Topic: May 15-16, 1963: Remembering Mercury-Atlas 9
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 43576 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 05-15-2013 01:46 AM
Today (May 15) is the 50th anniversary of the final launch of the Mercury program, Mercury-Atlas 9 ("Faith 7") with pilot Gordon Cooper.
ColinBurgess Member
Posts: 2043 From: Sydney, Australia Registered: Sep 2003
posted 05-15-2013 01:54 AM
Surely it can't be 50 years - I remember it so well.
SkyMan1958 Member
Posts: 880 From: CA. Registered: Jan 2011
posted 05-15-2013 09:29 AM
Headshot Member
Posts: 891 From: Vancouver, WA, USA Registered: Feb 2012
posted 05-15-2013 09:35 AM
Nice!!!!
Glint Member
Posts: 1044 From: New Windsor, Maryland USA Registered: Jan 2004
posted 05-15-2013 12:02 PM
"A new oral thermometer was used."
So then that means that the old thermometer was a...ah...ummm...never mind!
micropooz Member
Posts: 1532 From: Washington, DC, USA Registered: Apr 2003
posted 05-15-2013 06:25 PM
This was the flight that gave a six-year-old version of me the space bug. I'd been interested in mechanical stuff (I wanted to drive trains up until then), but was not overly interested in spaceflight. In fact the first three orbital Mercury missions kind of torqued me off, because the TV coverage pre-empted the cartoons that came on after I got home from school!
But right before MA-9, there was a picture in our newspaper of Cooper and his family standing around his capsule. I thought it neat, and cut it out. And then over the next few days, I cut out all the rest of the pics of his mission. Then read all of the space books in the school library and local library that summer. Then... Well, suffice it to say, still a space nut 50 years later!
Oh, and by-the-way, we have a little MA-9 50th anniversary thread going on in the Stamps and Covers forum, titled "Space Cover 213: The Last Mercury".
Joel Katzowitz Member
Posts: 811 From: Marietta GA USA Registered: Dec 1999
posted 05-15-2013 08:14 PM
Beautiful item Sy.
I remember you and I discussing the mysterious symbol drawn in the pyramid. My flown silver certificate from the MA-8 mission had the same symbol in the same location drawn by Schirra. Who knows, maybe someday.....
posted 05-15-2013 09:25 PM
I can remember watching Frank McGee of NBC News sitting at a desk in what looked like sand and scrub grasses reporting on the launch. To another six year old, it sparked the fascination with space.
posted 05-15-2013 01:46 AM
advertisement