SPACE FLIGHT ENDS IN DRAMA

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29832, 26 May 1962, Page 11

SPACE FLIGHT ENDS IN DRAMA

Astronaut On Raft (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) CAPE CANAVERAL, May 25. The United States newest orbiting astronaut, Lieutenant • Commander Malcolm Scott Carpenter, today starts recounting every detail of his fateful three«orbit trip around the world yesterday. The 37-year-old astronaut was to fly to Grand Turk Island in the Bahamas late last night after spending four hours and 56 minutes in space and another three hours floating in a tiny raft on the Atlantic. For 35 minutes of that time he was out of touch with the world.

Tension rose at Cape Canaveral with the sudden loss of contact with the astronaut in the final minutes of re-entry when officials knew he had overshot the planned Atlantic landing area by more than 200 miles. But this gave way to waves of cheers when a Navy plane sighted him sitting in his tiny life raft next to his bobbing capsule. Aurora Seven, about 135 miles north-east of Puerto Rico.

A recovery helicopter plucked Carpenter from the unpatrolled area of the Atlantic where he had landed and flew him to the aircraftcarrier Intrepid to write a successful conclusion to America’s second manned orbital space shot. “I feel fine.” were Carpenter’s first words after the helicopter pilot picked him up at 3.38 p.m. (8.38 a.m. New Zealand time). New Problems

Besides overshooting his landing. Carpenter faced a series of new problems during his flight. His flying suit heated up at one point and the fuel for his capsule’s attitudinal control ran so low there was some question at one point as to whether he should try for three orbits or settle for two.

In spite of the re-entry trouble and other mechanical difficulties, scientists said the knowledge gained from the flight might mean the United States now was ready for a 17-orbit, 24-hopr mission which only the Russians had accomplished thus far. Carpenter’s wife, Rene, and their four children watched the launching from Cocoa Beach, about 10 miles away. Then they sat through the *ense recovery moments before a television set. Mrs Carpenter told a press conference later she knew the recovery procedures and was not worried at all. Among the new data scientists look forward to assessing in the coming weeks are the films taken to record the effect of weightlessness on a small bottle of fluid Carpenter carried in Aurora Seven. The astronaut's own impressions of the effect in space of various colours painted on a multi-hued balloon he towed behind him on a 100 ft rope during the last two orbits also will be studied.

Scientists are also eager to question him about the “space fireflies” he saw, the “haze” phenomenon around the earth, th’ effect of solid bite-sized chunks of food he ate during his trip and also to examine the many photo.

graphs he took of the stars, clouds and features on earth and in space.

The count-down for the firing of Carpenter’s Atlas missile and Mercury capsule was perfect. An early morning haze caused Space Agency officials to order four short “holds” in the final minutes of the count-down, however. The engines which generate the Atlas’s 360.000 pounds of thrust flamed into life at 7.45 a.m. (12.45 a.m. New Zealand time).

The Atlas followed almost the same path as LieutenantColonel John Glenn’s Friendship Seven capsule of February 20. But Carpenter’s return to earth was hair-raising. The ships and planes waiting to pick Carpenter from the ocean 800 miles south-east of Cape Canaveral did not see his candy-stripe parachute. The 3000-degree heat of reentry blacked out all radio communications with the capsule. Worried scientists estimated he should have landed in the ocean at 12.41 p.m. (5.41 a.m. New Zealand time) but there was no signal from him.

As planes spread out over the Atlantic, crowds across the United States gathered in front of television sets at homes and in shop windows. Then a Navy search aircraft picked up the Aurora Seven’s radio landing beacon and tracked it down to find Carpenter perched in a life raft beside the bobbing space craft.

The plane’s discovery was announced to the world at 1.22 p.m. (6.22 a.m. New Zealand time). Crowds went wild. In New York torn paper and confetti began pouring out of skyscraper office buildings just as it had when Colonel Glenn completed his first manned United States orbital flight last February 20.