When We Left Earth_1of6_Ordinary Supermen
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00In 1969, a group of astronauts changed the world.
00:15They ride the biggest rocket ever built to the moon.
00:21It's the culmination of more than 10 years of space pioneering and the foundation for
00:27more than four decades of exploring worlds beyond our own.
00:34This is the story of our greatest adventure.
00:47In the high desert of California, NASA tests an experimental rocket plane, the X-15.
00:58They want to put a man into space, and they're in a hurry.
01:09Rockets were powering aircraft to higher and higher speeds.
01:13The X-15 had enough energy to zoom to altitudes above the atmosphere.
01:20The X-15 flies so high, pilots experience weightlessness and look out into the darkness
01:26of space.
01:29But even at 600,000 horsepower, it would need to fly four times its top speed to put a man
01:39into orbit.
01:44The Soviet Union holds an early lead in the space race, launching the first unmanned satellite
01:50to orbit the Earth.
01:53On October 4th, 1957, when Sputnik went into orbit, people were so upset, they said, these
01:58people can't build a refrigerator.
02:01How can they get into orbit?
02:03How did this happen?
02:11To beat the Soviets, NASA must launch a man into Earth orbit.
02:16Only rockets can go fast enough, more than 17,000 miles per hour.
02:21They call the program Project Mercury, and rally a team of determined young scientists
02:27and engineers to figure out how to fly a military missile with a man on top.
02:33Most of us came in from aircraft flight tests.
02:35We knew nothing about rocketry, we knew nothing about spacecraft, we knew nothing about orbits.
02:41Gene Kranz joins the flight director's team in NASA's earliest days.
02:47So it was a question of learning to drink from a fire hose.
02:50We had to learn all about trajectories, I'd never heard the term retrofire, coming on
02:55down from orbit, getting the spacecraft back on.
02:58Kranz develops many of the mission control procedures for launching a man into space.
03:05The Mercury program was, to me it was the most challenging, because we had to virtually
03:10invent or adapt every tool that we used.
03:16No man has ever survived a vertical blast off on top of a rocket.
03:22The risks are extremely high.
03:27At first, even stuntmen are considered for the job.
03:31There were suggestions they'd take people like Evel Knievel, or race drivers, or something
03:38like that, and then President Eisenhower just said he'd rather have it be military test
03:43pilots.
03:44Test pilots are trained to operate and analyze experimental flying machines.
03:51A hundred and ten of the military's best pilots qualify.
03:58NASA selects the top seven.
04:01These ladies and gentlemen are the nation's Mercury astronauts.
04:10The Mercury seven astronauts become instant celebrities.
04:14The press follows their every move.
04:18You knew these guys.
04:20You lived with these guys.
04:21You socialized with them.
04:22They were the story.
04:24Wallace Sharaw, a man of detail, made the best textbook flight of them all.
04:31Alan Shepard, extremely smart.
04:35Scott Carver, the first scientist astronaut.
04:40Gordo Cooper, the best pilot of the bunch.
04:44Deke, nobody messed with.
04:47Great human being in every way.
04:49Gus Grissom, engineering savvy, quite intellect.
04:54John Glenn, civilized man, probably the most level-headed.
05:00Glenn is already a public figure, after making the first cross-country supersonic flight.
05:08But even for a Marine, astronaut training is intense.
05:14They ran us through every check they knew how to run.
05:17I think every medical test they knew how to do on the human body.
05:20It was a very thorough going through.
05:28To carry the first astronauts safely into space, NASA designs a pressurized capsule.
05:34The one-man spacecraft replaces a nuclear warhead as the payload for a Redstone missile.
05:41But they're not ready to launch men into space.
05:44I saw a lot of rockets launched.
05:48I'd say that somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of them failed.
05:55A lot of them came up off the pad and went the opposite direction.
06:02Some of them got halfway off the pad and blew up.
06:05Some of them got to 10,000 feet and turned the other way and blew up.
06:10The whole thing crumbled and blew up.
06:14It looked like an atomic bomb went off almost over our heads.
06:18We got a big kick out of watching the Mercury astronauts.
06:22It was great looking at their eyes.
06:29We're looking at this thing and looking at each other and deciding we want to go back
06:32and talk to the engineers a little more before we go further.
06:42Engineers make the rockets more reliable for manned flight.
06:46But doctors still aren't convinced the man on top will be able to function in the weightlessness of space.
06:52There was grave doubt in about 98 percent of the medical community
06:57that the man could perform a task on flying at zero gravity.
07:03That he would have trouble seeing.
07:06That he would have trouble swallowing.
07:08He would have trouble breathing.
07:12He would have trouble talking.
07:14We had to prove to the medical community that man would survive in the first place.
07:20And secondly, that he could do a task.
07:29It's not made public, but John Glenn, Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom are on NASA's short list to be America's first man in space.
07:41We're all very competitive. We want to get those first flights.
07:45January 1961. The rocket and capsule are finally ready to fly.
07:52But none of the astronauts are happy about NASA's choice.
07:58A specially trained chimpanzee named Ham will fly the next Mercury mission.
08:08There was a group of professional naysayers in Washington who insisted that we do some more work to prove a five minute flight wouldn't be fatal to man.
08:25NASA's medical team sends Ham as a final test that man can function in zero g.
08:34The astronauts fear they're losing precious time.
08:38None of them liked it. Alan was fighting to get rid of the chimpanzee.
08:42He didn't want the chimpanzee to take up a rocket to take up a seat.
08:47January 31, 1961. Ham blasts off on a suborbital mission into space.
08:54One, zero, liftoff.
09:09While weightless, Ham's put through a series of tests and performs well.
09:15Physically, he's unaffected by zero g.
09:21Ham splashes down off target. He's fatigued, dehydrated, but generally in good shape.
09:30His mission proves man can function in space.
09:40But doubts remain about the reliability of the rockets.
09:44And they still don't know who will fly first.
09:47It's been a big mystery for a long time. Who's going to fly first?
09:55The director of the manned spacecraft center finally reveals his choice.
10:01Bob Gilruth came to our office and he named Al for the first ballistic flight.
10:09Alan Shepard was chosen to be the first because he was considered to be the smartest of the seven astronauts.
10:16They felt if Alan on the first one had anything went wrong, he was more apt to be able to analyze or fix or do or get it out of there.
10:24After more tests and more delays, NASA still hopes to put the first man in space.
10:30While there was certainly competition in the group, nevertheless, when it came time for a flight, we all worked together as closely as anybody could ever work together.
10:39We have done everything we know how to do to make this as safe as we can make it.
10:45We're done with all the tests, so we stand around and look at each other one last time and ask,
10:51OK, are we really ready to light this candle?
10:56Eventually, the answer to that has to be yes.
11:05Alan Shepard's suborbital mission finally has a launch date, May 2nd.
11:11But on April 12th, NASA receives stunning news.
11:16The Soviet Union puts a man into orbit and brings him back alive.
11:23Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space just 20 days before Shepard is scheduled to fly.
11:32We're all very angry about not being able to fly as quickly as we could have.
11:37And we would have beaten Gagarin into space had we done that.
11:42Al was not pleased at all.
11:44He was very disappointed that he was not to be the first spaceman.
11:50I was hoping for my friend Alan Shepard beyond a hope that he would be first.
11:54And it tears you up to know who could have been.
12:01Yet many milestones lie ahead.
12:04The space race has only just begun.
12:11John Glenn said, let's face it, they beat the pants off of us.
12:15Now let's all go on and let's learn how to fly in space.
12:22Twenty-three days later, May 5th, 1961, 2.40 a.m., Shepard's pre-flight medical.
12:31After three days of delays, the final countdown has begun.
12:36He was a cool cat.
12:39But Alan Shepard was an educated daredevil.
12:43Everybody was praying Alan could survive in space.
12:51Commit abort cutoff.
12:53Inboard engines are out.
12:54Commit abort cutoff.
12:58It was very exciting, very frightening to see a man come out of the trailer that he
13:05was in, to look up at that vehicle, ride the elevator up and then wait for us to get ready
13:13to launch.
13:155.21 a.m., technicians strap him into the capsule.
13:21Until the hatch is opened again, Shepard's only link to the world is Deke Slayton, the
13:26mission's Capcom, or capsule communicator.
13:31Downrange in the Atlantic, the Navy prepares for Shepard's recovery.
13:37Forty-five million Americans watch the launch live on television.
13:44Local beaches offer a front-row seat.
13:49Everybody, including myself, came here.
13:51We came any way we could.
13:54The excitement here, if you can imagine a million people outside these gates trying
13:58to push through these fences, trying to see what they can see.
14:03Everybody was praying and pushing for Alan Shepard.
14:08CM is go.
14:11We have a momentary hold.
14:13As the countdown progressed, we had frustrations.
14:16I had problems with the spacecraft hatch.
14:19And Alan Shepard was getting impatient.
14:23Four hours later, Shepard is losing his cool.
14:30You could see Alan Shepard's heart rate go up, and it reached above 200.
14:37Lord knows what my heart rate was.
14:41There's nothing wrong with being frightened, it makes you do a better job.
14:45But no one at mission control wants to give the final go for launch.
14:51All of us were extremely apprehensive.
14:54We had never had a human being on the top side of a rocket.
15:02It's Alan Shepard who decides they've waited long enough.
15:06Finally, he says, let's light this candle.
15:09Let's go.
15:13T minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5.
15:18He had one single line prayer that he said just before ignition.
15:23Don't mess this up.
15:25But he didn't say mess.
15:27Ignition.
15:32All right, lift off and the clock has started.
15:36It was sort of like the first hit in a football game.
15:43That mercury redstone rose above the tree line.
15:47Cars stopped.
15:49People got out, hit their knees, and literally prayed.
15:55We saw that guy go, and we could track him for about the first 20 seconds
15:59as he went up through power flight and then back down at the consoles
16:02and look at the data and listen to the calls.
16:04Pressure is holding at 5.5.
16:07Cabin holding at 5.5.
16:11He is disappearing.
16:14Here's a man going over 100 miles in space.
16:18Cabin 5.5.
16:20He looks so lonely up there.
16:27This is OK.
16:30Five minutes after liftoff, Alan Shepard becomes America's first man in space.
16:38Roger, 3-0-0.
16:39You are OK.
16:42Switching manual roll.
16:47Shepard's suborbital flight reaches 116 miles above the Earth, then descends.
16:54Go, page.
16:56OK, this is 3-0-7.
16:58I'm on fly-by-wire, going to re-enter the attitude.
17:01Retro, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
17:07Joint retro sequence in retro attitude are green.
17:10Retro, 1.
17:12NASA still fears the high g-forces or extreme temperatures of re-entry could kill him.
17:17Retro, 3.
17:19OK, three retros have fired.
17:21Retro jettison is back to arm.
17:23There was no question.
17:24We were sweating bullets.
17:27OK, it's go.
17:29All systems are go.
17:34Please build up.
17:36Three, six, nine.
17:45This is seven.
17:46OK.
17:48OK.
17:50OK.
17:52This is seven.
17:53OK.
17:55As expected, Mission Control loses radio contact with Shepard during re-entry.
18:07Freedom, seven.
18:07This is Indian Capcom.
18:08Do you read me?
18:17Seven, this is Indian Capcom.
18:18Do you read me?
18:23In Mission Control, we're absolutely helpless.
18:32Freedom, seven.
18:32This is Indian Capcom.
18:33Do you read me?
18:38Seven, this is Indian Capcom.
18:40Do you read me?
18:52Hello, Capcom.
18:53Freedom, seven.
18:57Main chute is coming unreached, and it looks good.
18:59The rate of descent is reading about 35 feet per second.
19:04Roger.
19:09The mission only lasted about 20 minutes.
19:12But this was the purest, happiest 20 minutes of our entire life.
19:16It just hit the water a moment ago.
19:19A cheer went up from the ship company watching air from all decks on the aircraft carrier.
19:27I think he proved without a question, in anybody's mind, that man indeed could perform
19:33almost any task in a spacecraft.
19:37This was our first man in space.
19:42And it was total joy.
19:46The excitement of it, that has never been matched.
19:51When Alan Shepard went, it was the unknown.
19:56It was the unknown.
20:01Just 20 days later, President John Kennedy sets a new goal for America's space program.
20:08I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal,
20:12before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.
20:19This young president of ours gets up and says,
20:22we're going to go to the moon, and we're going to land there,
20:24and we're going to bring the people back home within the decade.
20:27I was staggered, stunned, or overwhelmed by the scale of the challenge.
20:36The first American has barely reached space.
20:39And NASA still hasn't put a man into orbit.
20:43But the countdown to the end of the decade has begun.
20:46We had the knowledge, the moxie, and the will,
20:49to not only catch up, but surpass and beat them in the business of spaceflight.
20:56NASA wants to put another man into space in a hurry,
21:00to prove Shepard's mission was no fluke.
21:04They figure Gus Grissom is the engineer, so Gus will make the second flight.
21:08And he'll be looking at our engineering question.
21:11But the intense training prepares them to do very little actual flying in space.
21:17Seven of the world's best pilots want a spacecraft they can control.
21:22Gus was somewhat frustrated, because the people that were putting this together
21:26were trying to make it so that the astronaut really had nothing to do.
21:30He was just riding in this thing.
21:37It took a while to convince the pilots that we wanted to use their talents
21:47in making the machine better.
21:49Then they realized that's what we were trying to do.
21:51And we had a great relationship with the seven astronauts for that very reason.
21:57We split up the duties in the group itself.
22:00One of my duties was on cockpit layout, organizing your instrument panel,
22:05so you get the information when you need it.
22:08Deke was going to follow booster development for us.
22:13Scott, I think, was on navigation and how we're going to keep track of where this thing is.
22:19Gus Grissom had the whole recovery effort in organizing the Navy.
22:25So each of us had sort of a specialty area like that.
22:31NASA redesigns the capsule.
22:34Grissom will have greater control over the flight of his spacecraft.
22:38And a new explosive escape hatch.
22:46Grissom names his capsule Liberty Bell 7.
22:50It has another important new feature.
22:52In the original spacecraft design, there was no window.
22:54The reason was that that was going to add weight.
22:57Not only the window itself, which had to be thick,
23:00but the support structure around it.
23:02And weight was critical.
23:08Ten weeks after Alan Shepard's flight,
23:11Gus Grissom is ready for a second suborbital mission.
23:16Shepard is Grissom's capcom.
23:37The capsule is coming around into orbit.
23:45Attitude.
23:47Such a fascinating view out the window.
23:49You just can't help but look out that way.
23:51I understand.
23:55Okay, it's a nice ride up to now.
23:59Roger.
24:03Atlantic ship capcom.
24:04This is Liberty Bell 7.
24:05I read you loud and clear.
24:0715 minutes and 37 seconds after blast off.
24:11Nearly a bullseye splash.
24:16The capsule had landed in the water.
24:19At that point, we thought it had gone well.
24:21Your entry in the water will be over you in just about 30 seconds.
24:27Another perfect flight.
24:29Mission control celebrates.
24:32Roger, Bell 7.
24:33Your status looks good.
24:34Your systems look good.
24:36Over.
24:38It was the joy of having a successful mission.
24:41Came off like a piece of cake.
24:49Gus was sitting there minding his own business and all at once it was pow.
24:55The hatch blew.
24:57Water started coming in over the side.
25:00The capsule starts sinking.
25:03Grissom has only moments to escape.
25:06All right, let's observe.
25:11Nothing, uh, no water alongside capsule.
25:15The spacesuit is designed to keep him afloat.
25:20He had forgot to close one of the valves in his suit and it was letting water in.
25:26No longer a life preserver, the suit fills with water and drags him under.
25:30The prop wash from the helicopter was starting to cause him a big problem.
25:36He was very close to drowning.
25:43Unaware, Gus is in trouble.
25:45Helicopter pilot Jim Lewis tries to save the sinking capsule first.
25:49We almost had it free and out, but every time it came out,
25:53a wave would come along and grab it and pull it back down.
26:00In mission control, we're absolutely helpless.
26:03We were watching the helicopter trying to grapple and lift the spacecraft up
26:07and we could see Gus struggling out there in the rotor wash.
26:12And in mission control, a lot of us were saying, forget the spacecraft,
26:15get Gus, get Gus, get Gus.
26:19Suddenly, Lewis has another problem.
26:24A warning light indicates his engine is overheating.
26:28Normally, when that happens, you had about five minutes worth of engine power before
26:32experiencing an engine failure.
26:35I didn't want Gus in my aircraft in the event that we lost the engine.
26:47We were going to lose him.
26:51A second chopper rushes in to pick up Grissom.
26:58As Lewis struggles with the capsule,
27:06Grissom is safe.
27:09But Liberty Bell 7 and all its invaluable data are lost.
27:16The entire spacecraft sank in three miles of water, which was steeper than the Titanic.
27:22And we had no vehicles that were capable of doing the recovery.
27:28We lost the spacecraft.
27:32But we got our crewman back.
27:36Gus was destroyed about losing his capsule.
27:41He said that that was the only craft that he ever lost.
27:44President Kennedy congratulates Grissom.
27:48But suborbital flights aren't enough.
27:55America is still coming in second.
27:57In the race for space.
28:00And NASA still hasn't fulfilled the primary goal of Project Mercury.
28:05Launching a man into orbit and bringing him home alive.
28:09They said there's no sense in hanging around here.
28:12The Soviets were claiming superiority to the United States.
28:16They had already made orbital flights.
28:18And so the pressure was on us to see whether we could do the same thing.
28:22Everybody loved John Glenn simply because of his talent to deal with the public.
28:28In his capsule, Friendship 7, John Glenn will attempt NASA's first orbital mission.
28:35After more than a month of delays, he's finally ready to fly.
28:39We lived in a motel about 15 miles south of the Space Center.
28:43And every morning when we'd get ready to come out to work,
28:46we'd go and look and see if the searchlights were on on the launch pad.
28:51The searchlights were on.
28:52We felt pretty confident driving in because somebody was out there doing something.
28:56And the countdown was more than likely progressing.
28:59You felt, OK, we're going for it.
29:01We're going to get it today.
29:03NASA needs more power to put a spacecraft into orbit.
29:09The larger Atlas rocket will blast Glenn 162 miles above the Earth
29:15at a speed of 17,500 miles an hour.
29:20John Glenn, he was a fighter pilot in World War II in Korea.
29:24He had three different aircraft that were literally shot out from under him.
29:28And he managed to fly those things home.
29:31So they said, John will bring it back down.
29:38Glenn will orbit the Earth three times.
29:42NASA's biggest concern, Shepard and Grissom were weightless for five minutes.
29:48Glenn will be weightless for nearly five hours.
29:51Someone had predicted that in zero G,
29:53your eyes no longer needed to be supported by the structure under the eye,
29:57and that your eye would gradually change shape in orbit.
30:00Your eye might change enough, you'd have trouble seeing the instrument panel.
30:06NASA has tracking stations all over the world.
30:09We had the capability to track spacecraft by radar.
30:13And we had the capability of getting EKG and heart rate and breath rate,
30:19as well as telling us what was going on in the spacecraft.
30:35I'd been through all of that, 11 scheduled dates and three times up there.
30:39So when it finally came, it was almost a surprise to go.
30:45When you're out there and you're actually on the launch pad,
30:48there's no way to simulate that.
31:02More than 50,000 people watched from nearby Cocoa Beach.
31:07We reporters would watch from the beach as them because they wouldn't let us in.
31:12But we kept banging at the gates and kicking at the fences.
31:15They said, you're more of a nuisance outside and they'll be on the inside.
31:18So they finally let us in.
31:20It was just the greatest place in the world.
31:22100 million people across America watch the countdown live on television.
31:30When it came time to go, the whole world was with me.
31:40I was the communicator for the countdown.
31:44I wanted to say something like, bon voyage, buddy.
31:47Have a good time.
31:49And also enlist the aid of our maker in protecting him.
32:02I was expecting somebody to say, launch hold of some kind.
32:14And I couldn't believe it.
32:26The excitement of John Glenn going into orbit.
32:31This was the adventure of the 20th century.
32:36The moment when the final Atlas engine will shut down,
32:39when Friendship 7 should separate from the booster rocket
32:42and begin orbital flight.
32:59After all the dire predictions of what might happen,
33:01how you might feel in space in Zero-G and the only problem at all.
33:12In the Mercury spacecraft, there wasn't any place to float to.
33:15You were just in there.
33:16You're in a cockpit.
33:17You're strapped in.
33:18The most you could do would be loosen the straps to be a little more comfortable.
33:24I was an elated feeling of Zero-G and then seeing how things work
33:27and seeing whether you could swallow.
33:30Nothing prepares you for the view as you look outside.
33:35You can see the curvature of the Earth's surface.
33:39And the whole nation just at a glance.
33:42Oh, that view is tremendous.
33:46As Glenn orbits the Earth,
33:48mission control follows him from one tracking station to the next.
33:55I was at a tracking station in Bermuda,
33:57and the tracking from the Cape was beginning to get very marginal
34:01as the vehicle sunk down going over the horizon.
34:04Friendship 7, this is Bermuda.
34:05You're cutting out on UHF.
34:06If you read, go to HF.
34:08And the tracking from Bermuda was becoming an increasingly better location
34:12to measure the fact that we were in orbit.
34:14Friendship 7, Bermuda Capcom on HF.
34:167, anything to report on control system checks?
34:19It was fun.
34:19It was demanding, but it was fun.
34:21We really enjoyed ourselves.
34:23How does he look, Bermuda?
34:24Looks real good, Cape.
34:25The whole system's OK.
34:27Everything was going so well that it was beyond belief that it could go that easily.
34:34But as Glenn completes his first orbit,
34:36mission control confronts its first crisis in space.
34:41The telemetry people noticed a signal which was indicating that the heat shield had come loose.
34:50It's very scary to me.
34:52If, indeed, the heat shield was loose during reentry,
34:56the spacecraft would probably get very hot, temperatures of 3,000 degrees.
35:02The heat might burn off the heat shield, and it would have killed him.
35:07We ran a few tests to see if what we were seeing was correct.
35:16We began to ask him questions.
35:19Do I feel any bumping or something like that?
35:21So it's quite obvious they weren't telling me exactly what they were thinking on the ground.
35:28If the problem is real,
35:30the straps for the retro rockets are the only thing holding the heat shield in place.
35:36Package is kept on fraction seven.
35:39We are recommending that you leave the retro package on through the entire reentry.
35:45Do you have any reason over?
35:48Not at this time.
35:49This is the judgment of Cape flight.
35:53John didn't like not being told what was wrong with the machine that he was flying.
36:00The reason we didn't was because there wasn't anything he could do about it.
36:03I think the astronaut needs to know everything they know on the ground.
36:06If you lost communications, the astronaut should have all the information.
36:10The engineers quietly hope the straps hold until the capsule hits denser air.
36:16Then the force of descent should keep the heat shield in place.
36:28When I first started reentry and the retro rockets fired,
36:31the straps that held that retro pack onto the basic spacecraft itself burned off.
36:37They were burning chunks coming back by the window.
36:41Sort of a thump on the spacecraft.
36:45This is friendship seven.
36:46I think the pack just let go.
36:49Friendship seven, this is Cape two-eight.
36:52This is friendship seven.
36:53A real fireball outside.
36:57During reentry, ionized plasma builds up around the spacecraft,
37:01causing a radio blackout for about three minutes.
37:04The world waits to hear if John Glenn is dead or alive.
37:09Friendship seven, this is Cape two-eight.
37:14Seven, this is Cape transmitting blind.
37:20Friendship seven, this is Cape two-eight.
37:30Keep talking now.
37:31Keep talking now.
37:32Friendship seven, this is Cape two-eight, over.
37:36Seven, this is Cape two-eight, over.
37:45All right, I'm over.
37:48All right, you're reading aloud and clear.
37:49How you doing?
37:50My condition is good, but that was a real fireball, boy.
37:58The heat shield was not loose.
38:01It was a microswitch malfunction.
38:18With Glenn's orbital flight,
38:20the U.S. finally catches up to the Soviet Union.
38:26John Glenn instantly becomes one of America's greatest heroes.
38:30We'd been concentrated so much on this mission for so long,
38:34just didn't think much about anything else,
38:36and then to have it over was really a big relief.
38:40After John's flight, we were all proud.
38:43I was proud of him.
38:45We were all proud of the United States for doing it.
38:54It was proof positive that this country could compete
38:57in the world of spaceflight,
38:58and that the Russians indeed were not ahead of us.
39:08Months ago, I said that I hoped that every American would serve his country.
39:13Today, Colonel Glenn served his, and we all express our thanks to him.
39:20We have a long way to go in the space race,
39:23but this is the new ocean,
39:25and I believe the United States must sail on it
39:29and be in a position second to none.
39:35The U.S. is on track to fulfill Kennedy's dream,
39:38yet orbital flight is just one small step.
39:42Now, NASA must begin to explore the hostile territory of space.
39:48The reason you're going up there is not just to see if you can do it.
39:51It's to do basic research.
39:55In his capsule, Aurora 7, Scott Carpenter will fly next.
40:02John's flight was an experimental test flight.
40:06Mine was to be more of a scientific investigation.
40:11There were visibility experiments.
40:14There were capsule maneuvering tasks that were new.
40:18It was a very busy flight plan.
40:22Your attention, please.
40:23All personnel, please clear the test stand area to the roadblock.
40:28Aurora 7 blasts off for three orbits of the Earth, nearly five hours in space.
40:33Five, four, three, two, one, zero.
40:39Ignition.
40:44I see over a lift-off. The clock has started.
40:47Roger, Aurora 7, stand by.
40:49And go.
40:50Aurora 7, we're taking off.
40:52Roger, sweet words.
40:57Okay, turn around and stop.
41:00All right, pitching down.
41:03I have the boom in the center of the window.
41:06Booster off to the right slightly.
41:10And the power is still...
41:11Scott Carpenter, I call him a romanticist.
41:14He was interested in the beauty of space.
41:17Sunrise into sunset.
41:19All right, roger. And then we go.
41:20I remember just spinning the camera a little and letting it go.
41:26And watch it stay right there.
41:29That's an amazing sight.
41:31The view and the weightlessness.
41:34Things do look different.
41:37The stars don't twinkle anymore.
41:39There's no atmosphere.
41:42It's an addictive sight.
41:44He was distracted many times during the flight.
41:48I have white particles in view below the capsule.
41:52They look exactly like snowflakes.
41:56Roger, Aurora 7.
41:58For the first time, conflicts arise between the astronaut and mission control.
42:05He kept using the fuel in a cavalier fashion.
42:09He was maneuvering the spacecraft to look here and there and everywhere.
42:13At sites that he wanted to see.
42:16Frankly, I can understand that.
42:19There was a requirement for me to expend more fuel
42:24because of the observations I wanted to make.
42:30During the first revolution, he used up the fuel
42:33in the automatic control system almost completely.
42:37We had told him to stop using that system.
42:40We had told him to stop using that system.
42:42He got to the manual system and used up all but about 10 or 20 percent of the manual fuel.
42:53Scott Carpenter is running out of gas.
42:56When he came up on retrofire, the fuel had been almost entirely depleted.
43:03I didn't have any fuel.
43:05The thrusters were not working.
43:07For re-entry, Carpenter has to manually turn the capsule 180 degrees
43:12so the heat shield faces down.
43:15But he has another problem.
43:18An automatic attitude sensor used to align the capsule is off by nearly 40 degrees.
43:25And only Carpenter knows it.
43:28He did not tell us that.
43:30And we had no way of knowing on the ground there was this bias there.
43:35Now, he's got to fire the retro rockets manually.
43:38Gyros are off.
43:43You have to use attitude bypass, man.
43:45And manual override.
43:47Roger.
43:50With a faulty sensor, Carpenter's already off target.
43:55If he's not positioned perfectly, the heat shield down, the capsule will burn up.
44:00You subject the capsule to heating, and that could be catastrophic, fatal.
44:07Four, three, two, one, zero.
44:12Okay, fire one, fire two, and fire three.
44:17I hope we have enough fuel to get the orange glow at this time.
44:25Mission Control loses contact with Carpenter.
44:27Mission Control loses contact with Carpenter during the radio blackout.
44:39Three minutes later, nothing.
44:41Aurora 7, Aurora 7, keep Capcom over.
44:43I got Aurora 7.
44:45He's pretty far downrange.
44:47Aurora 7, Aurora 7, keep Capcom over.
44:52After 40 minutes, still not a word from Scott Carpenter.
45:02The press is already speculating that NASA has lost its first astronaut.
45:07Aurora 7, Aurora 7, keep Capcom over.
45:15Aurora 7, Aurora 7, keep Capcom over.
45:25Flight Network.
45:27Go ahead.
45:29Flight Network.
45:31Go ahead.
45:39Finally, reconnaissance flights locate Carpenter 250 miles off target.
45:45Nobody knew where I was after my flight, but I knew exactly where I was.
45:53Carpenter floats in the Atlantic for three hours.
45:59Nothing worked exactly the way it should have, but we brought back some interesting new information in spaceflight.
46:11Scott Carpenter achieves all his mission objectives,
46:15yet flight controllers think many of the problems he faced could have been avoided.
46:29Five months later, Wally Schirra flies six orbits.
46:35Then Gordo Cooper circles the Earth 22 times over a day and a half.
46:41Hello, this is astronaut Gordon Cooper speaking from plane 7.
46:45Cooper becomes the first American to sleep in space, and the last to orbit solo around the Earth.
46:53Roger, what's good here, Gordo?
46:55Roger, feels good, buddy.
46:57As Project Mercury comes to an end,
47:01Project Gemini is already preparing to blast off again
47:05with a bold new goal for America's exploration of space.
47:11We choose to go to the moon.
47:15We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things.
47:19Not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
47:23The Mercury program was the most challenging of all the work that we've ever done in space.
47:31To a great extent, the Mercury astronauts were literally flying by the seat of their pants.
47:37There's nothing I think could prepare us for that kind of an experience.
47:43I've been very fortunate.
47:47We were all for one and one for all.
47:49The Mercury astronauts took the first heroic steps into a new frontier.
48:01At the dawn of the space age,
48:05Project Mercury lays the foundation for the great adventure to come.