Today, we mark the 55th anniversary of
Mercury-Atlas 6, or better known as Friendship 7. This mission continues to be
a memorable mission in American space history. Let’s take a look at a short
history of this important flight!
After two successful sub-orbital flights in 1961, NASA
was looking to achieve Earth orbit with the Mercury Program. By that time the
USSR had already achieved this feat, therefore the pressure was building on the
American space program to catch up to the Soviet efforts. Doing this would be
easier said than done as NASA would quickly find out.
To put an American astronaut in orbit would require a
version of the Atlas booster, which had a less than terrific flight record as
an ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile). Regardless of the risk, it was the only ticket NASA had to achieve low
Earth orbit. After a successful flight of the Mercury capsule and Atlas rocket
with the chimpanzee Enos, the time for an American astronaut to reach orbit was
near.
John H. Glenn Jr. was selected to fly Mercury-Atlas 6
(Friendship 7), and was poised to become the first American to orbit the Earth.
Glenn’s mission had a tumultuous beginning after two postponements in late
January for weather and a fuel leak in the Atlas. Finally, Mercury-Atlas 6
would fly on February 20, 1962, but hiccups continued on the 20th
with four separate launch countdown holds. Once those issues were resolved,
John Glenn roared into space with an estimated 60 million people watching on
television.
Concerns about how an astronaut would handle lengthy
exposure to zero-gravity quickly dissipated as Glenn handled the new
environment easily. One particularly interesting moment of the mission occurred
when Glenn reported seeing “fire flies” around the spacecraft as the craft
entered a sunrise moment of an orbit. It was later confirmed that the “fire
flies” came from frost on the reaction control jets.
MA-6 did encounter some problems. A yaw attitude
control jet became clogged, which caused Glenn to stop using the automatic
control system. The largest complication of the mission came from a faulty
signal that indicated a heat shield clamp was released early. Mission Control
could not confirm whether the heat shield was fully attached—causing a major
scare. Ultimately, the retrorocket pack, the rockets that performed the
de-orbit burn, was left attached to hold the heat shield in place as a
precaution. After completing three orbits, the capsule began re-entry to end the
mission. Friendship 7 splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean with a mission time
just shy of five hours. The capsule and American hero John Glenn was recovered
by a U.S. Navy destroyer (USS Noa).
This mission represented an important moment for the
U.S. space program because it demonstrated that NASA could at least match
Soviet space achievements. John Glenn quickly became the national hero the nation needed, and
a source of great pride for a country engaged in a geopolitical battle with the Soviets.
Glenn’s successful flight paved the way for further space achievements that
allowed the United States to take the lead in the Space Race by the mid-1960s.
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Learn more about Mercury-Atlas 6 with these links!
