Mercury-Atlas 7

Mercury-Atlas 7, launched May 24, 1962, was the fourth crewed flight of Project Mercury. The spacecraft, named Aurora 7, was piloted by astronaut Scott Carpenter. He was the sixth human to fly in space. The mission used Mercury spacecraft No. 18 and Atlas launch vehicle No. 107-D.

For the group of astronauts, see Mercury Seven.

Mercury-Atlas 7

Carpenter entering his MA-7 capsule, Aurora 7
Mission type	Test flight
Operator	NASA
Harvard designation	1962 Tau 1
COSPAR ID	1962-019A
SATCAT no.	295
Mission duration	4 hours, 56 minutes, 5 seconds
Distance travelled	122,344 kilometers (76,021 mi)
Orbits completed	3
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Mercury No.18
Manufacturer	McDonnell Aircraft
Launch mass	1,350.0 kilograms (2,976.2 lb)
Crew
Crew size	1
Members	M. Scott Carpenter
Callsign	Aurora 7
Start of mission
Launch date	May 24, 1962, 12:45:16 (1962-05-24UTC12:45:16Z) UTC
Rocket	Atlas LV-3B 107-D
Launch site	Cape Canaveral LC-14
End of mission
Recovered by	USS Intrepid[1]
Landing date	May 24, 1962, 17:41:21 (1962-05-24UTC17:41:22Z) UTC
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Low Earth orbit
Perigee altitude	154 kilometers (83 nmi)
Apogee altitude	259 kilometers (140 nmi)
Inclination	32.5 degrees
Period	88.63 minutes
Epoch	May 24, 1962[2]
Malcolm Scott Carpenter Project Mercury Crewed missions

The flight was for three Earth orbits, essentially a repeat of John Glenn's Mercury-Atlas 6. However, a targeting error during reentry took the spacecraft 250 miles (400 km) off-course, delaying recovery of Carpenter and the spacecraft for an hour. Carpenter was held responsible, at least in part, for the landing error. Carpenter left NASA for the Navy SEALAB program in 1964.

Crew

Position	Astronaut
Pilot	M. Scott Carpenter Only spaceflight

Backup crew

Position	Astronaut
Pilot	Walter M. Schirra

Crew notes

The original prime crew for Mercury Atlas-7 was to have been Deke Slayton, with Schirra as his back-up. However Slayton was removed from all flight crew availability after the discovery of cardiac dysrhythmia during a training run in the g-loading centrifuge. Slayton had chosen the name Delta 7 for the spacecraft, as this would have been the fourth crewed flight and Delta (Δ) is the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet.[3] Instead of using Schirra who was backup, it was decided to give the mission to Carpenter, who was the backup crew for Mercury-Atlas 6, had trained with John Glenn, and was considered the best-prepared astronaut. When Carpenter was given the mission, he renamed it Aurora 7 for the open sky and the dawn, symbolizing the dawn of the new age. The number Seven was also chosen for the Mercury 7 astronauts. In addition, Carpenter's home address in his childhood was the corner of Aurora and Seventh Avenues in Boulder, Colorado, although at a talk he gave at the Boulder Theater in 2003, Carpenter admitted that he never made the connection between the Aurora 7 spacecraft and his old address until friends pointed it out to him after he made the flight.[4][5]

Mission parameters

• Mass: 2975 lb (1350 kg)
• Perigee: 96 mi (154 km)[6]
• Apogee: 162 mi (260 km)[6]
• Eccentricity: 0.00804[6]
• Inclination: 32.5°[6]
• Period: 88.3 min[6]
• Fuel:[7]
  • 35 pounds (16 kg) for the automatic system
  • 24.9 pounds (11.3 kg) for the manual system

Mission highlights

Preparation

Mercury spacecraft No. 18 was delivered to Cape Canaveral, Florida on November 15, 1961. While under checkout, the crew changed the periscope and also worked on the drogue parachute, to prevent it from firing prematurely as happened during the previous flight. In addition, a device known as a [446] "low-level commutator" was added, to measure the temperature around the capsule, recording temperature data from 28 positions on the spacecraft.[5]

The Atlas vehicle 107D was rolled out of the Convair factory in San Diego, California on February 25, 1962. It was delivered to Cape Canaveral on March 6, 1962.[8]

Atlas 107D incorporated two small changes from 109D (Glenn's booster)--specifically, removal of an insulation blanket from the common propellant tank bulkhead that was deemed unnecessary and a one-second change in the booster jettison (T+130 seconds instead of 131 seconds).[5]

The temperature sensor installation and the correction of the drogue parachute circuit delayed the launch until May.[5]

A network of ground stations and ships, called the "Mercury network" was arranged around the globe to provide continuous coverage of the spacecraft. On Mercury-Atlas 7, the network consisted of 15 Mercury sites supplemented by several Atlantic Missile Range (AMR) stations, and the Goddard Space Flight Center.[9] CAPCOMs were operating from different stations around the world to communicate with Carpenter. Gus Grissom was the CAPCOM at Cape Canaveral.[10] Alan Shepard was the CAPCOM at California.[1]

Scientific experiments

The focus of Carpenter's five-hour mission was scientific. The full flight plan included the first study of liquids in weightlessness, Earth photography, and an unsuccessful attempt to observe a flare fired from the ground.

One of the experiments would include releasing a multi-colored balloon that would remain tethered to the capsule, observing the behavior of liquid in a weightless state inside a closed glass bottle, using a special light meter to determine the visibility of a ground flare, making weather photographs with hand-held cameras, and studying the airglow layer - for which Carpenter would receive special training. The tethered balloon was a 30-inch mylar inflatable sphere, which was folded, packaged, and housed with its gas expansion bottle in the antenna canister. The whole balloon package weighed two pounds. Divided into five sections of different colors - uncolored aluminum, yellow, orange, white, and a phosphorescent coating that appeared white by day and blue by night - the balloon was to be cast off near perigee after the first orbital pass to float freely at the end of a 100-foot nylon line. The purposes of the balloon experiment were to study the effects of space on the reflection properties of colored surfaces through visual observation and photographic studies and to obtain aerodynamic drag measurements by use of a strain gauge.[5]

During flight

MA-7 launch

Carpenter was awakened at 1:15 AM on the morning of the flight and ate a breakfast of orange juice, filet mignon, eggs, toast, and coffee.[1] Prior to insertion in the capsule, he was administered a hydration regimen of water, juice, coffee, and sweet tea. He ascended into the gantry at 4:36, and entered the spacecraft at 4:43.[7] Unlike Mercury-Atlas 6, there was no problem with the sealing bolts.

Launch occurred at 7:45 AM (Florida time) on 24 May 1962.[7]

Launch vehicle performance was overall excellent with one small anomaly in that one of the sustainer engine's hydraulic switches moved to the abort position at T+265 seconds, because a faulty pressure transducer produced an erroneous reading indicating loss of hydraulic pressure. However, since another transducer indicated correct pressure levels until after Sustainer Engine Cut-Off (SECO), the launch proceeded normally (both switches had to be tripped for the ASIS system to generate an abort signal). The Atlas's flight path was so accurate that Aurora 7 reached almost the exact orbital parameters planned for the mission. SECO occurred at T+309 seconds and capsule separation at T+312 seconds.

Carpenter had solid food items for the first time (in the form of freeze-dried cubes in a plastic bag) instead of paste squeezed out of a tube, which produced problems with loose crumbs floating inside the cabin. The food cubes had been coated with an anti-crumbling agent, but they may have accidentally been crushed prior to launch, breaking the coating. Carpenter expressed concern about crumbs being sucked into ventilation intakes in the capsule. In addition, a candy bar included in the food supply melted from high cabin temperatures (up to 102 °F). By the end of the second orbit, he informed Mercury Control that most of the food was a mess and he would avoid touching it for the rest of the flight aside from taking a xylose capsule.[7]

With each orbit sunrise, Carpenter also saw the "fireflies", though he observed them to be more like snowflakes. He also noted that the particles did not seem to be truly luminous, and varied in size, brightness, and color. Some were gray, some were white, and one in particular, said Carpenter, looked like a helical shaving from a lathe. Although they seemed to travel at different speeds, they did not move out and away from the spacecraft as the confetti had in the balloon experiment.[1]

Carpenter also took 19 photos of the flattened sun at orbit sunset.[1]

At dawn of the third and final orbit, Carpenter inadvertently bumped his hand against the inside wall of the cabin and solved a mystery from the previous flight. The resulting bright shower of particles outside the spacecraft - what John Glenn had called "fireflies" - turned out to be ice particles shaken loose from the spacecraft's exterior. Near the end of the flight, Carpenter found that by banging his hand against the wall of the capsule, he could shake more "fireflies" loose. At first, it was thought that the particles could be marker dye or shark repellent, both green-colored, however, testing confirmed that neither of those were likely to escape from their packages in zero gravity.[9]

It was then suspected that the fireflies were either steam from the life support system turning into the snow when exposed to open space or debris on the exterior of the spacecraft being shaken loose, however, the former was considered the more probable explanation. Steam generated by the life support system formed condensation between the spacecraft bulkhead and the heat shield which then escaped into space and froze.[9]

Like Glenn, Carpenter circled the Earth three times, with the total time spent weightless at 4 h 39 min 32 s. The performance of the Mercury spacecraft and Atlas launch vehicle was excellent in nearly every respect. All primary mission objectives were achieved. The single mission-critical malfunction which occurred involved a failure in the spacecraft pitch horizon scanner, a component of the automatic control system. This anomaly was adequately compensated for by the pilot in subsequent in-flight operations so that the success of the mission was not compromised. A modification of the spacecraft control-system thrust units was effective. Cabin and pressure-suit temperatures were high but not intolerable. Some uncertainties in the data telemetered from the bioinstrumentation prevailed at times during the flight; however, associated information was available which indicated continued well-being of the astronaut.

Equipment was included in the spacecraft which provided valuable scientific information--notably that regarding liquid behavior in a weightless state, identification of the airglow layer observed by Astronaut Glenn, and photography of terrestrial features and meteorological phenomena. An experiment which was to provide atmospheric drag and color visibility data in space through the deployment of an inflatable sphere was partially successful. The flight further qualified the Mercury spacecraft systems for crewed orbital operations and provided evidence for progressing into missions of extended duration and consequently more demanding systems requirements.

Landing

Passing over Hawaii during the final orbit, flight director Kraft told Carpenter to begin his retrofire countdown and to shift from manual control to the automatic attitude control. Partly because he had been distracted watching the fireflies Carpenter noted that he had begun his landing preparations late. As he started to align the spacecraft he found that the automatic stabilization system would not hold the required 34-degree pitch and zero-degree yaw attitude. While trying to determine the source of the trouble, he fell behind in his check of other items. When he hurriedly switched to the fly-by-wire control mode, he forgot to switch off the manual system. As a result, both systems were used redundantly together for 10 minutes, and fuel was wasted.[1]

In addition to the attitude error, Carpenter also activated the retrorockets three seconds late, adding another 15 miles or so to the trajectory error. Due to lack of fuel Carpenter overshot his planned reentry mark and splashed down 250 miles (400 km) from the target.

After nearly an hour of frantic searching, Carpenter was located in an area northeast of Puerto Rico. The USS Farragut was the first ship to arrive at the spacecraft nearly forty minutes after splashdown had occurred. Two helicopters dispatched from the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid reached the scene and transported Astronaut Carpenter back to the Intrepid and over the next several hours the Farragut remained on the scene watching the spacecraft until the USS John R. Pierce arrived, which was equipped with special equipment enabling it to tow Aurora 7 to Roosevelt Roads Puerto Rico where it was then flown back to Cape Canaveral.[11]

Other than slight exhaustion, Carpenter was in good health and spirits and post-flight medical exams did not find any significant physical changes or anomalies. Kraft, however, was unhappy with the astronaut's performance due to his needlessly high expenditure of attitude control fuel, which resulted in reentry and landing taking place well off-course. As a result, Carpenter was sidelined for future missions. He left the space program in 1964 to participate in the Navy's SEALAB program. Aurora 7 is displayed at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois.[12]

Mercury-Atlas three-orbit flight events

T+ Time	Event	Description
T+00:00:00	Liftoff	Mercury-Atlas lifts off, onboard clock starts.
T+00:00:02	Roll Program	Mercury-Atlas rotates along its axis 2.5 deg/s from 30° to 0°.
T+00:00:16	Pitch Program	Mercury-Atlas begins a 0.5 deg/s pitch from 90° to 0°.
T+00:00:30	Radio Guidance Lock	General Electric-Burroughs guidance system locks onto radio transponder in Atlas booster to guide the vehicle until orbit insertion.
T+00:01:24	Max Q	Maximum dynamic pressure ~980 lbf/ft² (47 kPa)
T+00:02:10	BECO	Atlas Booster Engine Cutoff. Booster engines drop away.
T+00:02:33	Tower Jettison	Escape Tower Jettison, no longer needed.
T+00:02:25	Atlas Pitchover	After tower separation, vehicle pitches over further.
T+00:05:20	SECO	Atlas Sustainer Engine Cutoff, spacecraft reaches orbit, velocity 17,547 mph (7,844 m/s).
T+00:05:24	Spacecraft Separation	Posigrade rockets fire for 1 second giving 15 ft/s (5 m/s) separation.
T+00:05:25	5-Second Rate Damping	ASCS damps spacecraft rates for 5 seconds in preparation for turnaround maneuver.
T+00:05:25	Turnaround Maneuver	Spacecraft (ASCS) system rotates spacecraft 180 degrees, to heat shield forward attitude. Nose is pitched down 34 degrees to retro fire position.
T+00:05:30 T+04:30:00	Orbital Operations	Orbital operations and experiments for 3 orbits.
T+04:30:00	Retro Sequence Start	Retrofire in 30 s; (ASCS) checks for proper retro attitude −34° pitch, 0° yaw, 0° roll.
T+04:30:30	Retrofire	Three retro rockets fire for 10 seconds each. They are started at 5 second intervals, firing overlaps for a total of 20 seconds. Delta V of 550 ft/s (168 m/s) is taken off forward velocity.
T+04:31:00	Retract Periscope	Periscope is automatically retracted in preparation for reentry.
T+04:31:50	Retro Pack Jettison	One minute after retrofire retro pack is jettisoned, leaving heatshield clear.
T+04:33:00	Retro Attitude Maneuver	(ASCS) orients spacecraft in 34° nose down pitch, 0° roll, 0° yaw.
T+04:40:30	0.05 G Maneuver	(ASCS) detects beginning of reentry and rolls spacecraft at 10 degrees per second to stabilize spacecraft during reentry.
T+04:50:20	Drogue Parachute Deploy	Drogue parachute deployed at 22,000 ft (6.7 km) slowing descent to 365 ft/s (111 m/s) and stabilizing spacecraft.
T+04:50:25	Snorkel Deploy	Fresh air snorkel deploys at 20,000 ft (6 km). ECS switches to emergency oxygen rate to cool cabin.
T+04:51:55	Main Parachute Deploy	Main parachute deploys at 10,000 ft (3 km). Descent rate slows to 30 ft/s (9 m/s).
T+04:52:00	Landing Bag Deploy	Landing Bag Deploys, dropping heat shield down four feet (1.2 m).
T+04:52:30	Fuel Dump	Remaining hydrogen peroxide fuel automatically dumped.
T+04:57:10	Splashdown	Spacecraft lands in water.
T+04:57:10	Rescue Aids Deploy	Rescue aid package deployed. The package includes green dye marker, recovery radio beacon, and whip antenna.

See also

• Splashdown

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

1. Swenson Jr., Loyd S.; Grimwood, James M.; Alexander, Charles C. (1989). "13-9 Flight of Aurora 7". In Woods, David; Gamble, Chris (eds.). This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury (url). Published as NASA Special Publication-4201 in the NASA History Series. NASA. Retrieved 17 December 2016. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
2. McDowell, Jonathan. "SATCAT". Jonathan's Space Pages. Retrieved March 23, 2014.
3. Evans, Ben. ""Change in Velocity": The Misfortune of Deke Slayton – Part 1". americaspace.com. AmericaSpace. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
4. Teitel, Amy Shira. "Mercury Astronaut Scott Carpenter and the Controversy Surrounding Aurora 7". popsci.com. Popular Science. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
5. Swenson Jr., Loyd S.; Grimwood, James M.; Alexander, Charles C. (1989). "13-8 MA-7 Preparations". In Woods, David; Gamble, Chris (eds.). This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury (url). Published as NASA Special Publication-4201 in the NASA History Series. NASA. Retrieved 17 December 2016. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
6. "Mercury Atlas 7, NSSDCA ID: 1962-019A". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
7. Boynton, John H. (February 1967). "SECOND UNITED STATES MANNED THREE-PASS ORBITAL MISSION (MERCURY-ATLAS 7, SPACECRAFT 18) DESCRIPTION AND PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS" NASA technical note TN-D 3814 (PDF) (Report). NASA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-05-10. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
8. Grimwood, James M. (1963). "Project Mercury: A Chronology" (PDF). NASA report SP-4001. NASA. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
9. "Results of the Second U.S. Manned Orbital Space Flight" NASA report (PDF) (Report). NASA. 24 May 1962. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
10. "Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom". The space race. Archived from the original on 2 August 2016. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
11. Dumoulin, Jim (August 25, 2000). "NASA Project Mercury Mission MA-7". NASA. Retrieved July 3, 2020.
12. "Mercury MA-7". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 2008-05-12. Retrieved 2008-03-13.

External links

• Results of the Second U.S. Manned Orbital Space Flight, May 24, 1962 NASA report - (PDF format)
• This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury - NASA report (PDF format)
• Project Mercury: A Chronology - NASA report (PDF format)
• NASA NSSDC Spacecraft Details
• The short film Aurora 7 is available for free download at the Internet Archive