81,000 -MILE TRIP

Flight Aides Feared

for the Capsule as ItBegan Its Re-Entry

Transcript of conversationswith Glenn , Pages and 26 .

N.A.S.A. via Associated Press Wirephoto

READY : Lieut. Col. John H. Glenn walks to the van

to take him to the launching site at Canaveral, Fla .

RICHARD WITKINto The New York Times

CAPE CANAVERAL , FlaFeb. 20 John Glenn Jr. orbited three times around the

earth today and landed safelyto become the first American

to make such a flight .The 40 -year -old Marine Corps

lieutenant colonel traveled

about 81,000 miles 4 hours

minutes before splashinginto the Atlantic at 2:43

Eastern Standard Time.

He had been launched from

here at 9:47 A. M.

The astronaut's safe returnwas no less a relief than a thrill

to the Project Mercury team ,because there had been real

concern that the Friendship 7

capsule might disintegrate as it

N.A.S.A United Press International Telephoto N.A.S.A. Wirephoto rammed back into the atmosLIFT OFF :The Atlas rocket booster bearing the Project RECOVERY : Crewmen of destroyer Noa secure capsule phere.Mercury spacecraft roars aloft with 360,000 -pound thrust . carrying astronaut before lifting it out of the Atlantic. There had also a serious

question whether Colonel Glenn

could complete three orbits as

planned But despite persistent

control problems, he managed

to complete the entire flight

plan.

Lands in Bahamas Area

The astronaut's landing place

was near Grand Turk Island in

the Bahamas , about 700 miles

southeast of here.

Still in hig capsule, he was

plucked from the water at 3:01

P. with a boom and block

and tackle by the destroyer

Noa The capsule was deposited

on deck at 3:04.

Colonel Glenn's first words as

he stepped out onto the Noa's

deck were : "It was hot in

there."

He quickly obtained a glassof iced tea .

He was in fine condition except for two skinned knuckleshurt in the process ofout the side hatch of the capsule.

The colonel was transferredby helicopter to the carrierRandolph , whose recoverycopters had raced the Noa forthe honor of making the pickup. After a meal and extensive" de-briefing aboard the carrier, he was flown to GrandTurk by submarine patrol planefor two days of rest and interviews on technical, medical andother aspects of flight.

The Noa, nearest ship to the

Continued on Page 20 Column 1

The York TimesPublished : February 21, 1962

Copyright © The New York Times

ASTRONAUT SAYS

CONDITION IS FINE

Mechanical Trouble Almost

Shortened Flight --Craft

Yawed on First Trip

Continued From Page 1 Col. 8

capsule as it parachuted intothe ocean , took just twentyone minutes to close the sixmile gap, lift the capsule aboardwith a bomb-block -and - tacklerig and place it gently on thedeck

Colonel Glenn first was set towriggle out of the narrow top .Butwhen difficulty was encoun

tered in getting one of the bulkheads loose, the explosive sidehatch was blown off, and themanfrom space stepped out ondeck, apparently in excellentshape. Hewassoon afterwardtransferred to the carrier Randolph

In the course of his threeorbits, Colonel Glenn reportedfrequently to tracking stationsat various points on earth andto the control center here. Invariably, he said that his condition was fine.

Shortly after Colonel Glenn

was picked up by the Noa

received congratulations on hisfeat from President Kennedy

by radio telephoneA situation that seemed at

the moment to pose the greatestdanger developed near the end

of the flight.A signal from the

capsuleindicated that the heatshield - blunt forward endmade of ceramic - like materialthat dispels the friction heat of

re - entry and chars in the procbe torn away before

it coulddo its job .If it had, flight would

have had a tragic end.

Signal Is Received

The signal, received as thecapsule was traveling betweenHawaii and the West Coastindicated that the heat shield

had become unlatched from the

main capsule body. This actionwas not intended to happenuntil the final stage of theparachute descent.

At that point, itwould fall afew feet , and deploy, betweenit and the capsule base,landing bag to cushion the impact on the water .

Colonel Glenn was asked by

radio to flip a switch to checkwhether the shield had, in fact,become unlatched When the

light did not go on , it appearedthat the "unlatch signal hadbeen spurious.

But the Mercury team wastaking no chances. It changedthe sequence of re-entry eventsto try to insure that, even if unlatched, the heat shield wouldnot fall away prematurely.

Colonel Glenn apparentlysensing possible trouble,asked : What are the reasonsfor this Do you have any reasons ?

" Not at this time, came the and direction , and has been electronically connected to thereply from the control center . dropped away . same jets used in the completely

Normally, after the firing of The astronaut exercises no automatic system . But it had celeration force, as he climbed Colonel Glenn was reporting

the three braking rockets to control over the capsule result ofmaking very finely through the atmosphere. continued erratic behavior of

bring the capsule out of orbit, tude until after the Atlas boost- calculated corrections that did Then it smoothed out ; the

the empty braking -rocket pack rocket has finished burning not waste hydrogen peroxide. rocketburningstopped; the ac controls, apparently even

age is jettisoned and dropped away. During the At later stages of the flight celeration switched abruptly to with the manual system the

Jettisoning was delayed today climb to space, the Atlas pro- Colonel Glenn switched to the weightlessness ; and the cap alternative to the one that

that,in case the heat shield vides theguidance andattitude completely independent man sule automatically turned its malfunctioned .blunt end forward for the al

had become unlatched, the control. Itsengines swivel likeual system that used six dif He also was reporting

rocket - packet straps would hold a juggler's palm under a broom- ferent , two for each axis. most five hours he was to be warning light Indicating thatin orbit .

the shield in place until this stick The amount of squirt ejected

function wastakenover by the The attitude system , rather through these jetswas alsode Capsule isturning around hydrogen peroxide fuel for athe radioed. " Oh that view least one of the systems was

force of re-entry into the at the orientation of the termined by how far thecontrolcapsule the forward stick moved, and it wasted no

tremendous." getting low.mosphere . He was the professional test many experts listening toThe package burned on up or down ; whether hydrogen peroxide . pilot, and at the same time a these events

The original trouble seemed to unfold there

entry. The heat shielddidnot er the capsule rolls one wayhave disappeared by thetimehuman being experiencing pure seemed no alternative to bring

drop away until it was sup: or the other . joy. The tone was full of ing Colonel Glenn back at thethe colonel was ready to return

posed to. This indicated thatthe capsule moves out of from orbit

thusiasm end of the second orbit ratherthe signal that had caused so On the first orbit, over the than risking another circuit.

muchanxiety had,infact, been properlineon anyofthethree He successfully used the autoaxes ,it can be realigned by matic system for the difficult Canary Islands, Colonel Glenn But the astronaut thought hea false one.

squirting hydrogen peroxide re- entry maneuver , while keepreported that " the horizon is a could handle the situation with

100,000 See Launching through tiny jets.brilliant blue."

ing himself ready to switch imout excessive trouble

The whole continent watched There are two completely in - mediately to manual controls ifOne after another of the sta- Between the technical talk

on television asColonelGlenn's dependent systems for making thetrouble recurred. Itdidnot.tions in the eighteen -station there was time for joking

capsule was launched . The these corrections. One is called world -wide tracking net locked exuberance of a who, no

world listened by radio . And automatic ; the other manual. 10 Previous Attempts its radar on the 7 matter how experienced in commost 100,000 persons had a di- There are different ways to Today's orbital flight had and most of them established bat and test flying, had never

rect view from here and the each system . been scheduled for just before voice communications with the done anything quite likethis .

beaches around as the Atlas Used Automatic System Christmas There had been ten astronaut on board.Then he got down to the busi

rocket booster bore theProject When the trouble developed onhistrip,and tenfrustratattempts to send Colonel Glenn Colonel Glenn received speness of preparing himself forMercury capsule upward with Colonel Glenn was flying by ing postponements, either be

cial greeting from the citi- the critical firing of the brak

a thrust of 360,000 pounds. zens of Perth Australia, who ing rockets and the re- entry

The Friendship7 was loftedod. Gyroscopes weresetto theproblems.

the completely automatic meth-cause of weather or technicalturned on the lights all over into the atmosphere .

into a trajectory that varied desired attitudes And when the Last night, the weather men everybody for turningGreatest Day in Space

between a low point, orperi- capsule strayed toofar ,squirts talked about being" cautiouslythe

gee,of about ninety -nine miles,of hydrogen peroxide were tothem on," he radioed. About Today's flight gave

and a high point, or apogee, of be there, too , he tried the first of United States, by any standardsautomatically optimistic. " But few observers

162 miles.ejected the special foods prepared its greatest day in space.

through the proper jetsagreed with them It did not

It traveled at a speed of consumption in orbit where The achievement , however ,seem possible that the mess of

about anhour and four jets for roll ;fourfor pitchiOn this system are weather bearing down on Flor there isno gravity to let liquids could still not be considered

went from day to night three up and down; and four for yaw and that is the way itstillclear away in time , pour or meats stay on a dish up to what the Russians

He ate tubes of food andmeat had done.times before whirling east right and left . Two of the four lookedwhen the swarmof of

and malted milk tablets . Colonel Glenn's flight was

across the Pacific on the final jets in each set have a thrust ficial observers arrived hereleg of the flightAn odd phenomenon occurred two orbits more than were

of only one pound while the about 4 A.M.Some 300 miles west of the other two have much larger Colonel Glennhe was within range of flown by Maj. Yuri A. Gagarin

California coast , three retro , or thrusts . had wore a plastic tube and particularly memorable about Guaymas, Mexico . Hereported the Soviet space man , last Apriibraking , rockets slowedthe cap: Only the small jets are sup- ritualwas not much sunrose the atmosphere was capsule

the take -off, at9:47.Emotion- particles around the 12 but fourteen less than anjust thousands of other Russian , Maj. Gherman

enough to bring it out of posed to be brought into play differentfromwhat been hanging , charged, becausea man was them sunrise over the S.during the mainportion of thewitnessed on the suborbital andleft conditions hereasideal going into orbit .The elated astronaut on orbital journey. The large ones 300 mile trips made last year as anyone ever had seen themboard radioed, " Boy , that was aremainly more radicalby Comdr. Alan B.Shepard The weather inkeyrecovery " ! ! " at take- off suggestedlaterthat they might observers here to have an

Maj. Gen. Leighton Davis , technical respects in which bothThereweretheusual criesof Project Mercuryofficer here Sovietorbitalflights appeared

a real fireballof a ride ! as the corrections necessary when

atmosphere. most violent - coming back fromto orbit Colonel Glenn. fect.

A number of changes had waiting for the count the observer's stand two milesviewers, in the blockhouse, at ofpaint from thecapsule ( as against

Besides generating heat that orbit . Moment of Decisionton and a half ) ; the reliability

gave him a spectacular momentsince the short- range , chance to talkbyphone with the beaches. But, generally , theThenstarted the troubles cabin atmosphere in which the

of automatic controls; and the

small jets did notdo their job Therecovery system hadbeen wife , his 16- year - old son emotions were in Every- attitude controlsrevised to minimize chances of David and his 15 -year -old one waited .

Colonel Glenn long hours of When the capsule drifted be tem - troubles that were to Colonel Glenn's trip was

weightlessness and shoved him yond the proper limits, and

forcefully back against hisdid not respond, the

-landing mishap daughter Lynn. They watched Colonel Glenn apparently had cupy the pilot the rest of the considered by most observerscaused lossof Capt Virgiltheproceedings on TVfrom a fine, exhilarating time,rightflight. here to have gone a long way

toured couch larger jets, with twenty - four capsuleand their home in Arlington ,Va.cost that astronaut his Visually , there was nothing some vibration alongwith ac- endof the secondor second best " lookinspace.

start He experienced The moment of decislon came toward erasing this nation's

.At 2:43 P.M. sixty - three thrust, automatically

foot red and-white parachute cut in Colonel Glenn was given adeposited the Friendship 7 on Dangers Are Described special camera with which togentle Caribbean waters . A similar malfunction - to take various types of

After the capsule had been curred on the roll jets during pictures of cloud cover and othpicked up by the Noa and safely the second orbit of the flight er phenomena .

placed on her deck, Colonel made by Enos the chimpanzee He had a " bungee chordGlenn emerged triumphant in lastyear. Becausethere wasno king rubberband "his gleaming silver space suit human aboard to analyze the which he was to pull, like an

Sends Word of Trouble trouble and make corrections , pulling oars, to secEnos's mission had to be ended how his blood pressure was af

It was on his first turn one orbit ahead of schedule. fected by exercise when he wasaround the globe that Colonel The danger today was that thein a weightless state.Glenn sent word of erratic be jets would consume the He had a medicalhavior bytheattitude control hydrogen peroxide toofast and spring - needles with

some con- when itcame time to per- could give himselfcern almost to the end of the form the important return various injections. One was toflight from - orbit maneuver there suppress nausea or other symp

The system is designed to would be none left to orient the of motion sickness. (Colocontrol the capsule's attitude capsule properly for re-entry . nel Glenn reported frequentlyin space . Colonel Glenn Initially met that weightlessness bothered

This does not mean that it the problem by switching to ahim not at all.)in any way alters the course technique called fly -by-wire. He He had also a pain -killerof the capsule over the ground . controlled the vehicle by man morphine : stimulant, benzaThe course is set once the Air moving the control stick.drine and a drug to counterForce Atlas booster has im This was not the regular shockparted to the capsule its speed "manual system . The stick was Under flying suit Colonel

town.

New TimesPublished : February 21 1962

Copyright The New York Times