Posted on 05/30/2012 6:31:00 PM PDT by KevinDavis
Well it was a good first mission.. Now for the ultimate test. Can they send humans into space with no problems.
That means it didn't cost the tax payers $10,000,000 to have half a dozen military ships trolling and gawking at the space craft.
They might have had the military ships out there to keep the Ruskies from making off with it! LOL!
I could see a NK sub pull up underneath it, attach a hook and drag it away.. LOL
From the Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Redstone_4
After logging the panel data, Grissom asked the helicopters to begin the approach for pickup. He removed the pin from the hatch-cover detonator and lay back in the couch. “I was lying there, minding my own business,” he said afterward, “when I heard a dull thud.” The hatch cover blew away, and salt water swished into the spacecraft as it bobbed in the ocean. The Liberty Bell 7 began taking on water and was sinking fast.
In other words.. He panicked.
Thinking about it now it would be great for SpaceX to have their own chase aircraft to sight their spacecraft from re-entry to splashdown with video in HD (transmitted back to Hawthorne) plus having a go-fast boat with HD video on-board that could be transmitted to the chase aircraft and sent back to Hawthorne, CA.
Panicked before the hatch blew or after? Grissom said was was just minding his own bidness when it just blew on it own!
/johnny
Some think he either lost patience waiting for recovery teams or he believed the capsule was sinking and panicked.. In any case, he couldn’t admit this or his job was at risk. He of course later died with two others in a oxygen fire on the launch pad.
In the screen capture (post #65), the capsule looks normal at top but are those inflated pads on the sides? Looks like that’s what those are..
CONGRATULATIONS TO SPACEX! Leave it to the private sector to show America’s greatness (Don’t tell Obama though).
Our friend is the Chief Navigator!
Any updates on vessel recovery?
THURSDAY, MAY 31, 2012
1656 GMT (12:56 p.m. EDT)
Elon Musk says recovery boats are now approaching Dragon to attach cables to the spacecraft.
There is strong evidence that the Astronaut Office didn't accept Grissom's guilt in the fact that he was maintained in the prime rotation spot for future flights, commanding the first Gemini flight and the first planned Apollo flight.Two Mercury flights later, Astronaut Wally Schirra manually blew Sigma 7's hatch after recovery when his spacecraft was on the deck of the recovery ship, in a deliberate attempt to dispel the rumor that Grissom might have blown Liberty Bell 7's hatch deliberately. As anticipated, the kickback from the manual trigger left Schirra with a visible injury to his right hand. Grissom was uninjured when he exited the spacecraft, as documented by his postflight physical. This strongly supports his assertion that he did not "accidentally" hit the trigger, since in that case he would have been even more likely to injure himself than with intentional activation.
And WHY can't I find confirmation that it's been loaded onto a barge yet?
By the looks of the heavily scorched capsule I’d say it tumbled on it’s descent. I’m curious why little information’s been released since splash down.
They have to drag it back to CA, safe the capsule with its hypergolic fuel and oxidizer, download the telemetry from the capsule, take out the time sensitive cargo and ship it to Houston or back to the Cape among many things. Then they ship it to Texas to remove the hypergolic fuel and oxidizer, remove the rest of the cargo and do a once over on it.
It does look a bit more scorched than the previous capsule. It is possible that it did tumble but how many times? They’ll find out.
I never saw any cheering at Mission Control.. Do they know something we don't know? If I'm right, I hope the cargo survived.
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