Evening star., 1960-12-20

WI1S1t6 oTUtI1ckS . FfOl1aI4cE Y tacfS
aunched from Cape Canaveral,
Fla, and recovered from the
Atlantic Ocean. * sstss
Mercury Project director,
Eobert r. Gilruths hailed the.
hot as an unqualified sue
ess" but cautiously added that
his does not mean we are
automatically ready to 60 with
! man." ..
Mr.. Gilruth's statement E
GEMS to be q valid assessment
{ Mercury's status today. The
uccess of Mercury-R -Redstone1
10. LA was more in the nature
{ q milestone passed than q
threshold crossed. The program
) months away from duplicat-
ag yesterdays feat with a man
board; probably well over q
ear away from trying to place
man in orbit.
Atlas Remains Problem
Nothing that has happened
4 the last "a hours has done
nything to alter the key sober
lg fact about Mercury: The
,tlas intercontinental balliStic
liSSile which is to launch the
rbital mission still has an un-
leasantly low performance av-
rage. It will have to be i'm
roved greatly before President
sennedy or his space admins
rator will want to order an
stronaut aboard for q Az
our flight three times around
he world.
But first things come first,
nd the success of MR-l-A
lears the way for other pre-
rbital preliminaries. And
heeringly, the shot proved
lat the engineers and human
actors people were right about
robable conditions in flight,
hich means at least that
Iercury will not have to 60
lck to the drawing board.
Accelerometers aboard the
manned space capsule
lowed that for an instant
uring re-entry an aStronaut
ould have felt as though his
eight were 10 times normal.
his sounds bad. but actually
be Space Task Groups plan
er had figured on 11-0 in
ead Of 10, and all seven as
'onauts have already taken
igher G loads in the big CEN
ifuge9at townsville, Pa.
Navy 1t. Scott Carpenter.
1e Of the astronauts who fol-
wed yesterdays fight on in
Tuments at the Cape, said a
der would not have had to
Eercise control during the
lght. This means the auto
ATTIC equipment aboard func-
oned as planned.
One Question Open
Abotlt the only thing that
mains unknown regarding an
o-snd-down ballistic fight
&c Yesterdays is how a man
Ill react to prolonged weight
SSnesS. There will be a period
abcus flve.and-a-balf oE.ssix
tinut;s wien the astrofiaut
Ill .ISve no sensation Of
eight. viii this be bad for
i'm? Or good? gOr wilt it
ave no particular effect? =
Only a flight by an astros
Rut can answer this one. Hot
rot pilots. including the seven
ow in space training. lave
ithstood a nint1te or more oi
ROC without any particfilal
Sects. good or bad. Some
octors believe This means
eightlessness l. no problem
hile others speculate that
,rbit sickness 2 Hike sea sick.
ess. is sontethihg that t2kes
n appreciahle tilne to setTin
ven q bad sailor begins Il
.el qualms only. after about
half hour aboard ship: Sper.
aps six minutes may not bs
ng enough in the weightlesi
ate.
Rear Admiral F..V. H. Hillos
/ charge Of the Navy fiotills
hich recovered MIR 1-A, sale
rat only very slight damage
as done to the capsule in it.
s-minute ordeal. and that thil
lmage was not significant. i
linute examination at the Nc,
onnell aircraft factory II
t. Louis bears out Admira
lilies opinion, this seems Il
NdiaafA that Rha naae,,1a 1,