Read Online Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight by Jay Barbree - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Jay Barbree
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I asked him, “Is there something of Muffie’s on the moon?”
I read his smile to mean yes.
* * *
Only 23 days following his daughter’s death the sun was coming into view at 6:47 A.M. at the Armstrongs’ cabin in California. Three thousand miles to the east it was 9:47 A.M. —the sun was already shining brightly.
John Glenn sat atop his Mercury-Atlas ready to become the first American to rocket into orbit. Neil Armstrong sat before a television set. With the recent passing of his daughter he found it difficult to think about anything else. He had no way of knowing he was about to watch one of his future best friends soar into history.
John Glenn boards Friendship 7 . (NASA)
“Godspeed, John Glenn!” the voice of astronaut Scott Carpenter boomed from the television. Neil leaned forward.
“Five, four, three, two, one, zero!”
Voices everywhere fell silent.
John Glenn’s rocket was ablaze.
“Roger, the clock is operating,” the marine reported to Mercury Control, “We’re under way.”
The sunlit Atlas-Mercury climbed from Cape Canaveral’s famous rocket row as Neil focused on the spacecraft Glenn had named Friendship 7 . It rested atop the flaming rocket and he could see the gimbals on the booster’s main engines working in concert with the vernier rockets. He heard John say, “We’re programming in roll okay.”
Glenn quickly settled into his climb and just as quickly he and Friendship 7 flew into Max-Q. Pressure squeezed his Atlas. The steel belt around his rocket’s girth held. The marine fighter pilot reported, “It’s a little bumpy along here.”
He flew on into space. He was feeling what had been felt by Gagarin, Shepard, Grissom, and Titov. He now wallowed in weightlessness. He told Mercury Control, “Roger, zero G and I feel fine. Capsule is turning around. Oh”—Glenn shouted—“that view is tremendous!”
Glenn’s Atlas-Mercury heads for orbit. (NASA)
America was in orbit and John Glenn settled in for three planned trips around Earth.
He knew the taxpayers who had sent him there wanted desperately to know what he was seeing.
Only minutes after reaching orbit he was witnessing his first sunset. He issued a glowing report. “The moment of twilight is simply beautiful,” he told the millions listening. “The sky in space is very black with a thin band of blue along the horizon.”
His eyes became acclimated to the universal darkness, and he turned down his cockpit’s lights. He was now moving through the unbelievable black velvet, seeing so many firsts: a defined blanket of the brightest, most clearly defined residents of the universe; glorious stars, billions and billions of them; swirling galaxies, constellations, quasars, nebulae with their luminous, dark clouds and sprinkles of dust. And there were the planets, bold in the blackest of black skies. He could only stare in wonder at his first run through Earth’s night side.
John Glenn launches from rocket row. (NASA)
John Glenn reports, “The moment of twilight is simply beautiful.” (NASA)
Glenn flew through the majority of his flight without a problem, but as he sailed through his third orbit consoles in Mercury Control lit up with a Segment 51 warning signal. It was telling flight controllers Friendship 7’ s heat shield could have come loose. If so, extreme heat during reentry could cremate John Glenn.
Flight Director Chris Kraft and his team gave the warning priority attention. How could they save the astronaut? One idea quickly emerged. Survival might lie with the straps holding down the retro-rocket package.
The retropack contained six rockets. Three small ones had fired to separate Friendship 7 from its spent Atlas rocket during orbital entry. Three larger rockets remained to decelerate Glenn’s spacecraft, slow it so it would fall out of orbit.
The flight program was specific. The retros fired, the Mercury capsule slowed to start its reentry, then a signal was to be sent to break the
I read his smile to mean yes.
* * *
Only 23 days following his daughter’s death the sun was coming into view at 6:47 A.M. at the Armstrongs’ cabin in California. Three thousand miles to the east it was 9:47 A.M. —the sun was already shining brightly.
John Glenn sat atop his Mercury-Atlas ready to become the first American to rocket into orbit. Neil Armstrong sat before a television set. With the recent passing of his daughter he found it difficult to think about anything else. He had no way of knowing he was about to watch one of his future best friends soar into history.
John Glenn boards Friendship 7 . (NASA)
“Godspeed, John Glenn!” the voice of astronaut Scott Carpenter boomed from the television. Neil leaned forward.
“Five, four, three, two, one, zero!”
Voices everywhere fell silent.
John Glenn’s rocket was ablaze.
“Roger, the clock is operating,” the marine reported to Mercury Control, “We’re under way.”
The sunlit Atlas-Mercury climbed from Cape Canaveral’s famous rocket row as Neil focused on the spacecraft Glenn had named Friendship 7 . It rested atop the flaming rocket and he could see the gimbals on the booster’s main engines working in concert with the vernier rockets. He heard John say, “We’re programming in roll okay.”
Glenn quickly settled into his climb and just as quickly he and Friendship 7 flew into Max-Q. Pressure squeezed his Atlas. The steel belt around his rocket’s girth held. The marine fighter pilot reported, “It’s a little bumpy along here.”
He flew on into space. He was feeling what had been felt by Gagarin, Shepard, Grissom, and Titov. He now wallowed in weightlessness. He told Mercury Control, “Roger, zero G and I feel fine. Capsule is turning around. Oh”—Glenn shouted—“that view is tremendous!”
Glenn’s Atlas-Mercury heads for orbit. (NASA)
America was in orbit and John Glenn settled in for three planned trips around Earth.
He knew the taxpayers who had sent him there wanted desperately to know what he was seeing.
Only minutes after reaching orbit he was witnessing his first sunset. He issued a glowing report. “The moment of twilight is simply beautiful,” he told the millions listening. “The sky in space is very black with a thin band of blue along the horizon.”
His eyes became acclimated to the universal darkness, and he turned down his cockpit’s lights. He was now moving through the unbelievable black velvet, seeing so many firsts: a defined blanket of the brightest, most clearly defined residents of the universe; glorious stars, billions and billions of them; swirling galaxies, constellations, quasars, nebulae with their luminous, dark clouds and sprinkles of dust. And there were the planets, bold in the blackest of black skies. He could only stare in wonder at his first run through Earth’s night side.
John Glenn launches from rocket row. (NASA)
John Glenn reports, “The moment of twilight is simply beautiful.” (NASA)
Glenn flew through the majority of his flight without a problem, but as he sailed through his third orbit consoles in Mercury Control lit up with a Segment 51 warning signal. It was telling flight controllers Friendship 7’ s heat shield could have come loose. If so, extreme heat during reentry could cremate John Glenn.
Flight Director Chris Kraft and his team gave the warning priority attention. How could they save the astronaut? One idea quickly emerged. Survival might lie with the straps holding down the retro-rocket package.
The retropack contained six rockets. Three small ones had fired to separate Friendship 7 from its spent Atlas rocket during orbital entry. Three larger rockets remained to decelerate Glenn’s spacecraft, slow it so it would fall out of orbit.
The flight program was specific. The retros fired, the Mercury capsule slowed to start its reentry, then a signal was to be sent to break the
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