55 a
A ghostly image of the astronaut. Gordon Cooper’s face is visible in the background while his oxygen hose stands out clearly in this picture made from the broadcast of a live TV camera received at Cape Canaveral, Florida, one of three points set up to receive the slow-scan TV picture, with Grand Canary Islands and the Pacific Command Ship south of Japan. It was the first time an American astronaut had sent back television images from space.
From the mission transcript at the beginning of the 17th orbit:
025:14:39 Capcom (Mission Control): TV on for a couple of minutes please?
025:14:44 Cooper: Roger, TV coming on.
55 b
Cooper, passing over the Florida area on his 18th orbit, placed his capsule television camera to the window of Faith 7 to flash this view back to Earth. It was recorded on a monitor screen at Cape Canaveral. The camera’s two-second slow scan rate required special equipment which was set up at Cape Canaveral.
“It took a great, tremendous physical conditioning process to get the (TV) camera out of the bracket and get the other lens on it prior to photographing out the window. I got one period of pictures out the window over Florida that was exceptionally good. In one, it was ideal weather, ideal view, and everything, however, they weren’t getting anything at all. [...] If the thing had worked correctly, it would have been nice to have been able to shoot out the window at some of these fantastic views you see around Florida [...] to show the ground what you’re seeing. That would have been the biggest advantage of it. I gather, based on what limited information I have now, that we got one or two successful pictures of this type,” said Gordon Cooper following the mission (Pilot Report).
From the mission transcript at the end of the 18th orbit:
028:17:07 Capcom: Faith Seven, this is Cape. - We would like to see your TV returns, over.
028:17:12 Cooper: Roger. I’ve got her on. [...]
028:19:53 Cooper Are you getting any TV yet?
028:19:57 Capcom: I think the light is low inside there, Gordo.
028:20:01 Cooper: I ‘m outside. [...]
028:20:42 Cooper: I’m directly over Miami. I’m looking right down on Miami Beach.
55 c
After 22 orbits, virtually all spacecraft systems had failed, and the capsule reentered safely under the manual control of the pilot who was able to guide the spacecraft to a pinpoint landing.
“Down by hand, right on the nose. This series shows ‘Faith 7’ as it swings under its 65-foot ringsail parachute before splashing down an even 7,000 yards from the waiting USS Kearsarge, prime recovery ship. This is the second orbital flight in a row in which the spacecraft has splashed down within sight of the USS Kearsage’s crew” (NASA caption, first photograph).
“Three Navy frogmen attach a flotation collar to ‘Faith 7’ minutes after the spacecraft splashed down less than four miles from the carrier Kearsarge, and within sight of those on board” (NASA caption, second photograph).
“’Faith 7’ comes to rest on a solid surface again after 34 hours and 20 minutes in space as she is lowered to the deck of the carrier Kearsarge southeast of Midway Island in the Pacific” (NASA caption, third photograph).
Cooper was still inside ‘Faith 7’ after he travelled nearly 875,000 km. He was reported in good condition, and this turned out to be the final Mercury flight.
55 d
[NASA caption] Gordon Cooper rides down Pennsylvania Avenue parade route to the Capitol. Senator Clinton Anderson and Vice President Johnson sit at his side enjoying the crowd cheer for Cooper.
55 e
Ed Thomas was a contracted NASA photographer at Cape Canaveral.
Known from 1963 to 1973 as Cape Kennedy in honor of President John F. Kennedy who was assassinated in November 1963, Cape Canaveral was the setting for all NASA manned flights and many of the unmanned scientific space exploration missions.
Project Mercury marked America’s first manned ventures into space. The Mercury 7 Monument was dedicated on November 10, 1964 as a tribute to the United States Original Seven Astronauts. The memorial is located near the entrance to Launch Complex 14 where the first manned space flights were launched
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