Evening star., 1962-10-03
MERCURY
Astronout's TokeoH
Delayed Only Briefly

ne said that he felt quite COM
Portable.
In past orbital flights. the
suit thermostat has given trou-
BILE, but has not caused a
mission to be cut short.
At 9:26 am. flare expert
ment was conducted. Techni-
clans on the ground at Woo
mera, Australia. lit brilliant
flares in the hope that Comdr.
Schirra could look down from
his 176-mile imminence and see
them.
There were clouds over Woo
mera, as there had been on
the occasions of the Glenn and
Carpenter flights. But the
clouds were thin enough that
while Comdr. Schirra could not
discern the flares as points OF
light, he could see "a solid
block of light" through the
cloud cover.
In the long sweep across the
Pacific, Comdr. Schirra started
to get ION top of the suit tenn
perature problem. He re-
ported to Comdr. Carpenter on
the ground at Guaymas, Mex
leo, that while he was "a little
bit warm" he felt in very good
shape.
AS the second orbit got we'll
underway over Canary Islands
and Kano, the suit problem ap-
peared we'll taken care Of.
Looked for Echo +
During the first orbit. Comdr.
Schirra was told to look for the
Echo (100-foot balloon) satel-
lite in a northwest direction
high overhead when passing
over Zanzibar at 1923 am.
Passing over Bermuda at the
end of the third orbit, the
astronaut reported that he
could not spot the big 100-foot
orbiting balloon. :
But if the spaceman was ur1-
able to see another satellite,
this was not the case with one
ground station looking UP for
q view of his capsule.
The Indian Ocean tracking ,
ship, on station off Madagas- /
car, reported a visual sighting I
of Sigma-7 at about 8 pm. /
local time moon EDIT. The {
report said the capsule, then /
roughly $50 miles up, looked !
almost as bright as Venus
This astonished many observers I
here in view of the fact that t
the black-painted capsule has q
very low reflectivity. S
Awoke at 2:4O AM.
The plain-spoken astronaut, h
who made headlines recently by
his open criticism Of program !
chief and teammate John H. :
Glenn, jr., arose at 2:40 am.
in his special apartment at ,
Hangar S on this base. F,
He breakfasted at $40 am.
in company with project Off
cials on the usual low-residue
diet of fruit juice, eggs, steak,
toast. jelly and coffee.
A project spokesman reported
that a one and a half pound
blue fish caught yesterday by
Comdr. Schirra was served
along with the other menu
items, but there was some con-
fusion about whether the as
tronaut actually ate any Of the
fish. 4
Following a physical exami-
nation and the involved pro-
cedure Of putting on the silver
space suit, Comdr. Schirra /
walked out of Hangar S at sos
a. m. and stepped into a special ,
transfer van for the 13-minute
ride to Launching Pad IA.
Man in Charge
To observers at the hanger,
Comdr. Schirra gave the i'm
preston of being very much the
man in charge. 1t Is reported
that this has been the role he
assumed from the very start OF
his designation as pilot for this
mission.
Comdr. Schirra's attitude is
represented throughout as
being one Of, Its my neck {
we're risking, we'll risk it my :
way"
He entered the spacecraft at
$40 am. and was sealed in for {
his ride at about $50.
Seldom in the history of Amer
ican rocketry has a launch gone I
so auspiciously. This was the
first time in the Mercury flights
that a man went on his mission {
the first time he tried. 1t was !
the first time that weather did