VOICE 1:
This is Steve Ember.
VOICE 2:
And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special Englishprogram, EXPLORATIONS. Today we finish the story of the firstAmerican program to send a person into space. It was called ProjectMercury.
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VOICE 1:
The American space agency opened for business October first,nineteen-fifty-eight. NASA’s most important job was to send anAmerican into space and return him safely to earth. Project Mercurywas the plan for doing this. It would use one of several dependablemilitary rockets to launch a small, one-man spacecraft. The spacevehicle would return to earth and land in the ocean.
Astronauts would be chosen for the program from the best militarytest pilots who had education in science or engineering.
The idea was simple. But making it happen was not a simple job.Thousands of scientists, engineers, technicians and other workerswere needed. And money was needed — thousands of millions ofdollars.
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Congress approved the money. NASA organized the program. TheMcDonnell company designed and built the spacecraft. The Army andAir Force built the Redstone, Jupiter and Atlas rockets. NASAannounced the seven astronauts it had chosen on April nineth,nineteen-fifty-nine. They immediately began training for spaceflight.
No time was wasted. The first test flights began later that year.Those test flights did not carry astronauts. Men would fly theMercury spacecraft only after it was proved safe.
The final test flight was made at the end of January,nineteen-sixty-one. A Mercury spacecraft carried a chimpanzee namedHam on a seven-hundred-kilometer flight over the Atlantic Ocean.There were some problems. But the animal survived the launch and thelanding in the ocean.
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Three months later, NASA sent an astronaut into space. He wasNavy pilot Alan Shepard. Shepard crawled into his little Mercuryspacecraft early on the morning of may fifth. There was almost noroom to move inside it. One description said it was like sitting inthe driver’s seat of a small car, while wearing two heavy raincoats.
Alan Shepard waited in the spacecraft for four hours. The weathercaused part of the delay. Clouds would prevent filming of thelaunch. And some last-minute repairs were made to his radio system.Tired of waiting, he told the ground crew, “Why don’t you fellowssolve your little problems and light this candle. “
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Finally, they did start the rocket. With a roar, it began to riseslowly from the launch pad. Its speed increased. Soon, it was out ofsight.
Shepard’s flight lasted only a few seconds longer than fifteenminutes. But he flew one-hundred eighty-seven kilometers high, andfour-hundred-eighty kilometers from the launch pad. He re-enteredthe atmosphere and slowed the Mercury spacecraft. The first flightended with a soft splash into the ocean, as planned.
Shepard reported, “Everything is A-OK. ” Within minutes, ahelicopter lifted him from the spacecraft and carried him to awaiting ship. The first manned flight of Project Mercury was acomplete success.
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Radio, television and newspaper reporters made it possible formillions of people to share the excitement of the flight. The UnitedStates had decided at the very beginning of its space program thatall launches would be open to news reporters. Successes and failureswould all be reported to the world. Television and newsfilm showedflight preparations and launch. People could hear — on radio andtelevision — the talk between the astronaut and the flightcontrollers.
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Ten weeks later, there was another Mercury launch. Astronaut GusGrissom repeated Shepard’s successful short flight. But there was aserious problem after the landing. Grissom almost drowned when thedoor of the spacecraft opened too soon.
The spacecraft filled with water and sank. Grisson escaped. Hehad to swim for a few minutes before helicopters rescued him.
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The results of the two short flights made space officials believethe Mercury program was ready for its first orbital flight. Again,an animal would fly first.
A chimpanzee named Enos was launched on a three-orbit flight. Theflight tested the worldwide communications system that linked thespacecraft to flight controllers at Cape Canaveral. It also testedthe effect of weightlessness on living creatures.
A problem developed during the second orbit. One of the smallthruster rockets that turned the spacecraft stopped working. Flightcontrollers decided to bring it down at the end of the second orbit.The landing was perfect. Enos suffered no bad effects.
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Now, everything was ready for an astronaut to make an orbitalflight. NASA announced that the astronaut would be John Glenn. Hewould circle the earth three times during a five-hour Mercuryflight.
The launch was planned for January twenty-seventh,nineteen-sixty-two. But it was postponed for almost a month becauseof weather and mechanical problems. Finally, on February twentieth,John Glenn climbed into his tiny spacecraft on top of the huge Atlasrocket.
After several short delays, the final seconds were counted off.
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Five minutes later, the spacecraft separated from the Atlasrocket. John Glenn was in orbit — one-hundred-sixty kilometersabove the earth. His speed was twenty-eight-thousand kilometers anhour. Glenn reported that all systems were “go. ” Everything was”A-OK” for an orbital flight.
Glenn’s flight plan called for him to spend most of the firstorbit getting used to the feeling of being weightless. After aboutan hour of being beyond the pull of earth’s gravity, Glenn reportedhe felt fine. He said being weightless was not a problem.
Glenn explained later that at times it helped to be free ofgravity. He said he was busy taking pictures when he suddenly had todo something else. So he left the camera floating in the air. Itstayed there, as if he had laid it on a table!
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Near the end of the first orbit, Glenn reported a problem. One ofthe small rockets of his automatic control system stopped working.This caused the spacecraft to turn to one side. Glenn solved theproblem by turning off the automatic system. He took control of thesystem to correct the movement.
All of the systems on the Mercury spacecraft sent radio signalsto flight controllers. The signals, or telemetry, reported on thecondition of the systems.
During the second orbit, one of these signals warned that theheat shield might not be locked firmly to the bottom of thespacecraft. This could be a serious problem. The shield protectedthe spacecraft from burning up from the extreme heat of re-enteringthe earth’s atmosphere.
Engineers believed the warning signal was wrong and the shieldwas locked. But they told Glenn not to release rockets connected tothe heat shield. The rockets, normally released before returning toearth, could help keep a loose heat shield in place.
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Near the end of his third orbit, Glenn fired other rockets toslow his speed. The spacecraft began to return to earth. As itre-entered the atmosphere, radio communications stopped. Flightcontrollers could no longer hear Glenn. Everyone was worried aboutthe heat shield. The radio silence, caused by the heat of re-entry,lasted for seven minutes. Then the controllers heard the astronautagain.
Glenn reported that he was okay. The heat shield had been locked.
Parachutes lowered the Mercury spacecraft to the ocean surface.Glenn remained inside. A navy ship reached it in seventeen minutes,and lifted it aboard. Glenn opened the door and stepped out.
John Glenn got a hero’s welcome when he returned to CapeCanaveral. President John Kennedy flew to Florida and presented aspecial award to the astronaut. Glenn became famous. He later waselected to the United States Senate from the state of Ohio. And innineteen-ninety-eight, at age seventy-seven, he returned to space inan historic flight.
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Three more flights were made in Mercury spacecraft. The last one,by astronaut Gordon Cooper, circled the earth twenty-one times. Itlasted thirty-four hours.
Cooper spent much of the time doing medical checks and takingpictures. His work cleared the way for Project Gemini.
Gemini was the next step toward President Kennedy’s goal oflanding a man on the moon by the end of the nineteen-sixties.Project Mercury astronauts made the goal seem possible.
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Anncr:
VOICE 1:
This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christianoand Frank Beardsley. This is Steve Ember.
VOICE 2:
And this is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for anotherEXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America.