraft and 27 ships.

Insignia

The mission insignia was not worn by the flight crew as a patch, like those from Gemini 5 onwards. The Gemini 3 Molly Brown logo was designed and minted on gold plated, sterling silver, 1-inch (25-mm) medallions. The crew carried a number of these medallions into space to give to their families and friends. The same design was imprinted on the cover of Gus Grissom's book, GEMINI, and John Young was seen wearing the Molly Brown logo as a patch on his flightsuit as late as 1981. The name "Molly Brown" was chosen by Grissom as a reference to the sinking of Liberty Bell 7; NASA officials found the slightly sarcastic reference embarrassing, and astronauts were not allowed to name their spacecraft again until Apollo 9 when for the first time, two spacecraft would be operating independently as part of the same mission.

Capsule location

The capsule is on display at the Grissom Memorial, Spring Mill State Park, Mitchell, Indiana.

External links


- On The Shoulders of Titans: A History of Project Gemini: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4203/cover.htm
- Spaceflight Mission Patches: http://www.genedorr.com/patches/Intro.html
- Astronaut John W. Young website: http://www.johnwyoung.com
- Gemini 3 page on A Field Guide To American Spacecraft: http://aesp.nasa.okstate.edu/fieldguide/pages/gemini/gt-3.html Gemini 03 Gemini 03

John Glenn

:This article is about the astronaut. For the English film director, see John Glen. John Herschel Glenn Jr. (born July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio) is a former American astronaut, Marine Corps fighter pilot, and politician. He was the third American to fly in space and the first American to orbit the earth. Later he served as a United States Senator from Ohio (1974 – 1999).

Early history and military career

Glenn grew up in Cambridge, Ohio and earned a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Muskingum College. He enrolled in the Naval Aviation Cadet Program in 1942 and was assigned to the Marines VMO-155 group in 1944. Glenn flew Corsairs over the Marshall Islands, specifically Maloelap, where he attacked anti-aircraft gunnery and dropped bombs. In 1945 Glenn was transferred to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, where he was promoted to captain by the war's end. After World War II, Glenn flew patrol missions in North China, based in Guam, and in 1948 he became an flight instructor at Corpus Christi, Texas, after which he took an amphibious warfare course and was given a staff assignment, all the while seeking transfer to combat in Korea. He was sent to Korea with Marine Corps squadron VMF-311, and his frequent wing-man was Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, an already famous professional baseball player (and fine Marine pilot) who had been drafted for the second time in ten years. Glenn later flew in Korea with the Air Force on an interservice exchange. Flying an Air Force F-86 Sabre, he shot down three MiGs. He received several medals for his service. He returned to Patuxent River N.A.S., with an appointment to the Test Pilot School (class 12) after the Korean War. As a test pilot, he served as armament officer, flying planes to high altitudes and testing their cannon/machine guns. On July 16, 1957, Glenn completed the first supersonic transcontinental flight in a Vought F8U "Crusader." The California to New York flight took 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds. As Glenn passed over his hometown, a childhood neighbor reportedly ran to the Glenn house shouting "Johnny dropped a bomb! Johnny dropped a bomb!" as the supersonic boom shook the town.

NASA career

In 1959 Glenn was assigned to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as one of the original group of Mercury astronauts for the Project Mercury. During this time, he remained an officer in the Marine Corps. He piloted the first American manned orbital mission aboard Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962. After completing three orbits, the "Mercury Atlas 6" mission, lasting 4 hours, 55 minutes, and 23 seconds, Glenn was celebrated as a national hero, and received a ticker-tape parade reminiscent of Lindbergh. His fame and political gifts were noted by the Kennedys, and he became a personal friend of the Kennedy family; after the assassination of JFK, Jackie Kennedy asked Glenn to give the news to the Kennedy children on November 22, 1963. 1963 Glenn resigned from NASA six weeks after the Kennedy assassination to run for office in his home state of Ohio. In 1965 Glenn retired as a Colonel from the USMC and entered the business world as an executive for Royal Crown Cola. He reentered the world of politics later on. Some accounts of Glenn's years at NASA suggest that Glenn was prevented from flying in Gemini or Apollo missions, either by President John F. Kennedy himself or by NASA management. Yet Glenn resigned from the astronaut corps on January 30, 1964, well before even the first Gemini crew was assigned. Glenn lifted off for a second space flight on October 29, 1998, on Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-95 in order to study the effects of space flight on the elderly. At age 77, Glenn became the oldest person ever to go into space. Glenn's participation in the nine-day mission was criticized by some in the space community as a junket for a politician. Others noted that Glenn's flight offered valuable research on weightlessness and other aspects of space flight on the same person at two points in life thirty-five years apart--by far the farthest interval between space flights by the same person. Upon the safe return of the STS-95 crew, Glenn (and his crewmates) received another ticker-tape parade, making him the ninth (and, as of 2004, final) person to have ever received multiple ticker-tape parades in his lifetime (as opposed to that of a sports team). The NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in Cleveland, Ohio, is named after him.

Life in politics

In 1970, John Glenn entered politics and represented Ohio for the Democratic Party in the Senate from 1974 until retiring in 1999. In 1964 he announced that he was running against incumbent Senator Stephen M. Young in the Democratic primary, but was forced to withdraw when he suffered a fall in his bathroom after attempting to adjust a heavy mirror. It fell on him, causing him to fall backwards and hit his head on the bathtub. He sustained a concussion and injured his inner ear. Recovery left him unable to campaign at that time. In 1970, Glenn contested for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate; however, Glenn lost in the primary to fellow Democrat Howard Metzenbaum, who went on to lose the general election race to Robert Taft Jr. In the bitterly-f