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  Mercury - Gemini - Apollo
  Friendship 7: Landing bag deploy signal

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Author Topic:   Friendship 7: Landing bag deploy signal
Jim_Voce
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posted 11-05-2017 09:37 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jim_Voce   Click Here to Email Jim_Voce     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
On John Glenn's Friendship 7 flight, a signal was picked up in Mission Control that indicated that Friendship 7's landing bag had partially deployed. This news of course created great fear that Friendship 7's heat shield had been jarred loose. In the end however, it was discovered that the landing bag signal was caused by a faulty switch aboard the Mercury spacecraft.

Is it true that the landing bag deployment signal was visible only on Mission Control's end? In other words, Glenn could not see any indication on the spacecraft's control panel indicating that the landing bag had deployed?

And is it also true that the astronauts aboard the Mercury spacecraft could manually activate the landing bag?

Headshot
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From: Vancouver, WA, USA
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 11-05-2017 11:06 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Headshot   Click Here to Email Headshot     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The diagram of Glenn's Mercury instrument panel shown in Figure 2-4 of Results of the United States Manned Orbital Space Flight February 20, 1962 (no NASA EP or SP number) does indeed show a Landing Bag indication light. Next to it is a switch with positions labelled Auto, Off, and Man.

tlifan2
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From: Palm Coast, Florida
Registered: Feb 2014

posted 11-05-2017 07:37 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for tlifan2   Click Here to Email tlifan2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The Segment 51 error was picked up by the ground tracking stations but Glenn had no visibility to this particular reading. The fact that his internal landing bag deploy light was not illuminated pointed to the Segment 51 error being erroneous.

If I remember correctly, they asked Glenn if he heard any noises from the rear of the spacecraft. He knew something was amiss when he was instructed to leave the retro package on for the reentry.

Jim_Voce
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posted 11-05-2017 11:53 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jim_Voce   Click Here to Email Jim_Voce     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thank you so much for the great answer.

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