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Forum:	Mercury - Gemini - Apollo
Topic:	Mercury-Atlas 3 capsule post-launch failure

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<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="600"><TR><td bgcolor="#000000"><TABLE BORDER=0 cellpadding=4 border=0 cellspacing=1 WIDTH="100%"><TR bgcolor="#660000"><TD COLSPAN=2><CENTER><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="sans-serif">T O P I C     R E V I E W</font></CENTER></TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#494949"><TD valign=top><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="sans-serif">Paul78zephyr</FONT></TD><TD><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="sans-serif">What exactly is happening between about 2:35 and 3:00 in this video of the Mercury-Atlas 3 flight (i.e. prior to what appears to be a drogue chute opening)?<P>Also the capsule landed very close to the shore. What would have happened if it hadn't landed in the water but on land? Where exactly did the helicopter place the capsule after extracting it from the ocean?<P><center><iframe width="400" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vp9BnBDKa0s?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

Jim Behling

The escape tower was jettisoned.

Paul78zephyr

But look closely — smoke/vapor seems to be coming from the capsule.

David C

Kinda looks like the retro pack fired as well.

Headshot

That was my impression also.

randy

Yup, it's the retros firing. Another thing I noticed was the round porthole on the side of the spacecraft. When was that changed to the square one above the pilots head, as on the rest of the flights?

Headshot

Shepard's Freedom 7 had the porthole, Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 and all subsequent Mercury capsules had rectangular windows.

Headshot

There is one small addendum to my post above.

The Mercury capsule, with the porthole, used for the aborted MA-3 flight (4/25/61) was refurbished and successfully flown on the MA-4 unmanned orbital flight (9/13/61). The Mercury capsule used on the MA-5 orbital flight (11/29/61), with Enos the chimp, had a rectangular window.

mach3valkyrie

It looks to me more like the small posigrade thrusters firing than the retro rockets. Or maybe even the peroxide attitude thrusters. The retros would have really punched the capsule off in some direction pretty hard.

If the capsule had come down on land, I don't know if the landing bag would have cushioned it enough to allow a reflight on MA-4.

Paul78zephyr

Did this capsule even have a landing bag?

mach3valkyrie

I'll correct myself here. It did not have a landing bag.

According to Wikipedia, Mercury capsule number 8 was the last of the old models with small port windows, no landing bag, and a heavy locking mechanism on the hatch.

Strange, because MR-1A (capsule number 2) had a landing bag. It had flown in Dec. 1960.

Lou Chinal

Production numbers 1 to 8 had two small porthole windows. Nine to 20 had the big window over the pilot's head. Numbers 2 and 7 had the heavy locking hatch. No, there was no landing bag on number 8. Yes, number 8 was used on MA-3 and MA-4.

Paul78zephyr

So...

If it doesnt have a landing bag and it doesn't land in the water what happens?

Headshot

The capsule's occupant, a mechanical "astronaut," has a rough landing experience.

The MA-3 and -4 missions were to test the Mercury design, and systems, in orbit. Capsule #8 was not intended for human occupancy.

Lou Chinal

Paul, if I recall, it was set up so the posigrade rockets would fire if the escape tower fired. I'm also going to give you a number from way back when — 40 Gs. I seem to remember the early tests and that's the figure McDonnell came up with.

So I say it was the posigrade rockets and a hard but survivable landing.

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