Mercury-Atlas 7
There had been four major Atlas in-flight malfunctions during this stretch, but three were caused by random quality control defects unlikely to be a concern in the much more tightly supervised Mercury program.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.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 (760 mm) mylar inflatable sphere, which was folded, packaged, and housed with its gas expansion bottle in the antenna canister.The malfunction of the hydraulic switch was believed to be the result of cold temperatures due to nearby LOX lines; on subsequent flights thermal insulation would be added to prevent a recurrence.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.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.[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.[9] It was then suspected that the fireflies were either steam from the life support system turning into ice crystals 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.The single mission-critical malfunction which occurred involved a failure in the spacecraft pitch horizon scanner, a component of the automatic control system.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 Glenn, and photography of terrestrial features and meteorological phenomena.Due to compounding issues and lack of fuel, Carpenter overshot his planned reentry mark and splashed down 250 miles (400 km) from the target.Two helicopters dispatched from the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid reached the scene and transported Carpenter back to Intrepid and over the next several hours Farragut remained on the scene watching the spacecraft until USS John R. Pierce arrived with special equipment enabling her to tow Aurora 7 to Roosevelt Roads Puerto Rico where it was then flown back to Cape Canaveral.[13] 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.
Mercury SevenCOSPAR IDSATCAT no.McDonnell AircraftM. Scott CarpenterAtlas LV-3BCape CanaveralUSS IntrepidPuerto RicoCaribbean SeaGeocentricLow Earth orbitPerigee altitudeApogee altitudeInclinationPeriodProject MercuryMercury-Atlas 6Mercury-Atlas 8Scott CarpenterAtlas launch vehicleJohn GlennSEALABDeke Slaytoncardiac dysrhythmiacentrifugeMercury 7PerigeeApogeeEccentricityCAPCOMsGus GrissomAlan ShepardBreitling24-hour dialxyloseprevious flightChris Kraftretrorocketssplashdownaircraft carrierRoosevelt RoadsMuseum of Science and IndustryChicagoIllinoisNational Aeronautics and Space Administrationpublic domainPopular ScienceInternet ArchiveSpace Task GroupSpace raceSpace flightFreedom 7Liberty Bell 7Friendship 7Sigma 7Faith 7Freedom 7 IILittle Joe 1Big Joe 1Beach AbortLittle Joe 5Flown non-humanMiss SamWally SchirraGordon CooperNavy Mark IVMercury-AtlasMercury-RedstoneMercury-ScoutMercury-JupiterMcDonnell Aircraft CorporationConvairChryslerNorth American AviationRedstoneBlue Scout IILittle JoeJupiterWallops IslandWallops Flight FacilityCape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 5Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 14Mercury Control CenterGeminiApolloVostokManned Space Flight NetworkMercury spacesuitAstronaut Wives ClubMercury 13PolicycreationNational Aeronautics and Space ActRogersSpace Exploration InitiativeAugustineCFUSAIVision for Space ExplorationAldridgeAdministrator and Deputy AdministratorChief ScientistAstronaut CorpsRanks and positionsBudgetNASA researchspinoff technologiesNASA TVNASA SocialLaunch Services ProgramKennedy Space CenterVehicle Assembly BuildingLaunch Complex 39Launch Complex 48Launch Control CenterOperations and Checkout BuildingJohnson Space CenterMission ControlLunar Sample LaboratoryScience Mission DirectorateHuman spaceflightsuborbitalMercurySkylabApollo–SoyuzSoviet space program