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MR-1A Press Kit
MR-1A Press Kit
MR-1A Press Kit
the escape tower structure off the capsule just as they would have
done following normal booster cutoff at some 35 miles altitude.
(See Mercury-Redstione Press Conference of November 25, 1960, at
NASA, Washington,) Immediately, the spacecraft s parachutes were
deployed as they are designed to do when their controls sense
thick atmosphere.
In other words, the spacecraft did exactly what it was built
to do under the circumstances. But what about the premature engine
cutoff?
The trouble was traced to a plug which grounds the booster
electrically. The plug had disengaged a fraction of a second too
soon. The Redstone engine sensed something was wrong and shut itself
down. The solution? A relatively simple one: Make the ground
connection cable a few inches longer to insure that it disengages
last in sequence with several other pad-to-booster connectidns.
Another change in the MR-1 system grew out of the November 21
experience. In todays flight;, a timer device has been interposed
between the engine and the escape-tower jettison rockets t o prevent
a similar engine cutoff signal getting through to the tower until
the booster has neared the end of its normal burning time. However,
the circuitry is such that an abort -- wherein the escape rocket
would pull the spacecraft free of the booster in case of booster
malfunction -- can be commanded from the ground by pushing a
Mayday button.
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will steady the capsule's attitude by releasing puises of hydrogen
peroxide gas through jets at the neck and base of the craft.
About 5 seconds after separation, ASCS will swing the space-
craft around t o the normal heat-shield-forward position.
As the craft nears the peak of its arcing flight, reaction
control jets will shove the blunt face up 3 5 O above the horizontal
plane. Then as the craft hits peak altitude, 3 retrorockets attached
to the heat shield will be fired in rapid succession,
Firing in the direction of flight, the retros in an orbital
flight would act as brakes, slowing the spacecraft slightly and
t h u s letting gravity assert itself, pulling the craft back toward
earth. It should be emphasized that while the retros are -
not
needed to perform Mercury-Redstone missions, they will be exercised
as a part of the over-all systems qualification program.
After the retropackage is fired, it will be jettisoned from
the base of the heat shield and ASCS will orient the craft in a
heat-shield-down position for the plunge back to earth, As the
craft encounters atmospheric friction at roughly 50 to 45 miles
altitude, ASCS will work to correct any spacecraft oscillations
or pendulum motions which might begin during reentry, The control
system also will start the craft turning on its vertical axis in
a slow top-like motion to reduce landing point dispersions,
At 21,000 feet, a pressure-sensitive switch will deploy a
6-foot-wide drogue parachute which is to help curb t h e speed of
the spacecraft which by this point should be moving at something
like 250 miles an hour. Then at 10,000 feet, the antenna canister
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a t o p t h e c a p s u l e w i l l be mortared o f f , u n f u r l i n g a 63-footrwide
main c h u t e , Simultaneously, radar chaff w i l l be s c a t t e r e d t o a i d
radar t r a c k i n g , a r a d i o beacon w i l l be a c t i v a t e d , and a n e x p l o s i v e
d e v i c e c a l l e d a SOFAR bomb, s e t t o explode 2,500 f e e t underwater,
w i l l be released.
Upon touchdown, a switch j e t t i s o n s t h e c h u t e t o avoid dragging
t h e s p a c e c r a f t i n t h e wind, a high i n t e n s i t y l i g h t s t a r t s f l a s h i n g ,
and sea-marking dye s p r e a d s around t h e s p a c e c r a f t .
The conic c r a f t measures 6 f e e t a c r o s s i t s b l u n t base and
s t a n d s 9 f e e t high. With escape tower i n p l a c e , t h e o v e r - a l l l e n g t h
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Additional communications include two 'radar tiaacking beacons
which will be used as the primary tracking means for position-fixing
during flight and a UHF recovery beacon which will go into operation
during parachute descent and can run for approximately 12 hours after
landing.
Powering these and other electronic systems will be silver-zinc
batteries.
The blunt end of spacecraft in this flight will be protected
from reentry heat by a beryllium shield. This differs from the
ablative plastic shield to be used in later Atlas-boosted flights.
In the Atlas flights, the shield will be subjected to temperatures
of around 3,000' F. In the Redstone flights, however, heat shield
temperatures are relatively insignificant due to the greatly reduced
spacecraft speed: 17,400 mph for Atlas flights against 4,000 rnph
for the Redstone.
A 16-ITU~
camera, installed to the left of where the pilot's
head would be, will record the functions of the cockpit instrument
display panel. There will be no astronaut couch in this capsule.
In its place will ride extra instrument boxes and ballast weights.
Over-all control for the MR-1 test will be exercised by the
Mercury Operations Director in the Mercury Control Center.
Detailed flight control will be the responsibility of the Flight
Director and a staff of flight controllers operating from consoles
in Mercury Control Center.
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
WASMINOTON 25. 0 . c.
RELEASE NO. 60-322-2 HOLD FOR RELEASE
UNTIL LAUNCHED
SPACE TASK GROUP FACT SHEET
I. BACKGROUND
11. ORGANIZATION
The group is headed by a Project Director, Robert R. Gilruth,
who was an Assistant Director of the Langley Research Center before
he was appointed to his present post, Associate Project Director
f o r Research and Development is Charles J. Donlan. Mr. Walter C.
Williams is Associate Director for Operations and acts as Operations
Director during flight tests.
.
I11 FACILITIES AVAILABLE TO IMPUEMF,NT PROGRAM
The Space Task Group is calling on facilities of the NASA, the Armed
Services, universities, and industry in the Project Mercury Program,
Much basic and developmental research is being conducted at NASA
centers in aerodynamics, structures, guidance, stability and control and
flight support, The work of this group in connection with Project Mercury
is also providing the technical and managerial base upon which future
manned space flight programs may be built.
Human factors facilities in such fields as weightlessness and
high acceleration and deceleration are being furnished by the Department
of Defense.
Industrial resources w i l l fabricate the spacecraft and equip it
for its flight, The McDonnell Aircraft Corporation of St, Louis,
Missouri, was selected as prime contractor for the spacecraft in
January, 1959.
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that the program will extend in the future to sending three men on
circumlunar and earth-orbiting flights (Project A p o l l o ) ,
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
WASHINGTON 25, D. C.
RELEASE NO. 60-322-3 HOLD FOR RELEASE
UNTIL LAUNCKED
i n g was provided and launched f o r the Space Task Group by the Marshall
Space F l i g h t Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
The v e h i c l e i s based upon t h e Amnyrs Redstone b o o s t e r which was
designed and developed by Marshall s c i e n t i s t s and t e c h n i c i a n s p r i o r t o
t h e i r t r a n s f e r t o NASA. Extensive m o d i f i c a t i o n s were i n c o r p o r a t e d t o
a d a p t the r o c k e t t o t h i s s p e c i a l r o l e , w i t h major emphasis on i n c r e a s e d
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REDSTONE MODIFICATIONS
M o d i f i c a t i o n s t o t h e Redstone b o o s t e r i n c l u d e t h e following:
A. Tank S e c t i o n -- The r o c k e t ' s tank s e c t i o n was elongated by
about s i x f e e t t o i n c r e a s e t h e f u e l and l i q u i d oxygen c a p a c i t y . This
w i l l a l l o w f u e l s u f f i c i e n t t o i n c r e a s e t h e burning t i m e by some
20 seconds. $he Redstone b o o s t e r was s i m i l a r l y elongated f o r i t s
r o l e i n t h e launching of t h e e a r l y Explorer s a t e l l i t e s . That v e r s i o n
of' the r o c k e t was known as J u p i t e r C.
B. Epgine -- The engine used i n t o d a y ' s f l i g h t was o f t h e
l a t e s t Redstone engine d e s i g n (A7), modified f o r t h i s application,
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ments are i n a d d i t i o n t o t h e many channels of i n f o m a t i o n w h i c h w i l l
be telemetered from t h e s p a c e c r a f t i t s e l f d u r i n g f l i g h t , Several
t r a c k i n g s i g n a l s are a l s o telemetered by t h e b o o s t e r .
RELIA33ILITP PROGRAM
S p e c i a l emphasis on r e l i a b i l i t y has been placed i n the Mercury-
Redstone program. Most of the r e l i a b i l i t y e f f o r t was c e n t e r e d on
new components -- t h o s e w h i c h ' a r e p e c u l i a r t o the Mercury-Redstone,
T h i s program was conducted by the Marshall Center and the C h r y s l e r
Corporation. R e l i a b i l i t y tests w e r e conducted on i n d i v i d u a l com-
ponents, subsystems and systems. Tests c o n d i t i o n s i n c l u d e d e x c e s s i v e
v i b r a t i o n s and extreme temperatures. Engineers of the Chrysler
Corporation designed and o p e r a t e d a s p e c i a l "rock and r o l l " t e s t device
which s u b j e c t e d the e n t i r e instrument compartment of t h e Mercury-
Redstone r o c k e t t o environmental stress. T h i s l a t t e r phase was de-
voted primarily t o checking out the abort system t o a s s u r e that i t
would pperate p r o p e r l y on demand and could n o t be a c t i v a t e d a c c i -
dentally.
TESTING AT MARSHALL
Marshall Center personnel r a n s t r u c t u r a l tests on the new
Redstone-Mercury c o n f i g u r a t i o n which a s s u r e the s t r u c t u r a l i n t e g r i t y
of the v e h i c l e . Units o f the r o c k e t were submitted t o c o n s i d e r a b l y
h i g h e r stresses and strains t h a n w i l l Se encountered i n f l i g h t .
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Major components of the control system were produced by the
Ford Instrument Company, Long Island City, New York, and Sperry-
Farragut Company, Bristol, Tennessee, divisions of Spesry-Rand
Corporation.
KEY PERSONNEL
Dr. Wernher von Braun, as director of the Marshall Centerp has
overall supervision of the Center's contribution to the Merdury pso-
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gram,
Dr. J. P. Kuettner is the Center's Mercury-Redstone project
manager and i s responsible for coordinating the efforts of the ten
Marshall technical divisions in this program. PUS assistant is
Earl Butler. Dr, Kuettner is also a member of the Mercury-Redstone
Flight Safety Review Board. Butler serves as the coordinator f o r
the progect's Design Panel.
Dr. Kurt #. Debus directs the NASA launch OperatiQnS Directorate,
a part of the Marshall Center, which launched the rocket, Dr. Debus
also is chairman of the Mercury-Redstone Flight Operations Panel,
composed of representatives of the NASA Space Task Group, McDonnell
Aircraft and Marshall. In this latter capacity he is assisted by
mi1 PI Bertram.
The deputy director of the Aeroballistics Division, Dr, R. F.
Hoelker, is a member of the Mercury-Wedstone Aeroballistics Panel.
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NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
WASWINOlON 25, O . C .
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SPACECRAFT SYSTEMS
The Mercury spacecraft is designed to withstand any known com-
bination of acceleration, heat and aerodynamic loads that might occur
during boost o r reentry, as well as land or water landing.
The craft has an extremely blunt leading face covered with a
beryllium heat shield. Its onboard systems include: environmental
(life support) and attitude controls, retrorockets to initiate descent
from orbit, an escape device which provides complete escape capability
during the boosted portion of flight, communications, landing system,
and recovery aids.
TESTS TO DATE
A s in the case of new research aircraft, orbital flight of the
manned spacecraft will be attempted only after extensive vehicle testing,
Project Mercury included ground testing, development and quali-
fication flight testing, as well as astronaut training, In addition to
numerous wind-tunnel and air drop tests, the following rocket-boosted
Mercury test flights of Research and Development models have provided
a wealth of information:
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