Mercury Atlas 6

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Mission emblem
Mission emblem Mercury Atlas 6
Mission dates
Mission: Mercury Atlas 6 (MA-6)
COSPAR-ID : 1962-003A
Spacecraft: Friendship 7
serial number 13
Launcher: Atlas D , 109-D
Crew: 1
Begin: February 20, 1962, 14:47:39 UTC
Starting place: LC-14 , Cape Canaveral
Landing: February 20, 1962, 19:43:02 UTC
Landing place: Atlantic
21 ° 26 ′  N , 68 ° 42 ′  W
Flight duration: 4h 55min 23s
Earth orbits: 3
Recovery ship: USS Noa
Orbit inclination : 32.5 °
Apogee : 265 km
Perigee : 159 km
Covered track: 121,794 km
Maximum speed: 28,205 km / h
Maximum acceleration: 7.7 g
Team photo
John Glenn
John Glenn
◄ Before / After ►
Mercury Atlas 5
(unmanned) 		Mercury Atlas 7
(manned)
Previous manned mission:
Mercury Redstone 4

Mercury Atlas 6 ( MA-6 ) was a manned space flight under the US Mercury program . The pilot John Glenn was the first American astronaut to enter Earth orbit .

crew

On November 29, 1961, after the successful flight of the Mercury Atlas 5 with a chimpanzee on board, NASA announced the next Mercury flight with John Glenn. In contrast to the flights by Alan Shepard and Virgil Grissom , this time the Mercury spaceship was to be put into orbit. Scott Carpenter was scheduled as a replacement pilot .

Glenn chose the name Friendship 7 for the spaceship.

preparation

John Glenn in a spacesuit shortly before takeoff

Mercury-Atlas 6 was the first manned flight with the Atlas rocket . The previous manned flights Mercury-Redstone 3 and Mercury-Redstone 4 had been suborbital flights with the Redstone rocket .

After the last test flight with Mercury Atlas 5 was successful, the real goal of the Mercury program could finally be considered: to bring an American into orbit. Mercury Atlas 6 was scheduled to orbit the earth three times.

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

The flight was initially scheduled for January 27th, but had to be postponed several times because the overcast sky made it impossible to film the take-off. In addition, a defective tank required major repairs.

Flight history

John Glenn takes off from the ground with the Mercury Atlas 6 in his spaceship Friendship 7

Mercury-Atlas 6 was finally launched on February 20 at 14:47:39 UTC, ten minutes later Friendship 7 was in orbit.

During the second orbit, the landing capsule signaled that the heat shield was no longer in place. If this ad was correct, Friendship 7 would burn up on re-entry . The control center therefore decided that the brake rockets would not be dropped as usual after they had been ignited. This should hold the loose heat shield in place until it is pressed on by the increasing air pressure.

After the flight, the inspection of the space capsule revealed that a defective microswitch had triggered the "Landing Bag Deployed" signal. So the heat shield wasn't loose. The Landesack was an airbag with many small holes between the heat shield and the capsule, the purpose of which was to dampen the impact of the capsule on the surface of the water. As soon as the landing bag was deployed, which normally only happened after the parachute was opened, the heat shield would only dangle loosely from the bottom of the air bag instead of being firmly attached to the capsule as it was intended for orbital flight and re-entry.

Glenn was irritated that the state of his space capsule had been concealed from him at first. He was of the opinion that the astronaut should always have all information about his vehicle, even in the event that radio contact with Earth is lost. Flight director Chris Kraft countered that Glenn couldn't have done anything anyway if the heat shield had actually been loose.

During the decline, the Friendship 7 swayed heavily, and the fuel for the attitude control was completely used up. However, the auxiliary parachute triggered earlier than planned and stabilized the landing capsule.

As Friendship 7 ended up being lighter than planned, the calculated landing point was missed by 60 kilometers. The destroyer USS Noa (nickname "Steelhead") heaved the landing capsule together with the astronaut on board. Glenn blew open the hatch and sustained a small injury to his hand. Glenn was immediately medically examined but showed no symptoms other than exhaustion and thirst.

Significance to the Mercury program

With this fully-fledged manned space flight, the USA caught up with the Soviet Union , which, however, led to the number and duration of the space flights. Glenn was hailed as a hero. With this flight, the goals of the Mercury program were met, but further launches of the Mercury spaceships with Atlas rockets should follow soon, Deke Slayton had already been announced as a pilot for Mercury-Atlas 7 .

Web links

Commons : Mercury Atlas 6  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files