Schirra’s Stellar Navigation
John Glenn trains in a Mercury simulator, the Mercury Procedures Trainer. Credit: NASA Simulators have always been an integral part of spaceflight. In the case of the all important reentry and landing...
View ArticleVintage Space Fun Fact: The Mercury ’7′s
Each of the Mercury missions had a name followed by the number 7. Alan Shepard flew Freedom 7, Gus Grissom in Liberty Bell 7, John Glenn aboard Friendship 7 (pictured), Scott Carpenter in Aurora 7,...
View ArticleShepard: First American in (Suborbital) Space
I’ve talked in previous posts about the first manned Soviet space program, Vostok, and Yuri Gagarin’s historic Vostok 1 flight. One aspect neither of these posts touched on, however, was the reaction...
View ArticleSailors, Ships, and Splashdowns
I’ve been posting a lot about landing methods – NASA’s use of splashdowns, why the method was not a long-term solution to the problem of returning from space, and a comparison to Soviet methods. The...
View ArticleDesigning the Perfect Astronaut
The experimental, creative, and at times imaginative nature of the Mercury program has always fascinated me. The program and the decision that preceded it answer a totally unique question: what do you...
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