50 years ago today - MA-6 [Archive] - SUBSIM Radio Room Forums

Platapus

02-20-12, 07:15 AM

Today is the 50th anniversary of MA-6 (Mercury-Atlas Mission 6).

Payload was a Jarhead named John Glenn. Enos wanted more money so I guess they used a Marine instead. :D

First orbit of an American Astronaut. Three Orbits in just over 4 hours 55 minutes. :yeah:

Not too shabby for a Leatherneck, didn't hardly break anything. :D

Osmium Steele

02-20-12, 08:43 AM

Yeah, they ran out of monkeys...

:D

u crank

02-20-12, 08:50 AM

Yeah, they ran out of monkeys...

:D

Qualified monkeys.

the_tyrant

02-20-12, 09:25 AM

a really interesting article:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-19514_3-57380060-239/a-conversation-with-john-glenn/

Torplexed

02-20-12, 09:35 AM

Apparently at 90, Glenn still has his pilot's license and only sold his plane last year.

nikimcbee

02-20-12, 09:59 AM

I went to the Evergreen Space museum on Saturday.
http://www.evergreenmuseum.org/the-museum/aircraft-exhibits/space-flight/

They have some great exhibits of the Mercury flight. Now that was a bloody small capsule he flew in.:o

Platapus

02-20-12, 10:08 AM

nikimcbee

02-20-12, 10:15 AM

Down in Richmond, South Virginia there is a museum with a mock up of the Mercury capsule that you can climb in... or at least try to climb in.

There was a reason there was a height restriction on Mercury astronauts. :yep:

I believe the Boeing Museum also has a capsule you can climb in. Man that must have been one hellavah ride!:dead:

u crank

02-20-12, 10:16 AM

a really interesting article:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-19514_3-57380060-239/a-conversation-with-john-glenn/

Interesting article.

All jokes aside when you stop to consider a few things, Glenn's achievement and Shepard's and Gagarin's were remarkable to say the least. Less than 20 years earlier men were fighting a war in prop driven aircraft and rocket propulsion was still not perfected. A 45% failure rate for the Atlas rocket booster would have been a cause for concern as well. Not great odds.
These guys had to be brave and just a little crazy.

Hats off to John Glenn for a long and successful career. :salute:

nikimcbee

02-20-12, 10:36 AM

speaking of Gagarin, did anybody see the show "Dark Matters" , about the cosmonauts before Gagarin?

MISSING COSMONAUTS: The dawn of the space age. Two amateur radio hams are listening in, recording broadcasts from early Russian launches into space. One day, they hear a heart-stopping sound. Someone tapping out a distress signal from space. Was cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin really the first man in orbit, or did the Soviets send others up before him? Were they erased from history because they never came back?

http://science.discovery.com/tv/dark-matters/

Torplexed

02-20-12, 10:49 AM

speaking of Gagarin, did anybody see the show "Dark Matters" , about the cosmonauts before Gagarin?

http://science.discovery.com/tv/dark-matters/

The old rumor I always heard was that the first cosmonaut was the son of a Russian jet designer, Vladimir Ilyushin. Stories were that he died, was critically injured or spent the rest of his life in an asylum.

Ah, heres a page on him: http://www.lostcosmonauts.com/ilyushin.htm

Of course in those days, EVERYTHING in the USSR was a state secret. And if anything happened to you, they just airbrushed you out of the old photos and pretended that you never existed. So even guys who were hurt in standard flying accidents or training were "excised" from history. However, color me skeptical on the lost cosmonauts stories. No real evidence has ever been found. The Soviets launched Sputnik 1 and 2 in 1957. Sputnik 2 pretty well maxed out the R-7 booster. I doubt it had the capacity to carry a human. Sure, if they left off the upper stage, they might have the lifting capacity to carry a human on a suborbital flight but it's unlikely they had a vehicle ready.

Bilge_Rat

02-20-12, 11:24 AM

"The Right Stuff" by Tom Wolfe is a great book on the Mercury program. (As usual, the book has about 10x more content than the movie).

There was a real concern that the rocket might blow up since the Atlas rockets had a very spotty record. Both previous launches had used the more reliable Redstone rocket. During the middle of the flight, ground control were receiving warnings that the heat shield might be detached, so they were not even sure he could make it back alive.

All the mercury astronauts were great pilots. When Gordo Cooper made his record breaking flight in 63, all the electronics progressively failed and he had to fly the entire landing manually, guesstimating the proper re-entry angle by looking out the window and timing the burn with his watch. He still managed to land right in the middle of the landing area.

u crank

02-20-12, 11:27 AM

speaking of Gagarin, did anybody see the show "Dark Matters" , about the cosmonauts before Gagarin?

http://science.discovery.com/tv/dark-matters/

The true story.

http://www.filmfan.com/images/stills/Reluctant_Astronaut_B&W.jpg

Sailor Steve

02-20-12, 12:15 PM

"Godspeed, John Glenn!" I'm old enough to remember listening to it on the radio. I still have the National Geographic with the article in it. :sunny:

nikimcbee

02-20-12, 12:20 PM

I'm old enough to remember

...must....resist....temptation....:D

Torplexed

02-20-12, 12:21 PM

"Godspeed, John Glenn!" I'm old enough to remember listening to it on the radio. I still have the National Geographic with the article in it. :sunny:

I'll have to get mine on ebay. :D $8.00 a year subscription back then! What a bargain.

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/POPE-URBAN-II-JOHN-GLENN-MERCURY-NATIONAL-GEOGRAPHIC-/00/$%28KGrHqYOKnME4+j,LVicBOQ1E3FQsw%7E%7E0_3.JPG

kraznyi_oktjabr

02-20-12, 12:47 PM

I'll have to get mine on ebay. :D $8.00 a year subscription back then! What a bargain.
Well thats $60.04 in 2012 dollars. Not sure about bargain. :hmmm:

TLAM Strike

02-20-12, 07:52 PM

First orbit of an American Astronaut. First orbit of anyone. Yuri's Vostok 1 flight deorbited short of one full orbit. :03:

...I'm old enough to remember....
Back when Steve was young the only Astronauts were the Alien Astronauts... :O:

Oberon

02-20-12, 08:07 PM

I heard on the radio a few nights back that when they brought in Glenn to show him a test launch of the type of rocket he'd be going up on, the rocket exploded mid-launch.

Confidence inspiring. :doh:

Platapus

02-20-12, 08:08 PM

First orbit of anyone. Yuri's Vostok 1 flight deorbited short of one full orbit. :03:

I too often wonder about Vostok 1 and a "Complete" orbit as he only did 340 degrees but that is not taking in to account the earth rotation. When I ask the rocket scientists at work, they start talking in tongues about inertial space and that's usually when I feign death to get them to stop. :D

But in any case Titov's Vostok 2 went 17 orbits and did it before Glenn

Vostok 2 6-7 Aug 61

Friendship 7 20 Feb 62

TLAM Strike

02-20-12, 08:52 PM

I too often wonder about Vostok 1 and a "Complete" orbit as he only did 340 degrees but that is not taking in to account the earth rotation. When I ask the rocket scientists at work, they start talking in tongues about inertial space and that's usually when I feign death to get them to stop. :D

But in any case Titov's Vostok 2 went 17 orbits and did it before Glenn

Vostok 2 6-7 Aug 61

Friendship 7 20 Feb 62

However no Vostok spacecraft landed with its crews. They all bailed out and parachuted to the ground. Glenn was the 1st to orbit and return with his spacecraft. :03:

razark

02-20-12, 09:17 PM

First orbit of anyone. Yuri's Vostok 1 flight deorbited short of one full orbit.
Gagarin was "in orbit", so if he hadn't been deorbited, he would have continued in an orbital trajectory for a while.

Glenn was the first person to orbit in a spacecraft under his control, instead of a ground-controlled/pre-programed flight.

When I ask the rocket scientists at work, they start talking in tongues about inertial space and that's usually when I feign death to get them to stop.
When I ask the rocket scientists at work, they usually just look at me for a moment, and then ask "Who are you? What are you doing in here? How'd you get into a secure area?"

USS Drum

02-20-12, 09:38 PM

When I ask the rocket scientists at work, they usually just look at me for a moment, and then ask "Who are you? What are you doing in here? How'd you get into a secure area?"

Then you tell them how you got in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRHqtbt3ORc

Platapus

02-21-12, 05:09 PM

However no Vostok spacecraft landed with its crews. They all bailed out and parachuted to the ground. Glenn was the 1st to orbit and return with his spacecraft. :03:

I will give you that. :up:

the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) looked closely at the Vostok missions because of the ejection, but decided that since it was designed that way, it counted.

Glenn was the first person to orbit in a spacecraft under his control, instead of a ground-controlled/pre-programed flight.

Titov in Vostok 2 manually controlled his craft during some of his mission.

Glenn only took manual control during specific tests periods.

(man I love space trivia!)

razark

02-21-12, 06:09 PM

Titov in Vostok 2 manually controlled his craft during some of his mission.
You are correct. I looked it up earlier today. I was mistaken, it was Gagarin that had the unlock codes in an envelope.

(man I love space trivia!)
Growing up with two parents at NASA, I picked up a lot of it. A lot of interesting stuff to learn.

It surprises me that more people there seem to have no idea of (and no interest in) the sorts of things that have happened right there where they work.

Platapus

02-22-12, 05:33 PM

It surprises me that more people there seem to have no idea of (and no interest in) the sorts of things that have happened right there where they work.

Not everyone is a history nut like we are. I am pretty ignorant on most things concerning sports and music. :D

Biggles

02-22-12, 06:16 PM

"Godspeed, John Glenn!" I'm old enough to remember listening to it on the radio. I still have the National Geographic with the article in it. :sunny:

I really envy you "old" folks :O: You can (depending on your age, of course) tell your kids and grandchildren that you saw the moon-landing live, for instance, and I wish more than anything that I could've been around to experience that!

Treasure your memories friendo! :salute:

Sailor Steve

02-22-12, 07:31 PM

Treasure your memories friendo! :salute:
Oh, I do. I do. On the other hand you're going to see things I can only dream about. Technology keeps advancing faster and faster. When I was a kid we didn't have computers or cell phones. When you're my age who knows what you'll have to play with? :sunny:

TLAM Strike

02-22-12, 07:43 PM

u crank

02-22-12, 07:49 PM

I really envy you "old" folks :O: You can (depending on your age, of course) tell your kids and grandchildren that you saw the moon-landing live, for instance, and I wish more than anything that I could've been around to experience that!

Treasure your memories friendo! :salute:

Funny story about old folks.

I remember watching the Apollo 12 moon landing with my mother. I was 19, she was 59. My Mom, God bless her, was poorly educated and I also attribute my natural scepticism to her. I pointed to the moon outside, which was quite visible and the live broadcast of these guys on TV and said those men are up there. She just laughed and said "no it's just a TV show". No amount of explaining would convince her. Later she came around but I'll always remember how funny it was trying to explain it to her.

But I can say Biggles that it was something indeed to look at the moon when you knew there were humans up there. It was 'almost unbelievable' and a great moment.