Upcoming 50th Anniversary of the flight of Friendship 7 - Mon 20 Feb

[gary]

To mark the upcoming 50th anniversary of John Glenn's flight in Friendship 7,
which took place on February 20th 1962, the Sydney Morning Herald today has
an article by John Noble Wilford about the now 90 year old Glenn.

This coming Saturday at Cape Canaveral, Glenn will have a reunion with the
remaining team of engineers, scientists and managers who worked on the Mercury Project.
Included among the guests will be the only other remaining Mercury astronaut,
Scott Carpenter, who also acted as capsule communicator on Glenn's historic
flight.

I remember when growing up in the 60's we had a double sided record that had
voice recordings of the highlights of the flight. My brother and I would listen to
it incessantly for many years and we could recite each piece of
dialog including the timing and inflections of the various speakers. :lol:
We never tired of listening to it and each time was just as exciting as the
time before.

Sydney Morning Herald article here -
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/at-90-an-american-space-hero-looks-back-20120214-1t3o4.html

NASA Friendship 7 web site here -
http://history.nasa.gov/friendship7/

Wikipedia entry on Friendship 7 flight here -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Atlas_6

[stephenb]

Thanks for posting Gary. I am enjoying each milestone or anniversary which arises relating to the space program. I also have that very record of Friendship 7 sitting in a shelf not far from where I am sitting. One of my treasured possessions.

On Twitter I follow NASA and receive all their 'On This Day' tweets as reminders :)

Regards,
Stephen

[gary]

Hi Hans,

It would be interesting to know if we have any IceInSpace members
who were living in Perth at the time of Friendship 7's overflight.

The media encouraged residents to turn on outdoor lights and to
use white sheets as reflectors.

As Glenn flew over, he could see the bright lights of Perth and reported
another set of bright lights to the south at Rockingham. He said
they showed up very well and he asked to thank everyone for turning
them on.

Perth then became known as "The City of Lights".

John Glenn has a personal, heartfelt video message of thanks for
the people of Perth and Rockingham as part of the 50th anniversary here -
http://honeysucklecreek.net/other_stations/muchea/index.html

Special web page set-up for celebrating the Muchea Tracking Station
in WA as part of the Friendship 7 50th Anniversary here -
http://honeysucklecreek.net/other_stations/muchea/index.html

[Hans Tucker]

Perth turned the lights on again back in 1998 when Glenn flew over again this time as crew member on a Shuttle Flight..STS-95 I think.

[stephenb]

Here's my 33 1/3 single of the recording.

[Benno18]

Yes i remember this one in 1998. There were a lot of people not happy about turning on their lights, due to the excess greenhouse gases produced.

Personally i seen it as a great gesture!!!!!
would love to have a listen to that Freedom 7 record!!!!

[gary]

Hi Stephen,

That's the recording we have! :) Loved that record.

For a trip down memory lane, readers can find the 12 and a half minute soundtrack
of that double sided 33 and a 1/3 record here on YouTube -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJxfaElvgGQ

It is still exciting to listen to today and the inflections in the voices betray the
peril and excitement of what was a great and daring adventure.

I love the chatter of the teletypes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleprinter) in the background at Mercury Control.

The next Mercury flight after Glenn's was that of Scott Carpenter aboard
Aurora 7. Carpenter replaced Deke Slayton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deke_Slayton) who had been due to fly in
Delta 7, but was stood down after he was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrial_fibrillation).

A recording of Scott Carpenter's flight of Aurora 7 that was also released by
Doubleday appears on YouTube here -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQyJ2gMhipc (Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQxMC5IVAE8&feature=related (Part 2)

At 0:44 on part 2, Lt. Col John A "Shorty" Powers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Powers) of Mercury Control reports that
Carpenter "indicated that he was able to move or change the attitude of the
spacecraft simply by moving his head or arms around in the cockpit".
This is somewhat telling of how small the Mercury capsule was (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Interior_of_spacecraft.jpg).

A biography of Carpenter including some very interesting facts on the Aurora 7 flight
which took place on May 24 1962 appears here (http://history.nasa.gov/40thmerc7/carpenter.htm) on the NASA history web site.
See http://history.nasa.gov/40thmerc7/carpenter.htm
This web page was created as part of the 40th anniversary of the Aurora 7 flight
ten years ago.

Some real nail-biting seat of the pants flying was involved, particularly during a
hair-raising re-entry, which makes for compelling reading. Imagine your capsule
is not oriented quite right for re-entry, you are hurtling in at five miles per second
and the retros don't automatically fire. This is where a major in aeronautical
engineering, years of experience as a Navy test pilot and just having the plain
Right Stuff kicks in. :thumbsup: