Today in History: 1963 Last Project Mercury flight launched, Gordon Cooper in Faith 7
On May 16, 1963, NASA astronaut L. Gordon Cooper splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, completing the final mission of Project Mercury and the longest American spaceflight up to that time. His 22-orbit Mercury-Atlas 9 mission aboard the Faith 7 spacecraft lasted 34 hours and 20 minutes.
On May 16, 1963, NASA astronaut L. Gordon Cooper splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, completing the final mission of Project Mercury and the longest American spaceflight up to that time. His 22-orbit Mercury-Atlas 9 mission aboard the Faith 7 spacecraft lasted 34 hours and 20 minutes. He completed 11 experiments and overcame hardware anomalies to manually bring his spacecraft safely back to Earth. In his single mission, Cooper accumulated more spaceflight time than the other five Mercury flights combined, and gave NASA confidence to proceed to Project Gemini, during which astronauts demonstrated the techniques required to meet President John F. Kennedy’s goal to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to the Earth before the end of the decade.
On Nov. 14, 1962, NASA announced that Cooper would fly the Mercury-Atlas 9 mission, with Alan B. Shepard, the first American in space, as his backup. The original plan called for an 18-orbit flight, but based on the success of Walter M. Schirra’s Sigma 7 mission, NASA extended it to 22 orbits for a flight time of 34 hours, the longest American space mission to that time. The length of the mission required expanded worldwide tracking support and around the clock support from the Mercury Control Center (MCC) at Cape Canaveral, Florida, headed by Flight Directors Christopher C. Kraft and John D. Hodge. The extended mission enabled NASA to install several cameras in the spacecraft, including the first test of a slow-scan television system, for Cooper to document his flight. During a press conference on Feb. 8, 1963, he described his mission as “practically a flying camera.” Like the other Mercury astronauts before him, Cooper named his spacecraft, choosing Faith 7 to represent his faith in the technology and the personnel to enable the longest American spaceflight ever attempted and the “7”to signify the seven Mercury astronauts.
Originally planned for a mid-April 1963 launch, problems certifying the Atlas booster resulted in the flight slipping to mid-May. The first launch attempt on May 14, with Cooper strapped in his capsule for six hours, had to be scrubbed due to spacecraft and ground tracking problems. On May 15, Cooper once again suited up, took the transfer van to Launch Pad 14, and strapped inside the tiny capsule. A few minor technical issues briefly held up the countdown, but at 8:04 a.m. EDT, the engines of the Atlas rocket ignited, and Cooper took off to become the sixth American in space.
The Atlas performed so well that Cooper’s orbit in Faith 7 nearly matched predicted values, prompting capsule communicator (capcom), the astronaut in MCC who talks directly with the astronaut in orbit, Schirra to tell Cooper that he was “smack-dab in the middle of the plot.” Cooper’s first day in orbit went exceedingly smoothly, and he proceeded through his assigned tasks, such as photography of the Earth, collection of urine samples for later analysis by scientists, and monitoring his spacecraft’s condition. He took time out to sample some of the specially-packaged foods. Among his 11 experiments, Cooper deployed one of the technology studies, a 6-inch sphere equipped with strobe lights to determine how well he could track it in space. Although the sphere deployed as planned and the strobe lights appeared to work properly, Cooper could only see it under certain lighting conditions. Another experiment to deploy a 30-inch Mylar balloon covered with fluorescent paint and attached to the capsule with a 100-foot tether, did not succeed. At 9 hours 13 minutes into the flight, he exceeded Schirra’s time in space on Mercury 8, becoming the most-traveled American astronaut. Cooper attempted to sleep, but the Earth passing by kept him more interested in staying awake and conducting observations. Other than the distractions, Cooper reported sleeping better in weightlessness than on the ground.
Read more of this story here: 60 Years Ago: Cooper’s Faith 7 Mission Closes Out Project Mercury - NASA
Also on this day:
1618 German astronomer Johannes Kepler discovers the third of his three planetary laws, the “harmonic law”
1718 James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents world’s 1st machine gun
1793 Diego Marín Aguilera flies a glider for “about 360 metres”, at a height of 5-6 metres, one of the first attempted flights
1817 First private mental health hospital opens in the US, Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason (now Friends Hospital) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1836 Francis Baily observes “Baily’s Beads” during annular solar eclipse
1869 National Woman Suffrage Association forms in New York, founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
1928 Mickey Mouse makes his 1st ever appearance in silent film “Plane Crazy”
1936 Amy Johnson arrives in Croydon, England having flown from South Africa in a record 4 days and 16 hours
1940 The first McDonald’s fast food restaurant opens
1941 English engineer Frank Whittle successfully tests his design for the first turbojet engine aboard a Gloster E.28/39 flying from RAF Cranwell
1944 Dwight D. Eisenhower, Bernard Montgomery, Winston Churchill and King George VI discuss the plan for D-Day
1955 Building of space travel centre at Baikonur, Kazakhstan begins
1958 USSR launches Sputnik III
1960 Sputnik 4 launched into Earth orbit; later recovery failed
1981 George Harrison releases single “All Those Years Ago” in UK: the song was a tribute to John Lennon, and featured Ringo Starr on drums, and Paul and Linda McCartney on backing vocals
1986 Former President of Argentina Leopoldo Galtieri is sentenced to 12 years in prison for mishandling the Falkland Islands War
1988 The Soviet Union begins withdrawing its 115,000 troops from Afghanistan
1990 “Portrait of Doctor Gachet” by Vincent Van Gogh sells for $82.5 million
2022 Finland’s government says it intends to apply to join NATO, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, ending decades of neutrality
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1987 Andy Murray - British tennis player (Olympic gold 2012, 16; Wimbledon 2013, 16), born in Glasgow, Scotland
1953 Mike Oldfield - British musician and composer (Tubular Bells), born in Reading, Berkshire
1948 Brian Eno - British rock and ambient musician (Robert Fripp; Roxy Music; Jon Hassell), and record producer (Roxy Music; David Bowie; Talking Heads; U2; Coldplay; Paul Simon), born in Woodbridge, Sussex, England
1859 Pierre Curie - French physicist (Nobel 1903) and husband of Marie Curie, born in Paris, France (d. 1906)
1720 Maximilian Hell - Slovakian astronomer (d. 1792)
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2003 June Carter Cash - American Grammy Award-winning country singer (The Carter Family; Johnny Cash Show), songwriter (“Ring of Fire”), and actress, dies from complications after heart valve replacement surgery at 73
2003 Desmond Dreyer - British admiral (battle of the River Plate), dies at 93
1994 Jan Bakker - Dutch WWII resistance fighter and journalist (Parool), dies at 79
1992 Robert Morris Page - American physicist who helped develop and refine radar technology, dies of heart failure at 88
1991 Ronald Lacey - British actor (Raiders of Lost Ark, Next Victim), dies at 55
Holidays on this day
Bring Flowers to Someone Day
Buddha Day
Dinosaur Day
Emergency Medical Services Day (Third Wednesday in May)
Hyperemisis Gravidarum Awareness Day
International Conscientious Objector Day
International Day of Families
International Kangaroo Care Awareness Day
International MPS Awareness Day
National Chocolate Chip Day
National Employee Health and Fitness Day (Third Wednesday in May)
National Juice Slush Day (Third Wednesday in May)
National Nylon Stockings Day
National Safety Dose Day
National Senior Fraud Awareness Day
National Stockings Day
National Tuberous Sclerosis Day
Peace Officers Memorial Day
Relive Your Past by Listening to the First Music You Ever Bought No Matter What It Was no Excuses Day
Straw Hat Day
TSC Global Awareness Day (Tuberous Sclerosis Complex)
Turn Beauty Inside Out Day (Third Wednesday in May)
VBF Day of Awareness
The Funnies:
Interesting (not necessarily extinct) animal of the day:
Compared to a human, sea pigs aren’t large. Most measure between 1.5 and 6 inches (4-15 centimetres) long.
The sea pig may get its name from its pink-coloured body and love of the muddy seafloor, but it’s actually a type of sea cucumber. The odd-looking, but surprisingly adorable creature has tube feet on its underbelly, back, and surrounding its mouth.
The sea pig spends its days snuffling through the muddy sediments on the seafloor, eating bits of dead algae and animals that have fallen from the surface. When something big, like a whale fall, sinks to the seafloor, huge herds of sea pigs gather nearby to feast on the rich organic sediments from the decaying carcass.
Sea pigs might be deep sea babysitters. Our research partners at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) frequently see juvenile lithodid crabs (Neolithodes diomedeae) climbing on or hiding under sea pigs — possibly as a way for the young crabs to protect themselves from predators.
Source: Sea pig | Animals | Monterey Bay Aquarium
Quote of the Day:
“You’re willing to pay him a thousand dollars a night just for singing? Why, you can get a phonograph record of Minnie the Moocher for 75 cents. And for a buck and a quarter, you can get Minnie.”
― Groucho Marx – A night at the opera (1935)
Video of the Day:
Two videos for you today, the first is to celebrate “Relive Your Past by Listening to the First Music You Ever Bought No Matter What It Was no Excuses Day”, and I bring you this, from the album Actually, from 1987:
And the second is George Harrison’s tribute to John Lennon:
Comic of the Day:
Credit: #970; In which a Clock is talked to – Wondermark
Inspirobot Always Controversial, Occasionally Inspirational Quote of the Day:
Read @Vikingmichael’s unmanned Spark! from yesterday https://community.spiceworks.com/t/spark-pro-series-14-may-2024. Don’t forget to leave some spice right here ↓
