Mastery Of Space, The

question mark full of things to be curious about be probed he's Columbus looking for a shortcut to the Indies and stumbling Over America giving his name there to a country to cities towns squares circles and a district and he's himself curious and questioning running along the sidewalk drawn towards a building whose Marquee tells him that inside he can see a visual story an exhibit ofest ocean space actually the oldest ocean of course newest in that only now have we the vessels to carry new columbuses but a vessel is only a machine and a machine can do only what its human designer in advance prepared it to do an escalator can only carry us to the second floor it can't tell us if we're going to like what we find there only the human mechanism has reason sensitive and flex ible to evaluate and react quickly and usefully to the unexpected the unpredicted and the unpredictable so we hurl our sounding lines and probes up into this ocean and we lace its floor our home with satellite orbits but in the end to master the ocean the question mark of space no machine no instrument no substitute us will do we ourselves must go into [Music] space can you imagine being weightless not feeling the pressure of that chair under you if you were here you wouldn't have to imagine weightlessness would be a fact of life as real as you're swinging around the world once every 90 minutes 17,500 mph 5 miles a second each dot a mile San Francisco to New York in 10 minutes even as the teletypes around the world pick pick up the news we wonder what being in orbit is [Music] like we know that the sky is black and the stars are bright and [Music] [Music] steady [Music] from motion pictures taken through the Periscope of a Mercury spacecraft in orbit 100 Mil up and shown here at 48 times normal speed we know that the Earth is blue and green and tan and stre with white clouds and that when the clouds break enough the Noonday sun is reflected like a gold coin on the sea 100 Mil below us and the land and the oceans appear as they do on our Maps and at less than 30 minutes after seeing noon below us we can watch the night rising to meet us over the Indian Ocean a 90minut [Music] day and we know about weightlessness most of us indirectly but not all of us and for a very few of us not just 13 seconds or so of weightlessness as part of our training as astronauts but the real thing this is astronaut Alan Shepard in Freedom 7 now watch the strap just below his left shoulder there he's waight balanced between up and down as free from the pull of gravity from G's as this loose end of his harness strap what's it like here is Shephard's comment it's quite a pleasant sensation particularly so after the accelerations of the booster ride we find that we have no difficulty in maneuvering ourselves and in all in all really is at this point certainly no difficulty at all but as Shephard implied it isn't all Pleasant this is a centrifuge a not particularly Murry go round and here is astronaut Gus gum undergoing what we might for contrast call weight acceleration induced high G [Music] loading to help him sustain this high G loading the sharp increase in body weight during during liftoff and re-entry each astronaut sat for his portrait in plaster to form a mold from which a precisely contoured fiberglass couch could be fashioned as personalized as his fingerprint the couch conforming exactly to the shape of his body would fully support him regardless of the acceleration stresses [Music] imposed in the centrifuge rides these stresses are imposed in a distinct pattern a profile which parallels and simulates precisely the pattern formed by the sequence of events which takes place in an actual space flight except of course for weightlessness first liftoff the centrifuge starts simulating the acceleration of the [Music] atlas Boo or booster engine cut off takes place 2 minutes after liftoff the escape tower is jettison altitude 40 m acceleration stress 6 G's acceleration stress more than 7 and 1/2 GS SEO sustainer engine cut off 100 m up 5 minutes after liftoff the capsule separates from the atlas nudged by three small pag grade Rockets g- loading on the astronaut zero weightless the automatic control system fires jets of gas to stop any unusual rolling pitching or YY then the spacecraft is turned 180° putting the heat shield forward tilted up 34° speed orbital 177,000 500 [Music] mph after three orbits the Retro or breaking Rockets are fired the spacecraft is slowed by only about 350 mph but enough to cause it to drop out of orbit 40 seconds later the Retro pack the spacecraft is then placed in the re-entry attitude a degree and a half knows down it descends gradually for about 8 minutes it begins to feel the first breaking effect of the Earth's atmosphere altitude about 55 mil temperature on the heat shield 3000° F altitude 25 mil speed nearly 15,000 mph deceleration stress mounting toward 7 and 1/2 G's again as the spacecraft slows from 17,500 mph at an altitude of 55 M to 270 mph at an altitude of 12 mil all in a little over 5 minutes at just under 4 mil 21,000 ft the king or drog parachute is released a few seconds later at 10,000 ft the main shoot opens 12 seconds later the impact bag is freed and the spacecraft touches down at about 20 M hour g- loading returns to the normal Earthbound 1G the centrifuge stops the astronaut has learned something of how he should function during each phase of the stress profile in turn the scientists learn from their post exposure interviews about things their instruments can't tell them John you've uh ridden both uh sea level and altitude G Rod rides now which uh do do you really notice any particular effect of the altitude runs as compared to the SE level runs on your breathing well no very little I know we've had some discussion about this in the past and we have different opinions on that I happen to be one that just doesn't particularly notice much difference in breathing between sea level and altitude I seem to use the same breathing patterns the same straining patterns uh I don't notice much difference at all I'm very interested in the sustained G runs did you notice any change in the difficulty of breathing as the sustained gun progressed well no and I was looking for changes too just like that and I didn't seem to notice much difference in it uh I hit my G Plateau the 92nd plat and uh set up my breathing pattern or had it already established before we got there really and uh this seemed to hold pretty much through the run and I didn't need to vary it any at all now of course with it being a 90c plateau I I think the patterns would undoubtedly change if we went to a longer Plateau because you would becoming more be becoming more tired and you would undoubtedly change your position or change your straining pattern to accommodate the the tired muscles if you went to a f minute run or 10minute run but during the minute and a half run as we did today uh which is longer than any re-entry we know of too really uh for G these levels uh I didn't change my breathing technique at all thanks for the summary John uh I know you got to catch a plane here shortly and acceleration and deceleration with time form only one of the profiles met by the astronauts as they train for space astronaut Wally Shira pressure suited as he would be for an actual flight under go a 7 and 1/2 hour exposure to a simulator profile in which interior temperature humidity and barometric pressure are varied with time 7 and 1/2 hours is a long time I agree with you on that sitting there is some Hazard with sitting for 7 and 1/2 hourss as you know did you follow any any routine in particular did you do as we asked and flex your ankles move your toes uh strain at the calf gave you I felt I had to do that you do feel cramped as you say become Restless this is of course quite different than our normal attitude we'll be on our back almost in a prone position I notice though that it's easier to move your legs as I am right now in a seated condition because you can just swing your legs but on your back you have to lift your legs to flex your muscles although your advice to flex them is a darn good tip while during this uh simulated Mission uh divide it into parts for for responding to the question consider first liftoff and the orbital parts of the mission at that point all you have to do is is just uh maintain comfort control were you able to do that the uh coolant valve settings that we were playing with in orbit sure proved a lot to me cuz the uh intercom system was telling me what my suit Inlet temperature was and what the suit outlet was and looks like I like about 68 to 70° good now the the harder part of it of course is the re-entry phase where the inner skin walls of the of the capsule uh approach 200 90° F then with this surface that hot so close to you inches away were you able to perceive this temperature only by radiation I could feel the heat from the panels coming up on my cheeks through the clear section of the visor plate and this was a very low order of heat I'd say like a nice sunny day out in the beach it was entirely comfortable oh yes I also noticed on my hands with the black leather surface facing In the Heat of the capsule wall that the heat would build up on the black yet when I had the silver side toward it it was very very comfortable and it only proves that the reflective qualities of the silver surface is really worth having and for yet another kind of profile we have the procedures trainer in which at the option of the instructor nearly all of the conditions of an actual flight can be simulated including the unexpected which each as astronaut's reflexes impel him to deal with quickly calmly and accurately standby astronaut Leroy g Cooper floats in the orbital flight simulator as though he didn't much care if School kept or not but this is school the subject controlling and balancing by means of gentle and delicately Ted Jets of air a nastily unstable replica of an uninhibited spacecraft in flight but this device is a real lady compared to Mastiff Mastiff known otherwise as the multiple axis space test inertia facility designed to throw the astronaut violently into any attitude conventional or otherwise that the real spacecraft may assume in space [Applause] but like the spacecraft Mastiff also can be made to behave quite decently by a trained hand and so with simulators of various kinds of profiles and specialized activity trainers with sessions in the classroom treating the physics of reaction engines problems of navigation in space the science of astronomy space biology guidance systems the mathematics of ballistics sprucing up and adding to their own prior College training in engineering and the sciences and with the study of such eminently practical subjects as how to get out of the spacecraft via the emergency route on the water and via the regular route under it [Music] and how to survive in the desert using the main parachute for shelter and to form a properly bedin like headdress if by some mischance the spacecraft should come down on land rather than on water and with continued flights in high performance aircraft to keep Reaction Time short and reflex is accurate with all of this the Seven astronauts prepare as a Team Challenge space and throughout the United States stand many thousand times these seven supporting building preparing with them here for example at NASA's Marshall space flight Center Huntsville Alabama were built the Redstone launch vehicles used to boost astronauts Allen and Gus Gom on their suborbital flights into history while 2,000 M away near San Diego California the atlas boosters used for the Mercury orbital flights are assembled their inner complexity disguised by The Shining Simplicity of their outer surfaces [Applause] the power of the atlas engines developing 360,000 lb of thrust capable of pushing the Mercury spacecraft fast enough and high enough to inject it into its 17,500 mph 100 to 160 Mile High orbit given this power this speed this distance we were also given an upper limit to the weight the vehicle can carry so the atlas played a part in determining the size and shape of the astronaut no more than 5' 11 in tall no more than 180 lb and of his spacecraft but other things too help to put a fix on the shape of the Mercury spacecraft for examp example 5,000 hours just short of 2 and a half man years of wind tunnel testing with the shape be stable as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere or would it tumble would it form a well-defined shock wave to carry away some of the friction heat generated by the wind rushing past it at 15,000 mph a wind that creates enough heat to melt rock to Lava to make it fall like rain a wind that drives the heat shield to 3000° f a 1000° hotter than this in all starting 2 years before project Mercury officially began 70 model shapes were tested this one for example was [Music] unstable while this one although more stable was structurally weak and heavy this stable and stronger reflects consideration of interior requirements and leads logically to this much more familiar shape in which stability space and structure are well met and then the final shape topped with a narrow end to carry the antenna and the breaking or drogue parachute and to form a seat for the Escape rocket Tower so we have the spacecraft about 6 ft across at its widest end the end with the heat shield and breaking rockets and just short of 10 ft tall not counting the escape [Music] tower its outside surface is covered with corrugated shingles of nickel Cobalt alloy thinner than a dime to allow for expansion as they become cherry red hot during the spacecraft's plunge through the atmosphere within an inner pressurized vessel of titanium and his full pressure suit the base of the spacecraft is the heat shield shaped to protect him during re-entry he sits supported by a fiberglass couch with his back to the heat shield he can look out of a rectangular window that slopes down in front of him while directly in front of him is his instrument panel and a large lens on which the area seen by his Periscope is displayed just above and left of the lens is an earth path indicator constantly showing the astronaut his ground position on a tiny globe and his Landing point above the Earth path indicator are panel displays telling the astronaut whether the spacecraft is oriented properly and which way to move it if it isn't with all he has about the same room as he'd have in the cockpit of a typical fighter plane enough for himself and perhaps a small boy [Music] with his right hand the astronaut controls the attitude of the spacecraft and with his left he can twist the grip to fire the Escape Rockets pulling the spacecraft clear of the booster in an emergency like [Music] [Applause] this with a spacecraft high enough for safety exploding bolts fire and the escape tower pulls free then the small drogue shoot is released to slow and stabilize The spacecraft's Descent then the much larger main parachute streams [Music] out at first Reef to slow The Descent further and lessen the shock of the shoot's opening full a test for stitching together with thousands of others to form the fabric of safety and protection so basic to Mercury planning for example the Escape rocket in an earlier test with the elements rigidly held for study and the three small pag grade Rockets mounted between the larger braking rockets in the retr pack and used to separate the spacecraft from the atlas and another to check out the all important retro rocket and the exploding bolts to release the bands holding the Retro pack against the heat shield freeing the pack to drop away after use and a test of the heat shield itself and the landing or impact bag folded between the heat shield and the base of the spacecraft during flight then free at 10,000 ft as the main shoot streams to soften the impact of Landing then the flight [Music] [Applause] [Music] tests the Little Joe series from wups Island Virginia testing spacecraft performance and the Escape system and Big Joe for a 15,000 mph check on the behavior of the spacecraft at high spe speed and particularly of the heat shield during re-entry and ham our first Astro chimp blazing the Redstone suborbital Trail for Alan Shepard and the flight of Freedom [Music] 7 [Music] looked at mechanically and analytically the flight of Alan Sheard on the morning of May 5th 1961 could be described as a test to check the performance of the early Design Round windowed spacecraft in ballistic flight just as Gus gom's Trip 2 and 1/2 months later could be considered a test to qualify the final rectangular windowed and otherwise matured spacecraft under under the same or similar flight conditions mechanically and analytically yes but do you feel as though you were watching just another flight [Music] test [Applause] command Roger Periscope has retracted confir Periscope rain bust 24 volts 26 [Music] amps 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Z [Applause] [Music] All Roger lift off and the clock is started and it had yes sir reading you loud and clear not only for Shephard and freedom 7 climbing the clear bright Air Above Cape Canaveral for the airless space beyond not only for the recovery forces now rallying at the predicted impact point to pluck him and his spacecraft from the sea but the United States man space flight program as [Music] well a test yes of a man a machine a system a program and a nation the clock carefully built carefully set had indeed started [Music] but care didn't stop with the starting of the clock any more than training or teamwork or testing did sheathed in plastic the spacecraft arrives at Cape [Music] canaval workmen assemble each spacecraft taking every possible precaution against contaminating it with dust or metal particles that could cause a failure the fiberglass contoured couch is installed the Retro Rockets are [Music] checked [Music] the atlas is carried on a special trailer to pad 14 [Music] and then is slowly and carefully rais to its position in the [Music] Gantry a plastic sheet protects the upper surface of the adapter which forms the topmost section of the atlas and provides the seat for the base of the spacecraft then the the spacecraft for mating with the atlas the adapter is checked for the last time and then the spacecraft is cautiously lifted to the 11th level swung gently in above the adapter and then lowered into [Music] [Music] position [Music] then finally the escape tower hoisted and [Music] place care and from care assurance and calm John Glenn neither more nor less outstanding than Carpenter his backup man than Cooper or Grom or shirah or Shephard or Slayton rather thrust into singular distinction at least in part by the simple arithmetic fact that out of seven only one can be first to [Music] orbit we' had our holds of course on previous launch attempts we were asked how the delays affected our Readiness I think Scott Carpenter put it in probably the best light when he said I was the most that went around with all this excitement going on and because all I had to do it was sit back and just hone The Edge a little more and keep in good [Music] shape [Music] got watch what I say t off get back okay what we've done since we have the new panel in and making final checks on [Music] itro everything except we don't [Music] wait uh see this is T go ahead okay I'm going to bring off now camera tape switch off verify the following instr [Music] camera running camer is [Music] [Applause] [Music] running [Music] ready the day on the 20th though that morning as the weather started to clear and we could see the big blue holes coming up I really felt that we were in a go condition that time because the booster was ready and everyone I think sort of gets go fever when you get get all conditions set right I think everyone was excited that [Music] morning uh P leader go ahead verify all tapes have been removed all tapes have been removed from the adap couple good bumps there rer water systems are coming on you'll probably hear them Roger looks good old man can you imagine here we go back to one to the East and around the world the Mercury tracking Network Bermuda the Mid-Atlantic ship Grand Canary Island Kano Nigeria Zanzibar and the Indian Ocean ship mushe near Perth in Western Australia WRA In The Bleak Australian desert Canton island in the mid Pacific the Hawaiian station on the island of kaai point arello in California guus Mexico plus Radars at White Sands New Mexico Corpus Christie Texas and Agland Air Force Base Florida all feeding information to the computers at Goddard space flight center in greenb Maryland where it is processed and in seconds passed to the Mercury control center at Cape canaval Florida through this network we can talk to the astronaut and we can track the path of a spacecraft watching for the scope display as the spacecraft comes over the horizon seeing it on radar first at long range 700 miles then locating it within a half a degree at a distance of 500 mil each station teletypes the radar information to the computers at Goddard space flight center where the spacecraft's exact orbit is determined through the network we can collect some 100 items of information on the physical condition of the the astronaut and the spacecraft we can monitor his pulse his respiration the g-loading on man and spacecraft we can determine seconds after the spacecraft separates from the atlas and turns heat shield forward whether its orbit is good or whether it should be brought down and we can determine as re-entry starts where the spacecraft is going to land and can bring it back to Earth at any time if the situation warrants very [Applause] Miss minut 15 seconds missile power R systems Roger loud and clear how many St check lock taking you are operations Mercury capule go all prart pan lights are correct the light is on eject Mercury umbilic God speed John Glenn 5 4 three three 2 1 zero Roger the clock is operating we're underway loud and clear Roger we're programming and roll okay little bumpy along about here Roger stand by for 20 seconds Roger two one Mark Roger backup clock is started fuel 102 101 oxygen 78 100 amps 27 Roger loud and clear fight is good 69 Roger check okay mine was 70 on your mark have some vibration area coming up here now rogering a lot and clear Roger coming in highq a little bit that little contrail went by the window or something there Joel 102 101 oxygen 78 101 24 still okay we're smoothing out some now getting out of the vibration area Roger through Max Q fight back Roger feels good through Max q and smoothing out real fine guy looking very dark outside C pressure is holding at 61 okay Roger cabin pressure holding at 61 Roger have had some oscillations but they seem to be damping out okay now coming up on two minutes J are building to six Roger loud andar flights good pitch 25 stand by Roger P back to one and a quarter the tower fired I could not see the tower go I saw the smoke go by the window yeah we confirming on Roger there the tower went right then have the tower in sight way out could see the tower go Edison Tower is [Applause] green one and a half je Roger Bermuda standby this is friendship seven rogering you CL s g is go we're standing by for you Roger keep is go and I am go capsule is in good shape Roger 20 seconds to Roger indicating 60 SEO great fired [Applause] okay Roger z g and I feel fine capsule is turning around oh that view is tremendous Roger has started Roger capsule turning around and I could see the booster during turnaround just a couple of hundred yards behind me it was beautiful Roger you have a at least s orits Roger understand go for at least seven orbits and now John Glenn is waiting orbiting very nearly du East away from the United States Coast 5 miles farther at the tick of every second Roger friend seven I am taking zyo P Now rer understand across Africa then watching the sunset over the Indian Ocean Roger this is friendship seven I can see the dark side coming up in the Periscope back behind me at present time that was sure a short day I again that was about the shortest day I've ever run into time passes rapidly H yes sir in the night over Australia then the sun rising behind him as he crosses the Central Pacific uh this is Prince ship 7 I'll try to describe what I'm in here uh I'm in a a big mass of some very small particles uh that are brilliantly lit up like their luminescent then across the United States toward Cape canav once around 45 minutes of night and 45 minutes of day see little or nothing of zal light at the moment 7 Sun is going down again now coming off automatic in ya and ya a little bit to the left to observe it they flying with yaw handle pulled during the flight the automatic stabilization and control system was uh causing some difficulty didn't appear to be correcting the way it should was able to use the manual control and just didn't cause any trouble at all it was seemed very natural after all of the uh trainer work we've done trainer simulations incidentally were very very close to the orbital control situation when we started having this problem at the end of the first orbit I was largely on manual control from there on till the end of the flight 5 4 3 2 one Roger retas are firing [Applause] yeah are they ever it feels like I'm going back toward a away East Coast the rer fire retro light is green Roger Roger Retros has stopped keep your retro Park on until you pass Texas that's affirmative tell you there's no doubt about it when the Retros fire yeah it from your comments the ground country receivers had picked up an Impulse that we possibly had a loose heat shield and for that reason it was deemed advisable to keep the Retro package in place during re-entry so that it would go ahead and burn off but by that time we would be in a high enough aerodynamic force field to keep the heat shield in place in case it was in fact loose this is Texas Capcom prein s we are recommending that you leave the Retro package on through the entire re-entry this means that you will have to override the 05g switch which is expected to occur at 0443 3 this also means that you will have to manually retract the scope do you read uh this is friendship 7 what is the reason for this do you have any reason over not at this time this is the Judgment of G flight now Roger say again your instructions please over I didn't really uh contest this decision from the control center because I knew that the experts we had on the ground had certainly thought this thing out much more thoroughly than I could in Flight I knew that there would not be any change of this magnitude made unless it had certainly been considered from every possible angle by many many experts on the ground all the people that designed the system and and all the other experts that were in the control center I Roger understand I will have to make a manual uh 05g entry when it occurs and and bring the scope in uh manually is that affirm that is affirmative friendship seven Roger this friendship seven going to re-entry attitude then in that case flight will give you the reasons for this action when you're in view go ahead k seven iude and retract the SC man at this time Roger retracting scope [Applause] manually at timeentry ah Roger understand the spacecraft descends gradually toward the top of the atmosphere under the inly insistent pull graffity [Applause] ahead K ship Seven standby this friendship seven uh going to fly by wire I'm down to about 15% on manual Roger friendship seven the spacecraft begins to pile up a shock wave speed 15,000 mph the temperature of the heat shield is approaching 3,000 de its fiberglass surface is beginning to oblate to char to melt and vaporize streaming away to form a glowing electrically charged wake go ahead Cape you're ground you're going out radio and Telemetry contact falters stops blocked by The Cloud of charged [Applause] air uh this is friendship 7 I I think the pack just let go the straps on the Retro pack broke loose and I felt a bump on the capsule and thought that the Retro package had jettisoned as it was supposed to do apparently this was not true but I thought so at the [Applause] time this friendship's having a real Fireball outside this made a pretty spectacular re-entry from the capsule standpoint because as it went on into the higher heat pulse in and this glow picked up outside the capsule to sort of a bright orange outside the window it became apparent that something was tearing up on the heat shield end of the capsule because there were large pieces from anywhere from pieces as big as the end of your finger to Pieces uh probably seven or8 inches in diameter were breaking off and falling off the edge of the capsule and coming back up brightly you can see the fire and the glow as they would come back up past the window this obviously was the Retro package tearing up and and breing off as we we knew it would if it had been retained I thought at that time however that the Retro package had already been jettison so there were some moments of Doubt there as to whether the heat shield had been damaged and whether it might be tearing up itself and this uh this could have been a bad day all way around if that had been the case but it was very spectacular looking out into this orange glow outside the window bright orange glow and seeing these big flaming chunks go go back along the flight path 0450 Z okay we're through the peak G [Applause] now TR tiip seven Dr is out R holding on Roger drug looks good rer scope did not come out Roger pumping the scope out again all right your entry checklist complete standing by for main at 10 coming down on 10 snorkles are [Music] open [Music] Roger main shoot is on green shoot is out in re condition at 10,800 seat and beautiful shoot shoot looks good on O2 emergency and the shoot looks very good R of s has gone to about 42 ft per second the shoot looks very good hello Mercury recovery this is friendship 7 do you receive Mercury friendship s this is steel loud and clear Roger that's affirmative descent is normal indicating 40 feet per second friendship seven this is Ste be advised I have you visually uh Roger what is your estimate on recovery time time over estimate pick up now at two minutes over Roger understand two minutes to pickup Landing bag is on green R chip seven ready for impact almost down here we go s this is hold you in the water what is your condition over all right you're my condition okay does the capsule look like it's okay over friendship 7 reference your last affirmative capsule looks good from here Roger understand they want me to stay in the capsule until uh rescue still that's [Applause] Roger And So It Ends our first man orbital flight with John Glenn receiving congratulations from the president of the United States but in ending it forms a new beginning a beginning not only to the line of project Mercury orbital flights but to a series of ever higher ever longer steps more training more teamwork more tests for after Atlas Saturn and after Mercury the Twan geminy for Earth orbit bit of a week or more and then Apollo a three-man spacecraft and with it flights first around the Moon then to the moon landing and return Then ultimately flights to other planets for the placing of Americans on the moon is not an end in itself but rather the focus for development of the national resources needed for adequate space science and exploration through the lunar Landing program we give strong stimulus to Science and Technology to produce the confidence needed by the nation to meet the great challenges of our age here on Earth and Beyond the Earth in space [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] for