you
welcome to this edition of the
astronauts I'm Lynn Bondurant during
this program will take a look at the
many people and scientific technologies
responsible for the first American space
flight around the earth in 1962 John
Glenn took the historic voyage in a
mercury spacecraft called friendship
seven part one of our program covers
flight preparation background of Project
Mercury and the worldwide spacecraft
tracking network the countdown and one
to get underway Cape Canaveral and a
pimp the launch astronaut John Glenn
into orbit around the world according to
the british broadcasting corporation in
London the 0r the caribbean island
florida who in for the blue lady on
eharmony to the power of true north
american not of comparing new people
astronaut on a return of junk on our
campus Canaveral Florida get the hot
girl Martin Kenya is over to hold an
item lordy todo con debacle Michael come
here and you're hungry Hitler barranca
americano to skokie sangram no soy como
se me esta Mercutio I'm say portado que
ambos a doctrine Alta escucho a
friendship shitty and report the
astronauts condition is excellent care
atlantic cape canaveral and then after
not glenwood weather still remains the
big question mark put the countdown for
crown Glen they countdown is again under
way
with the entire world is our witness the
countdown begins at cape canaveral
florida for one of man's greatest
adventures it begins here with these men
for they are the launch team and from
now until the instant of flight the
paint of today's mission west
principally upon their skills and
judgments the countdown is their master
plan and they proceeded through its
ritual with on hurry deliberation its
pages contain the timetable of order
they must follow to awaken a giant
machine to test its readiness and to
climate for the one supreme moment for
which it was created now Peter e-banking
buh-buh-buh stand down now Peter Reid
11.56 for a minute after minute page
upon page the count continues and in the
night beyond this block house a modified
Air Force Atlas rocket now hums with
restless energy beneath the mercury
spacecraft as these men usher it toward
its final minutes honor today is
februari twentieth nineteen sixty-two
and today if all goes well the men here
will launch an American astronaut into
orbit around the world in a spacecraft
which he has named friendship seven
friendship seven awaits its pilot and
the pilot has waited three years for
this day three long arduous years of
study of training of waiting and now
he's ready his name is John Glenn
astronaut John Glenn of New Concord Ohio
Lieutenant Colonel United States Marine
Corps married father of two teenage
children Glenn has been a pilot over
half of his 40 years has flown in two
wars and as a veteran test pilot who
five years earlier established a
transcontinental flight record as the
first man to average supersonic speeds
across America he volunteered for Space
Flight is one of seven astronauts
selected for Project Mercury the man and
space program directed by the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration
two teammates a pioneered the way into
space for Glenn astronaut alan shepard
and Virgil Grissom tested the mercury
spacecraft on trailblazing sub-orbital
mission proving equipment and pushing
the program to the threshold of orbital
flight and now it's Glenn's turn ready
for presentation now to Glen Falls the
challenge of man's next advance in his
face for he has been chosen to cross the
threshold gained by shepard and Grissom
and to orbit the world so the countdown
continues for John Glenn and it
continues beyond this room for
friendship seven and it continues this
moment around the world
these are John Glenn's ground-based
co-pilots men he knows well with whom
he's trained in whose judgment his wife
is entrusted this day they are the
flight controllers and from the mercury
control center within view of the launch
complex they make the decisions issue
the command that will govern the course
of the mission protected to these men
throughout the plane will further facts
needed for decision the scope of their
responsibility of the entire operation
defies comprehension now this very
instant I the countdown for flight
continues around the world on three
continents on islands in ships and
planes in lands where it's summer and
tomorrow is near check and I Unsworth
winter and this day is just beginning
Roger Roger CPA market controllers
northeaster Cape Canaveral 1,000 miles
into the Atlantic dawn's early light
bills over the British crown colony of
Bermuda and station 2 in the mercury
network proceed with the countdown the
tracking and telemetry stations 18 at
all form an avenue of electronic
checkpoints around the world to monitor
and communicate with friendship 7 as it
passes overhead telemetry M&O all right
radar is the eyes of distinction
satisfied then telemetry is the ears
each second telemetry will fear and
record nearly 2,000 items of information
radial down from friendship 7 addictive
and in the months to come rocket
engineers and scientists will find in
telemetry records the answers needed for
the folder space exploration of the
beauty displays and recorders have been
calibrated Rogers I kill white this is
Eminem screen for jamming our understand
all systems green
latitude 5 degrees north longitude 10
degrees west a spot in the Atlantic
Ocean off the coast of Africa and
station 3 the Rose not weights under the
late morning sun for John Glenn
operating out of Trinidad rose not will
communicate with friendship seven and
monitor its journey as it streaks across
the empty ocean and out over Africa
impression this is bridge you're
proceeding at slow speed at about five
knots the courses 1982 over
they own the mercury station on grand
canary island in the spanish archipelago
off of the African coast it's midday at
station five and Conall Nigeria deep in
the continent of Africa flight data
recorded here at caño and at them
tomorrow on Africa's East Coast will
relay through this transmitting station
to London and then on to America far to
the southeast econo beyond a tenth of
our station the ship's Bell of the
coastal century tolls the twilight of
day in the emptiness of the Indian Ocean
to the east some 2,500 miles from the
coastal centering just like it's the
network eight station at new shade near
Perth Western Australia halfway around
the world from Cape Canaveral a printer
thought display that's fine just take
her up on it today februari 20th is fast
fading over the Australian tracking site
at mouche and woomera and when Glenn
arrives tomorrow we'll greet him but
north and east across the Pacific far
beyond the mercury station on the coral
a so-called Camden Island februari 20th
is just minute old on Hawaii's Garden
Island of Hawaii and their men prepare
for the arrival of friendship 7 each
word again deeper into the day that will
soon awaken over the Americas each word
to the Gulf of California and to the
mercury station at guaymas Mexico
real good wait for liftoff
M&O champ status three proceeding with
free pass calibrations north of Mexico
in the pre-dawn along the west coast of
the United States the mountaintop
station at point Arguello California
waits out the long count down ready to
track John Glenn right here a key what
is prezi count her Roger southeast no to
the farmlands of Texas where the station
of Corpus Christi continues its
preparations for flight Roger all
systems with you please commence 35
calibrations at this time let's count
down is progressing Norfolk advise me
when you have completed them far to the
north and east of Corpus Christi beats
the heart of the worldwide mercury
network the computing and communication
center that Bond's it into a working
entity this is the Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt Maryland through
here follows the voice and teletype
communications that link the global
stations to mercury control the
computers an able man two weeks
judgments within the flashes of time
allowed for control of the spacecraft
that moves faster than a brain can react
throughout the flight the computers will
generate recommendations on whether the
mission should continue or be aborted
they will determine locations of the
spacecraft the time it should begin
re-entry the point at which it will land
and the most vital of these findings
will be transmitted instantaneously to
Cape Canaveral what are the thoughts of
a man about to rock
to history glenn is the astronaut the
man who will challenge space but he is
just one member of an international
scientific endeavor that requires the
genius and skills of some 40,000 other
men and women scattered throughout the
world from the engineers and technicians
who produce the face vehicle to the
crews now preparing to launch it from
the tracking experts who will charge his
voice around the globe to the sailors
now waiting at sea to recover him behind
this day stands years the preparation of
research and testing of planning and
training and the purpose of it all is
knowledge knowledge of space and of how
effectively man and spacecraft can
function together in a hostile
environment knowledge that will serve as
the basis for space explorations of the
future hard-won knowledge of benefit to
all men bought by sacrifice and
dedication and courage
now just a handful of Menace remain
until the spacecraft through on the
service our called for the pilot of
friendship seven
oh ok John
the sound of John Glenn's life his heart
beat you here will flow from friendship
seven throughout the flight in forming
those on the ground how well he indoors
the trials ahead into the soft light of
this Florida Don emerges friendship
seven making its debut to the day of its
destiny
the mercury Atlas stands alone wait to
depart this earth a quarter of a million
pounds of rocket with thrust equal to
three and a half million horsepower all
to hurtle 168 pound astronauts into face
all stations get me the launch position
mr en espan beacons are on start
interrogation at one minute the
countdown sweeps closer to the moment of
flight and recovery teams here at the
cape and around the world ready
themselves to aid the astronaut above
all else John Glenn safety is paramount
the dictating factor in all planning
never in all of history have so many
people shared without censorship an
adventure of such magnitude through all
news media in all languages all the
peoples of the world are witness to this
exploration of space to its success or
failure
hey minus 15 minute mark t minus 15
minutes and going there will be no
Smokey and a block out until further
notice okay go ahead we don't belong
I'll computer stand by on infinite Roger
standing by revealing actually five
minutes okay I've letting your to
continue to count I should take it down
to 3-7 will love we may have it by that
project you want the whole purnima we
would like to all the seven and rerun a
beast if we loved our main power on the
computer we just want to take that
nothing else goes wrong when you have to
make somewhere between five and ten
minutes Dave can't you expedite make it
five all stations are holding at six
minutes and 30 seconds custom at five
minutes we could let it go you're ready
are you ready to continue okay go ahead
type it your attention please Oh maman
we will pick up the count at t-minus six
puzzle 30 seconds and counting
the time there's and soon this earth
path indicator in the capsule will begin
showing John Glenn his changing
positions above the world you are go
freestyle writer-director any light is
on he checked the umbilical oil evacuate
43 umbilical clear for easy fights on
our recorders to fast team under 18
seconds and counting engine start hey
the we would be with you from a good
long ride all the way godspeed john
glenn yeah
your backup clock is started thank you
for joining us for this edition of the
astronauts part two of friendship seven
will be shown in our next program which
will highlight the historic spaceflight
of John Glenn until then I'm Lynn
Bondurant at the NASA Lewis Research
Center in Cleveland Ohio