Project Mercury – First U.S. Man in Orbit
1961 - 1962
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This is the seventh in a series of 12 articles entitled "First U.S. Man in Orbit." This article was written by NASA Administrator James E. Webb.
Transcript
First U.S. Man in Orbit (Part 7)PROJECT MERCURY--FIRST U.S. MAN IN ORBIT
by
James E. Webb
Mr. Webb is Administrator of
the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration
WASHINGTON --When the first U.S. Astronaut embarked on the Project Mercury orbital flight, it was the culmination of an experiment conceived and executed on a grand scale.
The Astronaut orbited the earth in a blunt, wingless one-ton spacecraft shaped like a bell. A multiple communications network linked him to 16 earth-based monitoring stations on his orbital flight that spanned North America, Africa, Australia, and the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Radio and radar, telephone and teletype , leased landlines and overseas radio and cable facilities kept the entire would informed of the spacecraft's position and the Astronaut's condition.
At a typical station, a physician checked the Astronaut's heartbeat, respiration, blood pressure, and body temperature simultaneously by observing the data automatically transmitted from the spacecraft by radio.
Similarly, engineers at the station monitored the technical phases of the flight.
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First US Man
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Less than three years ago, the U.S. had neither the spacecraft, the men trained to pilot it, nor the ground-based tracking and communications network to make manned space flights worthwhile scientific ventures. Project Mercury came into being under the suspices of a newly-created civilian agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in October 1958.
The chief features of the spacecraft--the steeple-like escape tower, the use of retro-rockets for slowing the craft to cause it to re-enter the atmosphere, the blunt, "high-drag" shape to protect against the friction heat of re-entry--represented direct and effective engineering solutions to the problem of space flight.
At the same time the spacecraft was taking shape, a score of other necessary items of equipment were being developed. There was, for example, the problem of outfitting man for the hostile environment of space. A new lightweight aluminized nylon spacesuit was designed to protect the Astronaut in the event of a calamitous pressure leak. Yet the suit provides mobility so that the Astronaut can attend to his flight chores.
Soon after Project Mercury was begun, seven carefully screened test pilots were selected by NASA. During the past 32 months, these Astronauts have been trained for the task of piloting the Mercury space craft. Although engineers as wells as pilots, the seven Astronauts were given additional intensive instruction in such basic aerospace subjects
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as aviation medicine, astronomy, meteorology, and astronautics (including ballistic trajectories, fuels, and other aspects of modern rocketry).
As far as possible, the Astronauts were trained in the environments of space flight duplicated in Laboratory experiments. Whirling centrifuges subjected the Astronauts to the forces of rocket acceleration. Weightlessness was experienced for brief periods in flying aircraft. In tiny chambers, darkened and soundproofed, the Astronauts simulated the cramped isolation of orbit flight in space.
The engineering, equipment, and Astronauts proved their value in a total of 19 test-flight missions. The most spectacular were the suborbital flights of Astronauts Alan B. Shepard and Virgil I. Grissom.
The first successful manned orbit flight in the Mercury program is not an end but a beginning. The spacecraft, and most important, the Astronauts themselves, will fly again and again.
Following this first manned orbital mission, the Astronauts will steadily extend and expand the U.S. exploration of space. During 1962, for example there are plans for an orbital flight approximately every two months. The Mercury flights will be extended to 18 orbits or 24 hours in duration.
After that will come the program to fly the Apollo spacecraft which will carry three men. Project Apollo has three phases designated A, B and C.
Riding stop on eight-engine Saturn rocket with a thrust several times greater than that of the Atlas, the crew of Apollo A will go on a week-long earth orbit in about 1964. Apollo B and its crew will make
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flights around the moon in about 1965. They will select, among other things, likely landing sites for the crew of Apollo C, which will make a lunar landing in the last years of the decade.
Much of the engineering knowledge and systems concepts worked out for Mercury will be incorporated in Project Apollo. For instance, the same tower-like escape rocket, designed to wrench the spacecraft away from the booster rocket in case of a catastrophic failure on the launch pad or during the first minutes of powered flight, will be adapted to Apollo.
Several Apollo spacecraft shapes being considered make use of the Mercury configuration for the critical moments of re-entry. The Apollo no doubt will return to earth with its blunt and forward in the same manner as the Mercury spacecraft.
The Mercury "contour couch" concept will be repeated so that there will be an individually fitted couch for each of the Apollo Astronauts.
Suit design, environment control, reaction jets for steering in space, and other Mercury features may also be used in Apollo.
Perhaps the most valuable asset of the Mercury program to be available to Apollo will be the experienced Mercury Astronauts . They already have qualifications difficult to match.
Therefore, the mid-60s my find these seven men, then in their forties, serving as Apollo spacecraft commanders to a crew of new generation Astronauts.
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Riding stop on eight-engine Saturn rocket with a thrust several times greater than that of the Atlas, the crew of Apollo A will go on a week-long earth orbit in about 1964. Apollo B and its crew will make
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flights around the moon in about 1965. They will select, among other things, likely landing sites for the crew of Apollo C, which will make a lunar landing in the last years of the decade.
Much of the engineering knowledge and systems concepts worked out for Mercury will be incorporated in Project Apollo. For instance, the same tower-like escape rocket, designed to wrench the spacecraft away from the booster rocket in case of a catastrophic failure on the launch pad or during the first minutes of powered flight, will be adapted to Apollo.
Several Apollo spacecraft shapes being considered make use of the Mercury configuration for the critical moments of re-entry. The Apollo no doubt will return to earth with its blunt and forward in the same manner as the Mercury spacecraft.
The Mercury "contour couch" concept will be repeated so that there will be an individually fitted couch for each of the Apollo Astronauts.
Suit design, environment control, reaction jets for steering in space, and other Mercury features may also be used in Apollo.
Perhaps the most valuable asset of the Mercury program to be available to Apollo will be the experienced Mercury Astronauts . They already have qualifications difficult to match.
Therefore, the mid-60s my find these seven men, then in their forties, serving as Apollo spacecraft commanders to a crew of new generation Astronauts.
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This primary source comes from the Records of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
National Archives Identifier: 278180
Full Citation: Project Mercury -- First U.S. Man in Orbit; 1961 - 1962; Fact Sheets and Press Releases for Mercury Atlas 6 (MA-6); Source Files on Project Mercury, 1952 - 1968; Records of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Record Group 255; National Archives at Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/project-mercury-first-us-man-in-orbit, April 25, 2024]Rights: Public Domain, Free of Known Copyright Restrictions. Learn more on our privacy and legal page.