transcript of ma-6 press conference

8/7/2019 Transcript of MA-6 Press Conference

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N EWS R E LEAS ENATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

Public Information Office, Cocoa Beach, Fla.

TELEPHONES: WORTH 2-4155-WORTH 3-1110

FOR RELEASE: IMMEDIATE

February 20, 1962

Release No. 62-41

TRANSCRIPT OF MA-6 PRESS CONFERENCE

February 20, 196-

PARTICIPANTS:

Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, Deputy Administrator, NASA Headquarters

Mr. D. Brainerd Holmes, Director, Office of Manned Space Flight,NASA Headquarters

Mr. Robert R. Gilruth, Director of Project Mercury, NASA MannedSpacecraft Center

Mr. Walter C. Williams, Mercury Operations Director, NASAManned Spacecraft Center

Dr. Stanley White, Chief, Life Systems Division, NASA Manned

Spacecraft Center

MaJ. Gen. 0. J. Ritland, Commander, Space Systems Division, AFSC

Maj. Gen. Leighton I. Davis, Commander, AMR, & DOD Representative,Project Mercury

Rear Admiral John L. Chew, Commander, Mercury Recovery Forces

Astronaut Alan B. Shepard

NARRATOR: Paul P. Haney, Project Mercury Information Manager



We would like to proceed now. Starting at the far end ofthe table is Dr. Stanley C. White, Chief of the Life SystemsDivision, Manned Spacecraft Center, NASA; Major General 0. J.Ritland, Commander of the Space Systems Division, United StatesAir Force, Los Angeles; Mr. Walter C. Williams, Mercury Opera-tions Director, Manned Spacecraft Center; Mr. Robert Gilruth,Director of Project Mercury. To Mr. Gilruth's left is Dr. Hugh

Dryden, Deputy Administrator of NASA. To his left is Mr. D.Brainerd Holmes; to his left Maj. Gen. Leighton I. Davis, Dept.of Defense Representative to Project Mercury, and Cmdr. of theAtlantic Missile Range, and to his left is Rear Adm. John L.Chew, Cmdr. of the Mercury Recovery Forces. At this end of thetable is Astronaut Alan B. Shepard. Dr. Dryden will open theremarks.

DRYDEN: This is a very historic day to which we have beenlooking forward for a little more than three years, when themission performed so excellently today was only an idea in theminds of a few people, like Bob Gilruth, and some of his

associates. We have come a long way in the three years. All Iwant to say is that this is just the beginning -- just the firststep. Today, of course, is particularly John Glenn's day, butit is the beginning of an enterprise -- the exploration of spacethat will go for a long time -- and not too many years fromnow we will look back at the Mercury capsule as we do on theWright airplane. You will think that this mission, which youhave seen today, was a very primitive kind of space mission.Now, the man who has the responsibility at NASA at the toplevel to plan these missions for the future is BrainerdHolmes, who is sitting to my left.

HOLMES: Thank you, Hugh. I was tremendously impressed withthe effectiveness with which this program has been plannedand in which the engineering was affected and carried outtoday. I think it is an excellent, major step in initiatingour man-in-space program. A great deal of information was

i received in today's flight. Much of the information couldnot have been received if it were not for a man being onboard. I think we have confirmed many of the plans and muchof the engineering data in this very practical way by flyinga man in this three orbit mission. We will have more missions,more extensive and complicated missions. I think in closing,

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I feel this is really a great deal of testimony to the engi-

neering effort of this particular team and to the engineering

problems of the men working in space in the United States.

And now to my left is General Leighton I. Davis.

DAVIS: The DOD support for this project was quite extensive,

of course -- 18,000 people, 15,000 of which were in the

recovery portion, about which Admiral Chew will speak. I

would like to address myself to the other units of theDOD

which helped out. In addition to the ranges -- Pacific Range,

White Sands Missile Range and the Atlantic Missile Range --of course we had the Sea Air Rescue Forces around the country

and Europe and Africa, the Pacific Air Force deployed, as well

as the many medical officers from the three services who are

assighed to support the project. The operation went very well

from our viewpoint. I think some of the stations performed

quite terrificly, particularly the Mercury Station at Muchea,

which.came out with the maximum amount of information on each

pass. The links of communication were particularly effective.

The voice of the Astronaut from the capsule to the Indian

Ocean ship, for instance, came back by single sideband, and

also from the Atlantic ship. Similarly, in the final phases

of the recovery, there was a two shore relay by airplane, then

through sub cable and then up to our Mercury Control Center,

which went very well, and speaks, more I think as tribute to

a lot of practice and a lot of simulation in exercises of

this type. I would like to pass the ball to Admiral Chew.

CHEW: I would simply like to remark that the relative simpli-

city with which the recovery was accomplished in no way showed

the tremendous amount of work that had gone into the DOD

team effort -- the planning, the extensive preparations, the

trainingof all tlse forces involved. Both Army, Navy, Air

Force and Marines, and the fruition of the successful recovery,

which of course entails location -- and again in this particular

case it was simple -- because the spacecraft was sighted

coming down just about five miles away from a destroyer, The

first element then, of recovery, was simple. The second element

-- retrieval -- was also simple, for in 21 minutes the capsule

with John Glen in it was on board the Noa, and I hope and

presume that the third phase of recovery, which is delivery

of the Astronaut, will be accomplished without further ado.

It has been my privilege to be associated with such a team.

I will now pass it on to someone who probably doesn't need

much introduction, Astronaut Alan Shepard.

(OVER)

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i

SHEPARD: Thank you, Admiral. As a general comment I willsay that a lot of people are very happy today, happy for a lotof reasons. For those of us who were directly connected withthe flight were extremely pleased, particularly pleased, forthe way that John was able to perform, the way he was ableto observe, and the way he was able to report. That is all Ihave to say at this moment.

HANEY: I think now we would like to call on Mr. Gilruth tospeak for the mission directly.

GILRUTH: Ladies and gentlemen, needless to say I am very, veryhappy, very very proud of John Glenn and the entire Mercuryteam who pulled this mission off today. It was a very goodflight and we got a tremendous amount of information about spacefrom it. I would like to say that from where I sat, which wasnot in the main stream of the events of the people controllingthis flight, but I had a very good view. I assure you -- JohnGlenn performed all his test pilot functions very, very well.He was very sharp all through the flight. At no time acted

as though he were in any other kind of a vehicle than a MarineCorps vehicle flying somewhere on some mif~sion. He felt goodand he retained his sense of humor, and it was a thoroughlyimpressive job.

I would like to pay tribute in a little bit more detail toall the various teams that were involved in this operationhere today. First the taking it in a sort of chronologicalorder, the teams that checked out the spacecraft and checkedit out while they were waiting so long for the weather to beright, but you see it finally did get right. I would also liketo pay tribute to the booster people who repaired and got

ready that wonderful booster you shot away, which was justabout exactly perfect.

I would like to pay tribute to the weatherman who stuckwith it and finally got the weather right, and all the peoplewho are responsible for the planning. As Admiral Chew mentioned,the recovery teams -- it is not easy to sit out there day afterday with the seas as they were. I am sure I am going to miss some of

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the very important elements of this team, and if I do, I hopeWalt Willliams will fill in for me. Before I relinquish my spothere, I would like to say a word of tribute for Walt Wtlliams andhis operations team. He has always been terrific in these missions,and has never given any indication of getting rattled and makesthe right decisions, and Walt himself, I think, deserves a largeamount of credit for pulling this team together, training it, andtraining with them, with himself and Chris Craft and the rest ofthose wonderful people. And now I would like to ask Walt Williamsto say how it looks from where he sat.

WILLIAMS: After that, I don't know what to say. Thanks a lot,Bob. Rather than going into any of the real details of theflight today, I think I would like to talk about a few of thesignificant things I feel we did accomplish. We not only put anAmerican man in space, we showed very definitely how well a mancan work in space. We had numerous problems along the way, whichI'm sure were relayed to you, that had we not had a man aboard,the flight would not have come out nearly so well. It surelywould not have gone three rounds. There were times when thepilot did take over, and the automatic controls which controlthe capsule quite well through much of the flight. It was re-assuring when there were instrumentation questions that the pilot

would come back and answer and help, and as Alan pointed out, hesure did a beautiful Job today. I have watched many a test pilotat work, and I have never seen a better Job anywhere than JohnGlenn did today.

I think one point that might be confirmed was this matter ofwhy we left the retro pack on during reentry. This is quitesimple. We had the choice of whether to believe we had a faultymicro switch or a faulty relay. A faulty micro switch had givenus a false indication that the heat shield had separated from thecapsule as it does at landing. I think most of youl are familiarwith the landing bag where the heat shield is dropped down from

the capsule. There was every indication that this had occurred.Wk e also new iThe retro packs and it.$s straps would hold the heatshield in place until fired and Jettisoned. On the other hand,as I say, this could have been Just a faulty indication becauseof the micro switch. On the other hand we could have had a relaygo bad which had fired the squib which would have disengaged theheat shield from the capsule. And reentry with the heat shielddetached would have been a catastrophe. So our choice was toretain the retro pack, after firing, and take advantage of thestraps of the retro peck to hold the heat shield In place untilwe had enough aerodynamic force on so there would be no possibilityof the heat shield dropping off.

(OVER)

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I don't know if this is completely clear but this is theproblem we were faced with. We felt we were much better offcominlg in with the retro pack on, Xnowing sooner or later thatif vi e did it would, the straps holding it, would melt away, butwe also knew it would not melt away till thqre was sufficient

force against the heat shield to hold it in place. I think,I say I think, Al you may want to confirm this from yourdiscussions that actually we had a false indication, thatactually the heat shield did not release from the capsuleuntil after the main parachute deployment, as it would beexpected to. However, we did -no know this at ,the time wegot into trouble. At least, at ' time we had\this indication,and had tu perform our reentry, a d that was the reason for that.

Now this did mean that this interrupted the cap ule sequenceand John had to take over and do some controlling during re-.entry. And he did a good job of this.

I don't know. I guess maybe at times I get a lit le emotionalabout these things. Right now I feel like the day chool let out.

RITLAND: After following through the mission today, t seems likethe launch phase happened a long time ago -- so many hings havehappened. It was certainly a perfectly beautiful shot as all of iyou will attest to who were here today at the Cape. t moreimportantly, from a scientific and technical point of view, itwas still more beautiful and wonderful.

To those of us that monitored the launch phase from Ce tralControl and watched the plot of the missile as it rose in o theatmosphere and then out of the atmosphere, it followed a rectand positive line on a preplot. We did have one concern, tabout 150 seconds the pen bobbled a little bit and had no b aring

on what wias happening in space. It was the pen that tracks thoplot.

Q. How many seconds?

RITLAND: At around 15C seconds. Anyway this seemed like a yelong time. But I feel that this shot today, from a boosterpoint of view, just didn't happen. It was planned at least threwyear; ago by the people in the Air Force, and our contractors,* ner-al Dynamics, !ocketdyne, General Electric and Burroughs.

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coming in from the station, follow along with the proposed flightpLan and the tests we had put on to th'y to get at some of the.

questions of the Titov problems and at least in the early, very .early looks, it looked as if John had no diffioulty with theseand the reports coming from these stations and also the voice

checks coming from John. We asked him and queried him about itand he was very complimentary to the fact that the tests didn'tphase him a bit. I must admit the accelerations were verynominal during launch and we werequite pleased to hear Johntalking right through both BECO and SECO. He was completelyin command throughout the entire thing so far as libtening~-t, him

report, and I also say thathe kept his sense of humor. I thought

it was very well and it was very refreshing around the network.

HANEY: Thank you. If you have questions, please address them tospecific panelists.

Q: Dr. Dryden, obviously this has shortened the gap in our racewith the Russians and I wonder If- ou can-go into that a littlemore in detail as to how much it has shortened the gap and whenthat gap may not exist?

DR'YDF: This is very difficult to answer because our Russian

friends have been silent for severalmonths now and have still

not produced the steps forward in their capabilities that may lie

ahead. I think *it s in the hands of Brainerd, Bob Gilruth andWernher von Braun--when we obtain the Saturn vehicle, C-1 and t!advanced Saturns to determine whether in their hands and in thehands of what the Russians do to decide whether we, in fact, haveclosed the gap. We have orbited a man three times around the earthin three years from the time it was an idea.

Q: I wonder if Dr. White could tell us a little bit more in detailwhat the pilotea tasks were--how they were carried on--the eating,

the drinking, the exercise and the picture taking and so on.

WHITE: First of all, I would like to say the one big task thathe carried out was the one he did so well--that of control. Nowsuperimposed upon this, during the flight plan, there were aseries of tests which got at the eating and drinking that wasmentioned. These were phased so that they would be repeated

with elapsing segments--each orbit. It would allow him to tryboth.. solid malt-type 'pills and also some of thb tube seeds--liquids, semiliquids and paste--as a way of finding out if theupset of the stomach would be the problem that was associatedwith Titov. We also programmed, with the sarme periodicity,the scheduling of head motions, which would normally get; t' ; theinner ear as a trigger mechanism of setting off the nausea that

Cosmonaut Titov described. During t;he first two orbits he was

able to follow this program very, very closely. During thethird orbit he had to defer some of these to stay with i e work

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that was accumulating for him to do on the automatic controlsystem. We felt ,his is not a real loss because he obviouslywas demonstrating a performance which compensated for the smallexperiments which were scheduled.

Q: I guess this should be directed to Walt Williams. I don'tmean to beat this bobbling pen to death, but did it cause anymomentary consideration of possibly having to destroy the booster?

WILLIAMS: Oh no, as Genera' Ritland pointed out, this had nothing

to do with the booster. This is purely a display board whichwiggles.

Q: I never should have mentioned it.

WILLIAMS: I can say that the plot board in Mercury Control todayshowed the smoothest tracking data that I think we have seen onany of our missions. There was very little noise in the data-;it was very beautiful.

Q: Will the Admiral give us some more time details on recovery--the 21 minutes to the time on board the destroyer is from what

point?

CHEW: The 21 minutes were taken from the time the capsule landedin the water until it was on board.

HANEY: I believe the times were 47 and 04.

CHEW: That is correct. 47 and 04.

Q: I would like to find out two things. One is to Walt Williams-what was the difficulty what turned the fuel light red sometimeduring the second orbit and was this a consideration at one point

of perhaps terminating the flight at that point? Secondly, whydid the Astronaut spend so much time trying to get out the topon board the destroyer rather than blowing the hatch right away?

WILLIAMS: I can answer only part of that. I think I indicated wewere having difficulty with the automatic system. We were usingexcessive fuel on automatic system. Again, one of the smallthrusters malfunctioned. We had this trouble before. At thistime, rather than ioiding the mission or not going on, we had apilot aboard. I think I pointed this out at the time of theEnos shot, and this was the very same thing. This time we harda man aboard and we did not have to worry about depleting the

automatic system because he could use the manual system and hadsufficient fuel to carry out the, sion. And we lid it on thisbasis.

Now as to why he did not come. out the top hatch--came out theside instead, I will have to refer to Al. He talked to John, Ihave not. Do you have any comment, Al? (OVER)



SHEPARD: Yes, and before I comment on that--to amplify the answerto the first question a little bit--the warning light which we useon the fuel system is actually set to come out at a fairly highvalue. In this particular case, it comes on with only 35 per centof the fuel used or 65 per cent remaining. It is just a warningsignal to indicate that the fuel is being used out of that system.For example, on that tank we consider 35 per cent as being theabsolute minimum. So you see we have given ourselves a greatdeal of margin there. And secondly, with respect to coming out ofthe capsule, the most desirable way to keep the capsule intact isnot to blow the hitch because there is some deformation of the

hatch itself du7-ing explosion. Therefore, we had decided ahead oftime that if it was at all possible that he would come out throughthe top. He wac having a little difficulty in getting out fairlysoon to go ahead And blow the hatch. That is the reason thedecision was made'.

Q: This I believe is to either Mr. Williams or to Mr. Gilruth.You recall at the time of the MA-5 Enos flight that there wastrouble with the steering mechanism in the capsule and there wasoverheating in the cabin. At that time it was said that if eitherof the eventualities had occurred with a man on board he couldhave corrected them. Now they both did, and man did correct them.

My question is this, whether this does not indicate to you somesort of necessity for a rather drastic revision of your steeringmechanism in this capsule?

WILLIAMS: No, I don't think so. I would say refinements, yes,but not drastic revision. I wish I had one of them here to showyou. This small, one-pound thruster is a delicate piece ofJewelry which is also used with a liquid, and this is a problem.The orifices are very small that could be easily blocked.

Q: I would like to ask Brainerd Holmes if tnray's achievementwill allow i7s to accelerate Mercury and our follow-on programssuch as Gemini or Apollo?

HOLMES; I think the answer is no. We are planning very carefullyto schedule ahead more extended Mercury flights, for additionalMercury flights like this--three orbits, to the extent of one andthen follow hard on the heels of that with Gemini and Apollo.But we planned for success today, and we are plannirg and layingout our organization for our entire program for maximum accelera-tion and speed. I think it would not be candid or frazac or honestto say this will speed it up. If we hadn't done this today itwould have 'beena setback for us.

Q: You will stick then to the three other three-orbit Mercuryflights planned for this year in preference to the two 18 orbitf lgh s?

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HOLMES: We will have further three orbit flights, and toward theend of the year and the first part of next year go into 18 orbitflights. And hard on the heels of that Gemini and Apollo flights.

Q: Mr. Williams, could you indicate roughly how much of the 4hours and 50 minutes were controlled flight by Glenn and how muchwas on the automatic system; and the second part of the question--did the fact that the pilot was called upon--how much of the flightwas automatic and how much was manual? Or fly by wire? And didthe fact the pilot had to take over interfere with the plannedweather or scientific or astronomical observations?

WILLIAMS: Well, I will answer those in reverse order. I thinkDr. White covered this in that I don't feel it really did inter-fere with the other things he had to do, and really he was up forquite a long time. And things, once in orbit, I don't feel happenthat quickly. He can't control the machine and still carry outhis tasks. John Glenn, like Al or any of our other astronauts,are used to flying a machine and making observations at the sametime. I cannot give you any exact number on the amount of manualflying versus automatic, but I think--and again I have to say Ithink--that the manual flying was in excess of 50 per cent.

WHITE: Actually Walt, I think you should note to them thatin this last orbit much of the checking and work he was doingactually was contributing t( the very type of thing he wouldbe doing anyway--namely looking out the window, checking horizonsand this type of thing--so it complemented ea h other. He Justhad another reason for doing it.

Q: Could Admiral Chew tell us where G'Jenn precisely landed inrelation to what large body of land, for instance Bermuda orPuerto Rico?

CHEW: About 166 miles lae east of Grand Turk. General Davisvery kindly corrected me. I think it is about 150 nauticaland 166 statute.

HANEY: Admiral Chew, you might want to add--do you have anyword on the disposition of John Glenn as to his movements?Did you have any late word before you left the Cape?

CHEW: I have no late word other than he will be transferredto the carrier Randolph and then flown to the island.

HANEY: Will that be this evening, or has an estimate been put

on it?

(OVER)

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CE:Ws Nor. When I left the control row there was not anindication of precisely what time he would leave the.oarrier.

WILLXAMSs Admiral Chew, I believe I just got some had Signalhere that he was going to go aboard the Randolph in five ftnutes.

Q. We have been told around here that Vice President 7ohntonis oing down to the island to escort Glenn here and that thePresident is coming up here Friday. Is there any confirmationto that?

Man: There was an announcement at the White House atapproximately 15 minutes before this meeting began that thEPresident does plan to come down here Friday morning. We willhave firmer times, sites and agenda on this probably tomorrowmorning.

Q: I have a few other questions on vital statistics. Can youtell us the time that Col. Glenn was w~ightless? Can you tellus the number of miles that he flow today? Also the maximumo force?

HANEY: The number of miles he flew and max 0. Alan, do you haveany figures on that?

SHEPARMD The computers are at work. The ftogee and perigee,Walt?.

47ILLAIS I have those--141.2 nautical miles was the aogee.Perigce was 86.84 nautical miles. Period of orbit w.3 B8minutes 29 seconds. The Inclination of the orbit wal 32.54degrees. The velocity of insertion was 25,728 feet per second,which was very close to what we planned it to be.

QILRUTH: In response to the other question about how far didhe fly, I believe the figure was 81,000 miles--give or take afew miles. Quite a bit to put on your coar In one afternoon.

WILLIAMS: The weightlessness would be roughly three times theorbital,

SHEPARD: About four and three quarter hours for the period ofweightlessness. And the acceleration went up to a peak of about8 0 twioe during launch and a little over 8 0 during reentry,

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Q: Was there any damage so far as you know from your conversation--any damage to the capsule which caused it to land, getting outof it?

SHEPARD: No, there was no damage to the capsule. We were re-ceiving continual reports through the relay which General Davismentioned from the recovery ship here at the Cape, and so we weregetting immediate information. And they continued to indicatethat there was no external damage visible in the capsule, in-cluding the landing system. The impact bag system was also intact.

Q: Mr. Williams, I would like to ask about the pictures that Col.Glenn was to take in orbit. Did he take pictures in orbit?

WILLIAMS: Yes, he did.

.Q: What kind of film did he use, sir? Did he use color film,black and white?

WILLIAMS: He used color. He used black and white.

SHEPARD: Yes, he used both color and black and white.

WILLIAMS: I recall at one time during the flight he was puttingthe fourth roll of film in the camera, but I don't :remember nowjust when it was.

Q: Will we be able to get these pictures?

WILLIAMS: Sure.

Q: And number two, please. Major Titov reported illness whilealoft starting almost immediately as I recall. The fact thatCol. Glenn reported no such illness indicates what to you? Thatis it a matter of individuality? Or we train our men better, orwhat?

WILLIAMS: Well, I could answer that almost any way I see fit.I don't know very much about the Titov flight, except this reportof nausea, which, as I recall, occurred after six hours -- notimmediately. If you recall, Gagarin reported no difficulty.John Glenn at no time today indicated that his condition was any-thing but excellent. In fact, I recall one comment that he said,"Now that I am getting use to it, it is quite comfortable." "Ifeel at home" -- was more or less his comment.

WHITE: I would like to second your comment about the fact wedo not know -- they have not released the data as to when Titovbecame ill. And we can only chip away at this thing. We saythat John Glenn did not become ill or have any ill effects duringthis flight. I think it would be speculative to go beyond that

today. (OVER)

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WILLIAMS: I think another speculation on this, in spite of thestories that Titov was sick, it is also reported that he carriedout his flight quite well, and did the things he had to do. Sothe degree of illness, of nausea, we Just don't know.

Q: I would like to address this to Mr. Williams, Just to clearup this controlled flight in orbit. You indicated, Mr. Williams,it was at least an orbit and a half. Earlier reports from JohnnyPowers indicated it might have run a little over two orbits.Would either of these establish an international record for theUnited States?

WILLIAMS: I don't know if there is a record for that sort of thing.FAI, of course, will get all information from this flight, and wewill, naturally, lay claim to whatever record that was set.

DRYDEN: There are three efficient observers here from the FAX,including the President, Mr. L. A. France.

Q: Dr. White, could you elaborate on the effects of weightlessnesson Col Glenn -- his response, his reaction or comments to weight-lessness?

WHITE: I can summarize it very well. He said that there were noadverse effects, and as far as the data that we have seen and hada chance to look at, we agree.

HANEY: Do you recall, Dr. White, his comment when the retrosfired?

WHITE: He said he thought at that time, I think it was most im-pressive, was changing the status, he said he felt like he wasgoing back to Hawaii for a moment there.

0,: I would like to ask Mr. Gilruth, about the actual reentry in

which the retro pack was attached to the shield. Did this in-crease the problem O1 getting back into the atmosphere? Ofcontrolling the spacecraft?

GILRUTH: No, I think it would have very little effect. Actuallythe retro pack would not stay on during the entire reentry becausethe metal straps that retain it are thin metal and probably wouldburn away by the time the spacecraft -- or long before it reachedthe maximum heating condition, so we would expect it to have avery little or small effect on the reentry heating.

Q: This is for Mr. Williams. Do you have any idea what thoseluminous particles which Glenn

noticed?

WILLIAMS: No, I do not.

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Q: When do you expect John Glenn back here, and when will we have

a press conference with him? When will we know if the President

is coming?

HANEY: When can we expect, I believe, John back directly, Walt,

Friday morning, at this point, would you estimate?

GILMUTH: Well, I think it s a little premature to say exactly

*when. I certainly don't know myself.

HANEY: If you will check with the News Center tomorrow we will

probably have more definitive information at that time.

Qt Do you have a maximum heat load during reentry?

GILRUTH: Do you mean BTUs per square foot per second max? I have

forgotten them.

Q: Temperature?

GILRUTH: Temperature of what?

Q: Of the heat shield? How hot did it get?

GILRUTH: Wells the melting glass, I think, is supposed to be

somewhere between three and four thousand, not glass, but ablative

surface. But the air, as you know, is very, very much hotter

than that.

Q: I would like to ask Mr. Gilruth to explain whether or not itis true that Col. Glenn suffered a period of blackout upon landing.Is that true or untrue?

GILRUTH: It is untrue, to my best knowledge.

SHEPARDs Perhaps I could help clarify that. There was someconfusion with respect to blackout. John reported blackout, indeed,but it had to do with blackout of communications as a result of

ionization during the reentry. As you may know, communications

are lost during part of the reentry, and this was the blackout to

which he referred. He suffered no blackout himself. As a matterof fact, performed very well during the reentry.

Q: Could Dr. White give us any kind of idea what kind of changes

took place in Col. Glenn's respiration rate and his heartbeat

during the weightlessness, if any changes?

(OVER)

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WHITE: Well, as you would expect, the rate went up by a factorof about a half -- actually a little less than a half, duringthe launch. By the time he had been weightless for approxi-mately twenty minutes, he had returned to almost pre-launchvalues. Now, depending on the workload, and the activity, andexercising and things of this type he was doing, the pulsestayed about pre-launch and nominal values. Blood pressure alsostayed very close to -- as some of the data we looked at --

stayed very close to the normal, on the pad data. We checkunder exercise, where we gave him a chance to do a certain givenamount of exercise we had checked against here on the ground,and looked at this again, and we saw no marked change in thereports we have gotten to date, that the exercise tolerance,or the changes that would be physiological expected with pro-longed weightlessness did not occur, as far as we can see onthe preliminary data.

Q: I believe we were told at one point that the temperatureof the cabin was 105 degrees, or 108, something like that.That seems pretty hot to me. Why did it get that warm? Andwas his suit -- did he feel that warmth or was he insulated

from it?

WILIZAMS: He was insulated from it, in that he has hisow n cooling system within the suit.

WHITE: First of all, you were right in that he did getto this height, and what you saw was cyclic, day-night cyclethat occurred in the cabin of anywhere about five to tendegrees, it looks like. In other words, when the nightside would come, I. t would start cooling down, and when the

light side would come, the heating on the outside wouldadd to the hVeat on the irnide, and it would start going up.He was insulated, and as far as his suit temperature wasconcerned, he was throttling this, and actually kept if fairlywell turned downs in other words, to stop or to reduce theamount of the evaporative water going through his suitcircuit. So he was maintaining himself confortably

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and he reported this consistently around the flight, all the

way through the flight, until after reentry, and the only

time he said it was kind of hot in there, so he was well in-

sulated, even though the temperature of the cabin was running

maybe 20 to 30 degrees higher than his suit.

Q: From the information you have on hand, how would you

Judge, percentagewise, the success of the mission?

WILLIAMS: Well, I would say that when John Glenn stepped out

on the deck of the destroyer, the mission was lQO per cent

a success.

Q: Will Deke Slayton be the next astronaut and can you give

us some idea of the picture?

GILRUTH: Well, I think our next team -- Deke Slayton is a

fine pilot with Walter Schirra as the backup and Gus Grissom as

third ma o or anchor man, such as Al Shepard was on this flight

to John Glenn and Scott Carpenter. We will select additionalcrews in the same manner as we have in the past, for future

flights. We have not done it at this time.

Q: I would like to know if the pilot did use the little flash-

flights on the tips of his gloves, since he has asked for them?

WILLIAMS: I don't think he mentioned them. But I imagine he

did. He was planning to.

SHEPARD: Yes, he did, very effectively.

Q: Due to the difficulty of Col Glenn getting out of the top of

the capsule, is there going to be any change in the exit next

time? It was to be programmed for him to get out while he was

still at sea. He had trouble even with outside help. What was

the cause of this and what will you do next time?

GILRUTH: Don't you think we ought to have a chance to talk to

John and look at the capsule and maybe get a little sleep beforewe have to answer all these questions?

HANEY: On that happy note, I think we will thank you for yourmany excellent questions. These gentlemen have been up, many of

them, all night long and some of them have to catch planes at

7:00 to get back north. Thank you very much.

transcript of ma-6 press conference

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