Weather Forces Delay In Space Flight

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29748, 15 February 1962, Page 13

Weather Forces Delay In Space Flight

N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) CAPE CANAVERAL Feb. 14.

Project Mercury

officials today postponed for at least 24 hours the attempt to launch LieutenantColonel John Glenn into space.

The postponement came after weather experts and scientists had pored over the latest forecasts and on-the-scene weather dispatches from stations in the Atlantic recovery area and around the world

A Mercury spokesman told a press conference that the director of operations (Mr Walter Williams) considered the weather to be “unsatisfactory” for a launching today Earlier, a spokesman for the National Aeronautics and

Space Administration said the first severe Atlantic storm of the winter was lingering where Colonel Glenn would be picked up after one. two or three orbits of the globe and that wind and sea conditions at that stage remained “marginal” for the mission Count Not Started

The postponement came as technicians and engineers stood ready to proceed with the final six-hour count-down before launching the rocket It was not begun.

The brief announcement was made to a room full of tired reporters, many of whom had attended the conference knowing that if the word was “go” they would have only a few hours of sleep before Colonel Glenn climbed into his space capsule.

The announcement, to be followed later by a more detailed account of the position, said simply that the launching had been “postponed for at least 24 hours because of unfavourable weather conditions ’’ Colonel Glenn, who had gone to bed early was asleep in his quarters when the announcement came

The count-down can now be resumed early tomorrow morning at the stage it had reached before the postponement.

Glenn —a Marine Lieuten-ant-Colonel, and, at 40, the oldest of the “Project Mercury” astronauts—was yesterday reported to be philosophical about his chances of getting space borne He accepted that the weather might force yet another postponement. Early to Bed Colonel Glenn spent Tuesday—his 55th day of waiting since the original launching date of December 20—in yet more detailed briefings, had an early dinner, and went to bed at 7 p.m for seven or eight hours’ sleep Yesterday, he watched an advanced Atlas missile streak successfully off a pad 7000 miles across the southern Atlantic into the Ascension Island area His own Atlas, topped bv the Mercury capsule Friendship Seven, stood on the edge of the Atlantic nearbv waiting for the final checks. Before the postponement, groups of sightseers were arriving at the jetties at the north end of Cocoa Beaeh. the nearest possible vantage point for any but official observers with access to the

cape, the “New York Times” reported They would be about five miles from the launching pad.

About 30 caravans had been rolled into position by last night. Nearly 100 cars had gathered. Last time, about 10,000 sightseers spent the night on the beach. About 60.000 or more arrived early in the morning A Concessionaire who set up a food stand last night estimated tha* the influx was a little thinner than before the launching attempt on January 27.