44 a
Scott Carpenter took the photograph (originally shot on Eastman Color Negative Film 5250) with a Robot recorder 36 35mm camera.
The photograph shows a Sunrise and the Earth’s limb seen from space, which is just arcs of color as the Sunlight is bent by the Earth’s atmosphere. These arcs just showed the various colors of the spectrum as Carpenter went from darkness into the daylight side of the Earth. These were quite spectacular at the time, as no one had ever seen these from space (except a few Russian cosmonauts and John Glenn in the previous Mercury Atlas 6 flight).
“I could look off for perhaps a thousand miles in any direction, and everywhere I looked the window and the periscope were constantly filled with beauty. I found it difficult to tear my eyes away and to go to something else. Everything is new and so awe-inspiring that it is difficult to concentrate for very long on something else... Using the special camera I carried, I took pictures as fast as I could, and as I raced towards night at 17,500 miles an hour I saw the beginnings of the most fantastically beautiful view I have ever had, my first Sunset in space,” said Carpenter (Life Magazine, June 8, 1962, p. 33).
In the post-flight report, Carpenter would point out, “The sunrises and sunsets were the most beautiful and spectacular events of the flight. Unlike those on Earth, the sunrises and sunsets in orbit were all the same. The sharply defined bands of color at the horizon were brilliant. On the dark side of the earth, I saw the same bright band of light just above the horizon which John Glenn reported”.
44 b
“The capsule reentered after completing 3 orbits, coming down in the Atlantic Ocean some 200 km northeast of Puerto Rico, about 400 km beyond the planned impact point. The overshoot was traced to a 25 degree yaw error at the time the retrograde rockets were fired. Retrofire was also about 3 s late, accounting for about 20 miles of the overshoot. The duration of the flight was 4h 56 min 5 s during which Carpenter travelled over 121,600 km. After the firing of the retrorockets, computers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center successfully predicted the area of splashdown and naval ships and aircraft were deployed to the new location. Carpenter was picked up after 2 h 59 min in the water and returned by helicopter to the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid. The Mercury capsule was not retrieved until about 6 hours later when special equipment on-board the USS John R. Pierce arrived to retrieve it” (https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1962-019A).
Carpenter was very dedicated to photography during the flight and he valiantly saved the Robot camera from being waterlogged during his spacecraft egress, though his 16mm observer camera films were not as lucky and were nearly useless in post-mission analysis.
He is holding the camera in hand as he is lifted by cable into a hovering Navy helicopter during the recovery operation (first photograph).
The Aurora 7 spacecraft is floating in the Atlantic with a scuba diver on its flotation collar (second photograph).
“When the HSS-2 helicopter appeared, it made a beautiful approach. One of the divers helped me put on the sling, and I picked up my camera which I had previously placed in the recovery compartment. I motioned to the helicopter pilot to take up the slack in the line, and I let go of the spacecraft expecting to be lifted up. Instead, I went down! The helicopter must have settled slightly, because I am sure that there was a moment nobody saw anything of me but a hand holding a camera clear of the water,” related Carpenter (Pilot flight Report).
44 c
Flight transcripts and the testimony of Christopher Kraft, NASA flight director at the time, indicated that Carpenter frequently operated the camera during his three orbits, and Kraft attributed the 400-km off target landing in part to the distraction of taking photographs.
“Overall, I believe the MA-7 flight can be considered another successful step on the road to the development of a useful and reliable manned spacecraft system. The good performance of most of the spacecraft systems gave me confidence in the vehicle itself, while the spectacular novelty of the view from space challenged me to make the most of my opportunity, and lured me into an unwise expenditure of fuel early in the flight. As a result, it became necessary to go to extended drifting flight, and I was able to demonstrate that there was no problem associated with prolonged drifting flight, a procedure we shall have to make use of on the longer duration Mercury flights. I was able to detect and overcome the one significant systems malfunction that might have affected the flight: the malfunction of the pitch horizon scanner circuit. I understand that many were concerned while waiting without word from me during reentry and after landing. However, from my position, there was no major cause for concern. The spacecraft was stable during the critical portions of reentry and the parachute worked perfectly. For me, this flight was a wonderful experience, and I anxiously await another space mission,” wrote Scott Carpenter (Pilot’s Flight Report).
.jpg?mode=max&width=600)