Mercury Atlas 9

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Mission emblem
Mission emblem Mercury Atlas 9
Mission dates
Mission: Mercury Atlas 9 (MA-9)
COSPAR-ID : 1963-015A
Spacecraft: Faith 7
serial number 20
Launcher: Atlas D 130-D
Crew: 1
Begin: May 15, 1963, 13:04:13 UTC
Starting place: LC-14 , Cape Canaveral
Landing: May 16, 1963, 23:24:02 UTC
Landing place: Pacific
27 ° 20 ′  N , 176 ° 26 ′  W
Flight duration: 1d 10h 19min 49s
Earth orbits: 22nd
Recovery ship: USS Kearsarge
Orbit inclination : 32.5 °
Apogee : 267 km
Perigee : 161 km
Covered track: 878,971 km
Maximum speed: 28,239 km / h
Maximum acceleration: 7.6 g
Team photo
Gordon Cooper
Gordon Cooper
◄ Before / After ►
Mercury Atlas 8
(manned) 		Gemini 1
(unmanned)
Next manned mission:
Gemini 3

The Mercury Atlas 9 (MA-9) mission was the last manned space flight under the US Mercury program .

crew

On November 13, 1962, shortly after the successful Mercury Atlas 8 flight , NASA announced that the next and last Mercury flight would be conducted by Gordon Cooper . With that, the last astronaut of the Mercury program still waiting got his mission. Five of the seven Mercury astronauts had already made flights - the seventh, Deke Slayton , had been denied airworthiness due to a heart problem.

Alan Shepard , who had already carried out a ballistic space flight on May 5, 1961 with Mercury-Redstone 3, was assigned as a substitute .

preparation

This flight was supposed to take a lot longer than the previous one with the planned 18 orbits of the earth, so that some systems of the Mercury spaceship had to be converted. Four Mercury spaceships with serial numbers 12, 15, 17 and 20 were designated for this.

The Mercury spacecraft with the serial number 20 was delivered to Cape Canaveral on October 9, 1962 , where further changes were made to it. The Atlas launcher left the factory on January 30th, 1963, but first passed NASA quality control, but passed on March 15th. On March 21, the rocket was erected on the launch pad, on April 22, 1963 the Mercury spacecraft was assembled.

Increased supplies of water, fuel and oxygen increased the weight of the spaceship, which was offset by the fact that some technical equipment was removed. Among other things, the periscope was removed, which had not proven particularly helpful in previous flights.

A novelty on board was a special television camera that could send two images per second. There were corresponding reception facilities at three of the ground stations. Cooper's space suit was also a further development of the suits previously used.

Since the earth would continue to rotate under the trajectory of MA-9, the Mercury spacecraft would sweep the entire surface of the earth between the 33rd parallel north and the 33rd parallel south. For this reason, even more communication and recovery facilities were necessary.

Traditionally, the astronaut was allowed to give his spaceship a name. Cooper chose Faith 7 ( English Faith = belief) to symbolize his "trust in God, in his country and his teammates".

The start was initially scheduled for May 14th. But because a radar station in Bermuda had problems first, and later a diesel drive in the launch tower failed, the schedule had already been delayed so much that the launch was postponed to the following day.

Flight history

Start preparations
Faith 7 is in the Pacific

Mercury-Atlas 9, with the Faith 7 spaceship at its helm, took off on May 15, 1963 and shortly thereafter entered an elliptical orbit of 163 km perigee and 265 km apogee . At this altitude, the friction from the atmosphere was so low that a flight duration of at least 24 hours was targeted.

During the flight, Cooper carried out eleven science experiments . Among other things, he deployed a space buoy with a diameter of 15 cm in order to examine the visibility of other missiles with the help of its flashing light. It was the first time that a spaceship had launched another satellite .

Gordon Cooper was the first American astronaut to sleep in orbit. He already nodded off several times while waiting on the launch pad. In the weightlessness he now had to make sure that he did not accidentally touch switches and levers with his floating arms.

Cooper reported that from orbit, with proper lighting and good contrast, he could see relatively small objects such as trucks and houses on the surface of the earth. From the smoke plumes he could estimate the wind direction and wind speed .

Towards the end of the flight, several systems failed and Cooper had to manually initiate re-entry , assisted by liaison spokesman John Glenn . Faith 7 splashed down near the Midway Islands and, with Cooper still on board, was heaved onto the aircraft carrier USS Kearsarge , which Walter Schirra had also salvaged with the Sigma 7.

Significance to the Mercury program

The MA-9 was the last flight under the Mercury program and marked a glamorous conclusion. The originally set goals had been achieved and exceeded. NASA's attention now turned to the Gemini spaceships , which were designed for two astronauts and could be steered in orbit. In addition, the Gemini program provided for couplings in earth orbit and exits for astronauts, which was not technically possible with Mercury spacecraft.

But because the first Gemini launch was a long time coming, another Mercury flight was under discussion, which should extend the flight duration to up to three days. This should provide valuable experience with long-term flights. A Mercury spaceship with the serial number 15-B was still available and with Alan Shepard and Gordon Cooper there were also two astronauts who were not yet so involved in the Gemini program that they would be indispensable there. The Ministry of Defense had already promised to make ships and aircraft available again for communication and rescue.

Shepard, who legitimately had high hopes for a space flight in orbit, had already had the name Freedom 7 II painted on the spacecraft, but on June 12, 1963 NASA Director James E. Webb confirmed to the US Senate that it was wouldn't be another Mercury flight. Funds and manpower could be concentrated on the Gemini program, which was already suffering from delays.

Due to health problems, Alan Shepard was removed from the list of active astronauts in October 1963, so that another Mercury flight could only have been carried out by Gordon Cooper, since all other astronauts were already involved in the Gemini project.

Web links

Commons : Mercury Atlas 9  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mercury Program Nears End: 18 Orbits to Go ; Electronics October 12, 1962, p. 7