John Glenn and Friendship 7

Mission Objective:

Place a man into earth orbit, observe his reactions to the space environment and safely return him to earth to a point where he could be readily found. The Mercury flight plan during the first orbit was to maintain optimum spacecraft attitude for radar tracking and communication checks.

Mission Highlights:

Mission Successful. First American in orbit. Total time weightless 4 hours 48min 27sec.

During the flight only two major problems were encountered: (1) a yaw attitude control jet apparently clogged at the end of the first orbit, forcing the astronaut to abandon the automatic control system for the manual-electrical fly-by-wire system; and (2) a faulty switch in the heat shield circuit indicated that the clamp holding the shield had been prematurely released- a signal later found to be false. During reentry, however, the retropack was not jettisoned but retained as a safety measure to hold the heat shield in place in the event it had loosened.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• john
• glenn
• nasa
• firendship
• ma-6
• atlas

[GatewayGhettoProd]

These guys were my heroes. These days, my kids look up to "Tupac". Jeez!

[smartone67010]

im 16 and john glenn, alan shepard, neil armstrong, buzz aldrin, yuri gagarin and valentina tereshkova (just to name a few) live/lived my dream!! I have told myself that I am going into space before I die!

[DieForGodiva]

What a thrill to see this clip: "Classic NASA Film - Friendship 7 - # 1 of John Glenn. What is so exciting also is to have known the man who is shown putting John Glenn into the Mercury Capsule, Friendship 7. It was John Dickinson. John Dickinson was a fighter pilot during the War and had made gutsy, night carrier landings himself. In the clip you can see he was now working at Cape Canaveral. How exciting those glory days must have been for all those involved in new SPACE TRAVEL.

[gh4roks09]

You Go my friend!!! Fly high!! I'll be watching!

I might even be there... who knows?

[RKBrockstheworld]

exactly...you are spot on !!!!!!

[kilo54]

I totally hear ya