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,* NEW S RE LE AS E

NATiONAL o.ENAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION


Public Information Office, Cocoa Beach, Florida
FOR Pbvnes: SU 3-7781 & UL 3-6901
I:OR RELEASE: IMMEDIATE

RELEASE NO. 62-41A

PRESS CONFERENCE

FLIGffT OF MA- 6

February 239 l192

PARTICIPANTS:

Mr. James E lWebbv Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Mr. Robert R0 Gilruth, Director, Manned Spacecraft Center

Lt. Col. John H. Glenn9 Jr.9 Mercury As ronaut

Lt. Col. John A0 Powers9 Public Affairs Officer, Manned Spacecraft Center
WEBB: Ladies and gentlemen, sometHt ile r-,ie i:iornthl aJovwhen Mercury had
made its first dramatic demonstration of tr, ,'.jbdt of Le conuept of manned machines --
r 'cecraft-booster combinations -- usil,:g wi~at ante hiac n U-re nation at that time, it was
,, great pleasure.as new Admin strator to mec yord it Washinjtorn and arrange for
Commander Alan Sheparci to tell you of his first fliqk~ ,rovirng this system.

Today we are in another phase. In tile rneazr!me we have had a second proof by
Grissom's flight and today we have the oppo,;.rn;tv u!tr the policy of this nation of
rapid and accurate reporting outhe features cf this p06s am to introduce the two men
who have been most responsible in this specific instance.

Mr. Robert R. Gilruth, as you know, is Director of Project Mercury. He re-


ceived the NASA Distinguished Service Medal from tl, President of the United States
today, as did John Glenn. So, here they are, and I bt
LKE /e Bob Gilruth wants to say
a word before we start.

GILRUTH: Ladies and gentlemen, this is a tremendous occasion for nie and I am
sure in a very short moment John will be speaking for himself. This is John's day.
It is more than a day, I am sure. I just want to say bed'ore I lose my brief spot here
that the part I played in today's program - the things that flash over my mind while
the ceremony was going on were the names of my k.elf people like Walter Williams,
Max Faget, Chuck Matthews -- I could go on a great lony list. These are the
fellows that have really, on the planning and engineering side, done this job and I
was very, very proud and very happy to be a representative of theproject this morning.
New I think you are all anxiously waiting to hear from the man whorea~ly was the
IThor man on this team and really puiled this job off, and so it is my very, very
great honor to pass this microphone over to Colonel John Glenn.

GLENN: I know you are probably anxious to hear about what things were like
on the flight, and we might as well get sta,-ted On that. I can make a few brief remarks
concerning some of the major phases of it and then we can field some questions here
if some of you have specific questions.

First off it was quite a day. I don't know what you can say about a day in which
you see four beautiful sunsets in one day but it is pretty interesting -- three in orbit
and one on the surface after I was back aboard sh~p. This is a little unusual, I
think.

We were asked some questions befohe the flight about how the delays affected our
readiness, and although I did not read some of the write ips, I understand there were
so~me considerable gross misconceptions put out about how the delays affected our
state of readiness.1 think C- ott Carpenter put it in probably the best light when he .aid
I was the most fortunate one around with all the excitement going on and all the busi-
ness around the Cape a.ea and all the preparations because all I had to do at the time
was sit back and just hone the edge a little more and keep in good shape. I think that put
it in about its proper light. I certainly did not experience arny of the terrible sublimal
impressions or hallucinations that I was supposed to be receiving form all of this preflight
activity and the cancellations.

We had out holds, of course, on previous launch attempts. The day, on the 20th,
through that morning as the weather started to clear and we could see the big blue holes
coming up, I really felt We were in a real go condition at that time, because the bc )ster
was ready and everyone I think sort of gets go fever when you get all conditions set
right. I felt that -- I think everyone was excited that morning.

In the powered flight phase, the booster worked perfectly. Obviously it did from
the fact that we came out within a very few feet per second of the velocity we plotted
and were shooting, of course, for velocities of a littJe over 25,000 feet per second,
and when you come out within just a few feet per second at that speed, this is very
accurate control. It was a good insertion. I think the best words I have just about
heard in my life were, "You have a seven orbit capability" from Al Shepard when he
gave the go to me from the Capsule Communicator's position . That was a very wel-
come sound. p o

I don't want to go into a lot of details on the launch. I don't think they are necest
sary, I think all of that has been pretty well covered from what I have seen in the
papers. As to our after-insertion then, as to the effect of zero g -- this, of course,
is one of the big things we have wondered about through the earlier phases of the
program -- wondering what effect zero g would have. This puts us into a new environment
that we have had no experience with before, in airplanes, and we extended this realm of
weightlessness of course, during the Redstone shots that Al and Gus had, and we are
extending it farther here. And I am very happy to report that there was just no ill
effect at all that ! got from zero g. It was very pleasant, as a matter of fact. We had
no tendency to particularly overreach switches or had any trouble with the control as a
result of zero g. I'. was indeed a very, very pleasant experience.

Someone told me last night after I had been talking so enthusiastically about this
it sounded like I was an addict to it. And I think that I probably am. It was a wonder-
ful feeling. I thought that over a period of time we might experience some ill effects
from it in the way of nausea or disorientation, but there were none of these effects wha'.-
soever -- no problem keeping oriented under zero g. I tried different head movements
to see whether with certain head movements and combination of head movements we
would get any discomfort or nausea. We did not experience any of these 'at all and
these woundup with some rather violent head motions in roll, pitch and yaw to see if we
were going to induce any abnormal feeling. We did not. it was a very pleasant exper-
ience al I the way through.

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Some of the things that happened under zero g sort of demonstrate how fast, though,
a human being adapts to this situation. I recalled last night when we were discus-ing
some of these things -- the fact that I had had this little hand camera in my hand. I had
taken a picture and I worted to do something-with a switch immediately, and 'l just
seemed natural at that time after I had been weightless for I guess it was a half hour or
forty-five minutes -- I had acclimated to this rapidly enough that it just seemed perfectly
natural rather than put the camera away I just put it out in mid-air and let go of it and
went ahead with the switch position here and reached back for the camera and went on
with the work.

I rememn!er thinking afterwards we were treating this rather blase at the time here,
but I think it demonstrates the point I am making -- that I think we all adapt very, very
rapidly to these new situations -- much more rapidly than even those of us who have
been training for this for three years would have believed possible. But it seemed just
the natural thing to do. If you were just letting go of something for a minute, why you
put it there and let go of it and go back to it when you have time.

Under this zero g condition, of course, it would be easy to lose different items --
have them float away and get out of reach some place. So far as I know, there was
only one item that got lost, and that was a little can of film that I got out and tried to
put in the camera and I let it slip out of my fingers and vent to grab for it and instead
of clamping onto it, I batted it and it went sailing off around behind the instrument
panel and that was the last I saw of it. I don't know where it went to.

Eating experiments -- we had planned to do some of that. We had tried this before
on weightless flights in the airplanes, simulating weightlessness for a minute or so,
and it hadn't appeared to be any big problem. However, we were going to try it and I
did. I had one tube of food that I could squeeze into my mouth and this presented no
problems, swallowing, or getting it down, at all. I think the only restriction, pro-
bably, to the food will be that it not be of a particularly crumbly nature, like crumbly
cookies with a lot of little particles to them that might break off because you wouldn't
be able to net all of these back unless you had a butterfly net of some kind, I guess.
But as long as the food is solid, you can hold onto it and can get it into your mouth,
then from that point on there appears to be no problcmn. It is aUl positive action,
Yomr tongue forces it back iito your throat, and you swallow normally, anti it is all
positive -- a positive replacement machine all the way through.
Speed sensat-ons, I have been AxKed . i.y since the flight about
sensations of speed. Speedv, oF couCse :ei..ve. 'if you are in a complete --
if you have nothing to refer to, you ouWd {me go-ing almost any speed and you
wouldn't any sensation of this, I -nirik 'til Cireaeest I cal come to it is most
of you have flown on jet airlinerls or hase Slo1 On jet airplanes at 30 thousand
feet or so and I think the feeling of sp-eeJ i.-afloat t~he same as fiing in an
airliner such as that and looking door' ast -qaJs say maybe aL heights of 10
thousand feet below you if you are n0,say I ti.;ok the speed at which the
ground goes out from under you, just. trie sen->azion of speed that you have,
from orbital altitude, would be pretty ciose to that same speed.

It is difficult to describe the sp~eed -en v, 0io


when you have nothing to
relate it to, but I think that is probabiyv e >,"st we can come to it.

It was very noticeable over a good pat ;.i- track, there were clouds
of one type or another that obscured som'e &o 'II" treas we wanted to look at.
Part of the western U0 SOD down across n&j -'he=n Mexico, almost the whole
Pacific was covered by one type cloud or ano-her
Both coming down around Austraila - Australia was always in the dark so
we never could see Australia, although wso
:ud see lights from Perth and
cities around Perth too0
The sunsets arc probably the most impress. ve rhing that you would see
in orbital flight. These are very briiiiarV.iv/ coored hue and the colors
(tretch out, way out from the sun to the horizon, the horizon stays light
( J3r, I would estimate some four to five minutes after sunsets which I found
rather surprising, because 1 thought that darkness would come on much more
rapidly than thato I thought it would be maybe just a matter of a minute
after the sun went down, but apparently there is quite a bit of light curving
around through the atmosphere that keeps the horizon very visible for a
period of some five minutes or so,
This would bring us around to a suns7sc. Ancn this turned into a pretty
interesting area each time around, as I th:,Tk .s roost of you are aware0 At
the first light of sunrise, the first sunrze : cane to, I was still faced
back toward the direction I had come from in normal orbital attitude, and just
as the first rays of sun came up onto the capsule: I had glanced back down
inside to check some instruments and do something, and when I glanced back
out9 my initial reaction was that I was looking out into a complete star field,
that the capsule had probably gone up while I wasn't looking out the window
and that I was looking into nothing buts new stat field, but this wasn't the
case because a lot of the little things that I thought initially were stars were
actually a bright yellowish green about the siize and intensity as looking at
a firefly on a real dark night0 And the!e lilttle particles that were outside
the capsule were, I would estimate, some six to ten feet apart and there were
literally thousands of them0 As far as I could look off to each side I could
see them; I could see them back along the path, Later on I turned around so
that I was facing the direction from which they appeared to be coming and
although in that direction toward the bright sunlight of the dawn most of them
disappeared, you could still see a few of them coming toward the capsule. I

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was moving very slowly through this ft.eei [ cst mated that my velocity
through this field was some three to f .1.,L-S pet hour0 They did not
appear to emanate from the capsule,
I thought of two things that they might be, initially. One was the
cloud of needles that the Air Force put up some time ago and that appears
to have disappeared somewhere I thought we had suddenly found them again
but they didn't look like that. Thuy d1,din t look like they had any length
to them at all,, The other thing I thought was perhaps as we use our
hydrogen peroxide jets, the hydrogen peroxide decomposes into steam and
oxygen and comes out under high heat pressure and I thought perhaps this
water vapor was then turning to snowflakes ana the luminous light from the
sun was causing them to flouresce for some reason or other 0 But when I
worked the thrusters on the capsules this did not appear to be causing any
snowflakes or anything like it at all0 So all I can say about these is that
I observed them and saw them for about from the first light of sun to a
period of some three and a half to four minutes, that time period, made
close observation of them0 Occasionally one would come drifting up by the
capsule window9 very close, in the shade from the sun, At that time it
would look like a very small white particle, And they would vary in size
probably from maybe pinhead size to maybe abotit three-eighths of an inch
in diameter, of that order.

There are numerous things that some of the people are thinking about
and looking into, but others -- I have no theory myself except we observed
them, we saw them on all three orbits about the same length of time at
each sunrise; they were very luminous, a yellowish green color, and
as George Ruff, our psychiatrist, listened to this and said, "What did they
say John?"

We had some problems during the flight.. hle automatic stabilization


control system was causing some difficulty and did not appear to be
correcting up the way it should., I was able to use the manual control
during that period and this appeared to -- didn't cause any trouble at all.
It seemed very natural to take over manual control after all of the trainer
work we have done. Trainer simulations, incidentally, were very, very close
to the orbital control situation 0 This was particularly true in the £ly-by-wire
mode where we control through the automatic thrusters, When we started having
this problem at the end of the first orbit, I was largely on manual control
from there on until the end of the flight. Some of the other observations
we had planned to make had to go by the board while I tried to work out the
control system problems and we spenm most of the last two orbits working on
this, making some other observations. but largely concentrating probably 90
percent of the time on the control system
Ground 9 as probably most of you know, the ground telemetry receivers had
picked up an impulse that we possibly had a loose heat shield, and for that
reason it was deemed advisable to keep the Mretro package in place during
reentry so that it would go ahead and buyn off, hut by that time we would
be in a high enough aerodynamic force field to keep the heat shield in
place, in case it was, in fact, loose..
This made a pretty spectacular reentry from the capsule standpoint, because
4 ~. as the retro pack -- as I retained the retro package and entered into the first
part of the high heat area of the reentry9 the straps on the retro pack broke
loose and I felt a bump on the capsule and thought that the retro package had
jettisoned as it was supposed to do,, Apparently this was not true, but I
thought so at the time.
As it went on into the higher heat pulse and the glow picked up outside to a sort of
bright orange olow outside the window, it became apparent that something was tearing up on
the heat shield end of the capsule, because there were large pieces as big as the end of
your finger to pieces probably 7 or 8 inches in diameter were breaking off and falling off the
edge of the capsule and coming back up past the window and were flaming very brightly;
you could see the fire and the glow from them as they would come back up past the window.

This obviously was the retropackage tearing up and breaking off as we knew it would
if it had been retained. I thought at that time, however, that the retropackage had already
been jettisoned so there were some moments of doubt there whether the heat shield had been
damaged and whether it might be tearing up itself. And this could have been a bad day all
around if that had been the case.
But it "was very spectacular looking out into this orange glow outside the window --
a bright orange -low -- and seeing these big flaming chunks go back along the flight path.
I understand there was some misconception also when we refer to this term
"blackout" on reentry. I was questioned aboard ship as to how I had survived the blackout,
when I regained consciousness and a few things like this. When we refer to blackout
during reentry, communications blackout is what we are referring to in this case. We
probably should reterm this a comm loss, or something like that so we don't confuse it
with a blackout of the astronaut involved.
0 This is due to high ionization around the capsule and makes it impossible for the
radio frequencies we are using to get in and out from the capsule.

G's during reentry got up to about 8. The parachute functioned in a completely


normal fashion. That is probably the prettiest little old thing you ever saw in your life.
To look out the window and see that parachute. I remember Al Shepard making some com-
ments about that after his flight, about how pretty that parachute was, and I concur. That
is just about as pretty as anything you see at that point.
The capsule was pretty hot after reentry, very hot inside, and I was getting very
warm inside. I was sweating rather profusely when I came down, when I landed, so I
remained as still as I could in the capsule, trying to adA as little heat load to it as I
possibly could. The Destroyer Noa was close by, had me spotted, and came over and
made an excellent pickup of the capsule, came aboard, and at that time I had been heated
up enough that I was sweating very profusely -- long enough that I decided after taking
out the panel, the right side of the panel down, preparing to egress out through the top,
I decided at that time since we were already on deck that it was hardly -wortish the effort
and I should g-t on out in comfort, and so I did. And we blew the hatch on the side after
checking to see that everyone was clear outside, and came on out through the side hatch.

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I was not in such bad shape at that time that could ro. have gotten out through the top if I
had had to do it. I still cpuld have come out tLrOujgh We top, but at that time I was hot and
had been sweating for a long period of time and it scwe] like the thing to do to get on out of
there at that time.

I think perhaps the difficulties that we had and the action I had to take may actually
have been a blessing in disguise in one way, Lecause it showed when we had to a man can
take over control of the various systems, operate rqanivally, still know what he is doing,
not have any ill effects in this regard from zero g, and probably if sufficient study of our
records from this flight warrants it, we probably can go on some future flights with consider-
able less automation and less complexity, we hope, as a result of some of the things we
learned on this flight. We certainly hope so ar'yway, bt't before we make any quick decisions
along that line, of course, we want to review a lot of the data much more thoroughly than we
have so far.

These things are all step by step items. Al, of course, added to our knowledge a
large amount on his flight. Gus added more. I added a little more, I guess on this one, and
there will be many more to come. Deke Slayton, of course, is up next, and we are looking
forward to that flight with just as eager anticipation for him as I looked forward to this one
for me. I think we have really hardly scratched the surface. We have a lot of attention
focused on this right now, but our efforts really have not gotten us very far into space, if
you think about it.

If you think of the diameter of the earth being represented at about 100 miles to the
inch, this would mean that the earth's diameter could be represented by 80 inches, approx-
s imately, which would only be about ten inw'-s higher than I am, if I held my hand up over
Phonhy head, this bould be on the order of 80 inches, if I were standing up. Our orbital
altitude, if that was the surface of the earth, and I was the diameter line of the earth, our
orbital altitude would be about one-and-a-third inches above that 80 inches, So perhaps
if we -- if you think of the enormity of space, it makes our efforts seem puny at this time..
But these are all step by step functions we go through. As we said, all the manned flights
we have had to date have added information and th;, flight, I hope, added a little bit more,
and there are more to come.

We are interested, of course, in some of the reactions from abroad in regard to the
flight. I think it is well to know that in this regard as far back as 1958 the President,
at that time President Eisenhower, proposed that we make joint effort with other prople in
regards to our exploration of space, and these were largely ignored at the time. President
Kennedy, shortly after his inauicturationl, o1r (lui rino his ilnauglqration in his address, I
believe, reiterated this again -- the desire for the peaceful exploration of space and
peaceful cooperation in this regard. So we don't want to let this particular initiative, I
don't think, be taken away from us. This has been proposed for quite some period of time
by our own leaders in this country.

C)
I couldn't pass up any opporTunlLty Iie this without rendering a great
note of thanks to all the people here at the Cape and the whole Mercury
network who performed so beautifully during the fiight, They acted like a real
bunch of pros and it was teal gratifying after all the practice we have been
through with them to see everyone come through as they did during the flight,
Now this goes for the blockhouse crew - I hate to start naming names because we
just wouldn't know where to turn it off and I would hate to hurt anxtody's
feelings by missing them so I won't start tut the blockhouse crew, and the
people at the hangar who checked out all the capsule and the hoosters and the
work on the pad, the range, the recovery efforts of the Navy, the Air Force
support we had -- it was just a big, across-the-board team effort, As I said
earlier, almost a cross cut of Americana,, all People in different walks
combining together on a project and we got the results we did. It makes you
proud to be associated with people like that when everyone does work together
so cooperatively.

I think that President Kennedy in repeating our desire for peaceful


efforts in space stated the case very aptly and properly, I don't know what
I could add to what he has said on it, Diplomacy, obviously, is not my
particular field. But the results of this flight could possibly, I guess,
have some far reaching effects in this regard, If it contributes any way
to peace from our efforts, I certainly would consider that there is no better
purpose in my life for my endeavor that have contributed and that we might
have a little more peaceful cooperation in the world in this area. Thank you.

I might add one thing here, one person I wanted to pay a real tribute to
who has worked long and hard, particularly close with me during this, and that
is Scott Carpenter. Where is Scott? He is around here someplace. Stand up.

Nobody knows the hours that he put in for somebody else and we saw Scott
a couple of days ago perform another feat too, lie risked his own life to save
another man's life while swimming out at Grand Turk the other day, That may
not be generally known either. This was very impressive, When you have an
Aqua-lun& orn and you are down about 80 foot depth and you are trying to give
your eon air to sorebody else to help them out, this is almost heroic in my
boot..

Some of the people here, I think you may have seen this morning in some
of the activities. I would like to introduce them here, Here is the real
brains and the power-behind our household, my wifeL Annie, right here.

My daughter, Lyn and son Dave, right next to her.

My mother and dad who, as the President said this morning, started all.
this trouble a long time ago,
And Annie's father and mother, Dr, and Mrs, Caster.
I think scattered around up here in front are the other astronauts and
their wives. You know most of them by sight and I am afraid it would take
too much time to introduce everyone individually. Why couldn't we have
everyone stand all at one time, and all the rest of the families who are here.
We have quite a contingent here. Little ones too. Everybody.

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POYERS: John, in getting started with the question period, I would like
to ask, since we don't have mikes out in the audience, would you please stand
and identify yourself and let us hear your question,

Q: I would like to know, Col. Glenn, if you would like to make another
such trip, and if you know at this time whether other trips are planned
for you-,
GLENN: The answer to the first questior3, obviously, yes. And the answer
to the second question, no. I have no knowledge of future flights. As I said
before, this stuff -- you can become addicted to-it rather rapidly0

IVEBB: Any man who flies as well as John Glenn will fly again 0

GLENN: I'm with you.


Q: Col, Glenn, based on your experience and ability to fly the capsule
when the control problem developed, what changes are you going to recommend
in the capsule's control for Deke Slayton's flight.
POWERS: The question was, in view of the difficulties we had in our
attitude control system, what changes was John going to recommend in Deke
Slayton's spacecraft?
GLENN: Was that the question, the changes in the system itself, or changes
in his ability -- changes as a result of his ability to probably control it
properly,

Q: Changes in the control system and also how much more do you think the
man can do?
GLENN: Well, before we make any positive statement like that, as to
exact recommendations for future flights, we need to do a lot more looking
into records and data and get all the tapes back from the various stations
around the network0 We have several week's work to do just sitting down
and analyzing the data0 I don't think I want to get into at this time any
statements that I recommend this or that on the preliminary look that we
have had on the information so far0

Q: Col Glenn, what did the stars and the earth look like from up
there:

GLENN: The stars, I was a little bit surprised, I think I maybe


expected to see the stars in greater quantity, in greater numbers, than I
had seen them before0 The nearest think I could compare them to and did
compare it to during de-briefing was the, I think, if you have been out in
the desert on a very clear, brilliant night when there is nolmoon up and the
stars just seem to jump out at you9 that is just about the way the stars look,
We get some light reduction because of the light having to come through the
window of the capsule, of course, And apparently this reduction in light may
almos* approximate the losses we normally get on a very clear night through
the atmosphere 0 So I didn't feel that I could see any greater number of stars.
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They were not bainlrng, they came through very clear., straight shining J At;
there was no flickering on and off, But other than Tha:, it looked vc/I
similar to looking at the sky on a very, very clear niighT in the desert,
QQ John, there were a number of experiments you svere rot able to make
because, of course, you were busy flying the spacecraft Coily !ou give us.
a general idea of some of those you woere not able to pe:fiDfm Tis t1TnL with
a reflection here perhaps as to what we might expect fo-r Deke Slayton s flight?
POW9ERS° The question has to do with some of tIle experiments we did not
accomplish because John's attention and time and energy we- devoted to
controlling the spacecraft, What some of those experiments might have been
would we do them in future flights? Were there very many?

GLENNo There were several that we had wanted to look at. We had wanted
to take some infrared pictures for the weather people.. We wanted to take
some ultra violet pictures around on the dark side, We had some eye checks
with some small instruments we wanted to make, There were several things of
this nature. I was going to eat some more and never got around to that after
our difficulties started a little bit, That else did w. have ,

The air glow filter that would only pass the ;ye'i_* ij.ght which is of
interest to some of the weather people0 That's abo .,I
Q: Col. Glenn, when did you know that you hiad p)ssible emergency on
your hands and how concerned were you about it?

GLENN: Of the retro rockets?

Q: Nos of the heat shield problem0 When did you first know about that,
and how worried were you?

GLENW'" I don't recall the exact time that I knew about it, and I knew
about it for some time in advance of the retro sequence. I can't pin a
time to it exactly. I didn't really contest this decision from the Control
Center because I knew that the experts we had on the ground had certainly
th ought this thing out much more thoroughly than I could in flight, to
make the recommendation that they could make0 I knew that there would not
be any change of this magnitude made unless it had certainly been considered
from every possible angle by many, many experts on the ground, all the people
who designed the system and all the other experts who were in the Control
Center0 So while it was of some concern of course because it was a malfunction;
we never have had a capsule reenter with a retro pack on it before -- something
untried like that, you look at it with a little bit askance before you try it,
of course.
So there was some concern about it. I think the major concern, thoughs wae
when these chunks started breaking off during reentry and I could see them goinj
back by the capsule. This was a period where I wasn!t sure whether it was a
retro pack or whether it was the damaged heat shield beginning to break up.
Obviously, it was the retro pack0
i> ~0 J
Q: Is there anything now that stands out in your mind as the most spectacular or most
interesting thing which yo saw of the surface of the earth?

GLENN: The ijestion1 is regarding what wvere the most spectacu ar things I could see.
Well, tnumber one, it is a; very spectacular fromtup there. You can see a tremendous
distance. You are tip above the atmosphere. You Zee this little horizon band, very brilliant
blue colors, even on the (lay side. It would be difficult to pin down any one thing as being
more spectacuiar than others. Certainly, one of the most beautiful th-ngs is to be on the dark
side with the full mo, out, and see this coming off of the clouds down below, and then
running over and seeing the very shdrp demarcation line to where the stars keep coming down
below the horizon. It is interesting to note that your sunsets an.d the stars moving down
behind the horizon occur at approximately '8 times their normal speed. This makes for a
pretty speedy sunset. It's very rapid.

POWERS: John, you mentioned at the debriefing that you made some observations
about how you could see the earth's surface. Were you able IMteal the difference between
land and sea7

GLENN: Yes. You can see different patterns in the ocean current, liKe the Gulf
Stream, for instance. You can see the changing colors there. YoU can see on the earth --
one area that was, I could observe very clearly -- was the area n Fewest of El Paso, and
that is an area where there is a lot of desert with a big irrigate, rc -i'-at comes down a
valley northwest of El Paso. And that stood out very much. vu can see the squares of the
irrigated areas from that distance. I wouldn't guarantee that I '.s seeing the small irri-
gated squares that they had -- each individual patch -- but the larger irrigated squares
that probably had major dikes around them, I could see these very clearly.

Patterns like that, I think you may . . . patterns around a city, where you think,
well, now, there is a bridge. You can see a little dot or a little spot. You think there
is a bridge. I think you determine a lot of this by possibly the fact that you see a valley
and a river and you know at a town like that if there is a spot there, there is probably a
bridge across that river, so you can say that is a bridge. But you can't pick out things
like a bridge, or a railroad trestle or anything like that with any certainty, from this
type distance, of course.

I!

I
Q: What did you identify, Col. Glenn, at El Centro, California. . .
perhaps, and larger nearby cities like San Diego?

GLENN: I didn't see San Diego. I saw part of the Imperial Valley,
and I could see the Salton Sea. This was an area where there was a sort
of a gap in the clouds at that time0
Once again I could see the irrigated district around El Centro. I
had lived in El Centro a number of years ago for a short time, so I was
familiar with the area, The Salton Sea area was very visible. Towns over .
you cai: see blocks or squares in towns. Ile had figures before we would
probably be able to pick out items down to say 100 yards to 150 yards long,
and I think this was probably a fair estimate.
Q: I think Dr0 Douglas said yesterday that after checking you out he
wouldn't mind sending his wife and his 14-year old son on a spaceflight if he
was sure he would get them back. Do you agree that future astronauts might
need much less physical training than you and your colleagues have gotten in the
last three years'?

GLENN: The question was a remark that Bill Dougla, made about that because
of the condition I came back in he would be willing to send his wife and son
along, and did this mean that we probably could do iWith less physical condi-
tioning in the future.
Well, I would have been very happy to have had Mary and Mike along but it
was a little bit crowded. As far as lessening our physical training, I don't
think so. You don't know what you might run into on future flights. We
certainly would not want to makea categorical statement that because we had
one successful outing we would never run into any more strenuous things,
physically than we ran into this time0 And I think that in at least the
foreseeable future we would want to be as prepared as we could for any
contingency we would run into as we were this time.
POWERS: It is important to indicate that Dr0 Douglas qualified his
statement yesterday, referring specifically, for example to a geologist, and
he indicated that we would first select a group of geologists and then take
the most physically fit fran among those.

Q: John, in the future we plan to experiment with a so-called


rendezvous or docking technique in space. It is going to be important to
know how your depth perception is in space. Did you have any trouble figuring
out where the booster was when it started leaving you behind?

12
GLENN: This was qi[ite a sight. Right at turiarc'und - I was separated from the
booster -- the camsuie dcrmped -- star(ed1 iZS tLitlaroLuird, and as it swuing aro,:rid the booster
was sitting there ptrobao:y A hit a hundreJ yards, very visible, very clear. We talked about
.this during debriefing. That. if I had the capabiLhty of having a litte b.t of thrusL to move over
in that direction, Coni.d0 ItiI\. iaiuuvered toward it I thierk very defi ,-tely you could, I don't I
think this WOUld be a; y pirobicm at all frmni that di sta1 ce The booster, because of its differ-
ent velocity assumes a ili;e :ifererIt orbit than I had, aAd it wVellt s!igilt!y Linder me and was
passing ahead of ,it aoid *`te; ;A lolver orbit, the last time salt i. This was olt . . . pretty
well over toward the coast oG Africa, and I did not see it again after thaL.

Q: Witih o ref. point, woimid you have any trouble catching up and meeting some-
p;,c
thing fairly closely"

GLENN: You say Ft Nml oo reference point. We would hlave no troubllcJ. I think you are
always doing Lo have a refeienct' pii:-r of starts; it. 1DnI' hbe -t`,l or it may be an artificial hori-
zon that you have set up at a certain gyro anqie, but I don't think you are -- in effect you are
saying that you couldn't rendezvous Vith a blirnd person. "Il.,s is triue, I think you will always
have some reference, thoiyli. I dow t think you will be colItpleely without reference.

Q: We know that answers aren't all i,l vet, bit o:,; the ',-sis of your l)reserit judgment,
where would you pin down the coritrJd problein -- to the hior0iZU! scmnners that reset the gyros,
to the gyros or to the reaction jets?

GLENN: i think it was a combination of things. I thinik v-eihadk a little bit of thruster
trouble. I think we . . 0 on the horizon scanners I am not sre I u.I...:k perhaps some of
the horizon scanner trouble could have been eliminated had fik_ to a free gyro position.
We did not do this. We are still getting our horizon scai ne, . ;ts This may possibly
have added to our troubles . . its easy, though, to hindsight 'tie 20/20 after you are on
the ground. But we are still looking into these things.

Q: Could you tell me what the highest cabin temperature was?

GLENN: I think the onboard cabin temperature, about the highest I observed was about
105. Once again, we are checking telemetry records and will probably have more accurate
information on that later on.

Q: I assume you had an opthalmological examination and I wonder whether the phy-
sician found any cosmic ray tracks in tihe lenses of your eyes. If so, how dense are they?
GLENN: The question is whether I had had a complete eye examination following this
flight, whether there were any cosmic ray indication of damage to the eyes. Where's Bill
Douglas'? I think he shouid answer all of this on the medical.

Q: Dr. Douglas, any damage'

DOUJGLAS: No damage.

Q: I asked if there were any tracks -- Dr. Douglas, any tracks?

1
DOUGLAS: No tracks. 13
Q: I'd like to ask two questions, Colonel Glenn. First of all, elaborate preparations
were made prior to the flight and during the flight to ascertain certain facts with regard to
international records. First of all, what records were we after and what will we claim in
the way of records.

Anid the other is what pictures did you manage to take, have they been developed,
and what do they show, if anything, and will we get them?

GLENN: The international flight records. I did not go into this in any great detail
as to all the flight records that might be claimed as a result of something like this. We
understood that there had been some question of verification during some of the earlier
orbital flights and I have no comment on that one way or the other. If they wanted to
adequately verify these flights . . . I was busy enough on the preparation that I did not
worry too much about certification, ! am afraid.

POWERS: I mignt say tnat tne FAI did witness the flight; tne\ niadwitriesses
Oil boLn ends. They have acquired the proper certificated and we will turn our data
over to them.

Q: What about the pictures, John?

GLENN: Pictures were taken of general views of different land areas, areas that
were partici4Jarly clear; Florida here, southeastern part of the United States taken from
an angle; Af rica, the desert area; many cloud pictures, many sunrise pictures. I tried
to get pittures of the little glowing objects I described. Apparently they were not of
sufficient intensity to come through, at least on the first look we look at some repro-
Q ductions we took of the pictures the other day. As to when these will be released, I have
no idea. \Ale are still looking at them.

Q: Did you notice any difference in the accelerated effect on the body as opposed
to the decelerated effects on the body, at the end of the flight, as the result of this period
of weightlessness?

GLENN: I can notice no effects at all. This I felt just the same on reentry as
our runs on the centrifuge where we were practicing reentry, for instance. It got up to
about 8 g's and this is a very tolerable level .. . with the body in the couch the way
we are, and I had no ill effects from it at all.

At 8 g's you are not just lying back relaxed; you are working against it, but we have
all been up to the neighborhood of 14 to 16 g's previously on the centrifuge, so 8 g's is not
intolerable at all.

Q: Can you be just a little more specific on when you got the indication of trouble
with the heat shield? We were told it was in the first orbit. I'd like to know if it was in the
first or second orbit. Secondly, apparently there was some discussion about aborting the
mission after the second orbit or ending the mission prematurely. I was wondering whether
it was on your decision that they went on into a third orbit.

() GLENN: I really don't recall heat shield trouble. Do you recall, Alan? You were
on Cap Com.

POWERS: The people on the Control Center knew about it much earlier in the flight.
Perhaps the first you knew about it, John, was not until the third orbit?
GLENN: You knew it, I believe, at the end of She first orbit. I tink they knew it at the
end of t,:, ivst o;bit. Don't oin me down on this. I think they Knew it at the end of the first
orbit, and I tl ink tGere wnre cl1 e-Aon S )Ut Out to rme about it during the second orbit,
about w;:eL; er I had a liglit indication or not.

This is -- once again we will plan back the tapes and we can Dare it down almost
to the second. I don't bel ieve t hi s was of any si gni f i cance, however.

The second part of your question was whether we were going to termi nate the
"I ight at the end of two orbit s. Thei e was a deci si on to be made there, because we
had some control system probl ems. ;-.t that ti me I think the Control Center felt
we had the capsul e under ,' i ne enough control that we wool d g..i n nothi ng by re-
ent er i ng at t hat t i me. I .elt t he sa r e way. Fky recoi; menclat i on was that we 4
we. e sti I I i n a go st at u,. .-And they agreed we wer e sti I i o, Jo we wenL to three
orbits. Ir anythi ng, at a time I ike ;.at, i, you a e goi ng to have to make a mianuial
retr ofi re, you mi ght as wel I st ay up and get mo- e pr act i ce.

Q--John, you sai d "boy, that was a real ii ( ebal I, " when you started the reentry
process. Can you describe to us your sensations as you started and during reentry
and the ki nd of control I i ng you were doing during reent rv unt il the chute openi ng.

GLENN: the sensations during reentry, duei ing the fi rtbal i, I guess you would
say cauti oUs apprehension, o, something I ike that, and th! s i . rn unknown area,
ofcourse, and we have had very little experience with a mar, ir:.ide o a glowing
I fire like this that you can see outside the window. 'imle have con idence that the
ablation shield will take care of this. It did.

But this ik a completely new experience and you are a little apprehensive of
it at the tir'ie, I think.

r hat kind of control were you doing ?

GLENN: The control was damping. It was not controlling to a specific attitude.
As the capsule would set up psci!iations you just try to damp them out and keep
the thing to as near a zero rate as you can. The only movement the capsule is
making is -- you do have a constant roll rate pLu in at that time of about 10
degrees per second, which gives us omr even ilight path: as you coise down so you
don't get any dispersion from cg being oTr location.

!): Colonel,how large a view did you have at any one time. F-or example, could
you see all of Florida in one glance.

GLENN: Yes, well, when I was well off the eat.,coc.sL he.e once I could see
back across Florida and I remember stating that I could see the r'Jssissippi Delta
at that time. It was pretty clear al ong the Gul. coast. Yourview to the horizon
approaches 9,O0 miles.

Q: The question was when we go on manual control and switch back and forth
from automatic to manual, whether we waste fuel doing this, since the capsul e
drops into this high torque orientation mode.

A: The answer to that is you don't drop into this high torque Orientation mode
if you position the capsule accurately on your orbit attitude that you want to
begin wi th before you swi tch over. If you swi tch over to automati c mode, when
you are a way out at some odd ball attitude, thee it kicks into this high toque
mode, and uses fuel at a rather rapid rate. So you don't want lo do that too many
times. If we are on manual and you position this accurately before you switch
back to automatic, then you use no more fuel than you would normally.

11

15
Q. Colonel Glenr, did you observe anything that was at varia'nce with the two Russian
cosmonauts?

GLENN: I don't know that we had complete reports from the Russian cosmonauts on
what they observed or saw, or felt. We have had some reports. I don't believe I would care
to comment on it any further than that. I think probablv this will be the subject of more dis-
cussion as we learn more about their programs. Perhaps we should ask them. Our program is
completely open. Theirs is a secret one. They can compare with what I saw.

Q: To get back to the fireflies . . . did you have any point of reference to measure
or estimate the. size of these or conceivably could they have been much iarger and farther
away ?

GLENN: No, I don't think so because I could see some drifting up very close to the
window, and coming in the shadow of the capsule, and they would lose most of their phos-
pherescence or luminescence as they came into this shadow area right close to the capsule.
You could see them just right outside of this window, you could see the little diameters.
Also you could look off to the side and as you moved through this field of particles or what-
ever it was you cobild see them changing relative position to the capsule as you went by, and
this gives you a sort of depth perception.

Q: Would you elaborate on the reports tha you saw some orange and blue bands at
sunset?

GLENN: Yes, you do, you see . . .

The question was whether I had orange and blue bands visible at sunset. When
those pictures are released, I think they will show some of this. As the sun goes down,
it is a very white brillianit light, as it goes below the horizon, you get your light coming
to you through the atmosphere. It is a very bright orange color down to the surface, it pales
out into sort of a blue, a darker blue and then off into black. It is sort of like looking at
a spectograph. It takes your white light, broadens it out into all of its color element and
that is just about what you see. It is not quite like a rainbow, but it is the same principle
involved, anyway.

Q: How long did you control on fly by wire and how long on manual?

GLENN: This is something we want to total out. It was for very extended periods
of time. The last practically all of the last two orbits I was on either fly by wire or manual,
so there will be probably an hour and fifteen minutes average for each control mode, but
that is not a real definitive statement. We have to total these times out when we get the
records analyzed.

Q: What was the noise level inside the capsule?

GLENN: The noise level of the capsule in orbit was very similar to what it is oil U',
pad out there. You have the whine of the inverters, gyros, valves, the hiss of the oxygen
O in the helmet hose, it is not a loud intensity. I don't know what the decibel level of it is
exactly, but it didn't appear to be any different in orbit than it is out here when they are
running checks on the pad.
16
Q: Can you give us some idea of your schedule for the next few days, particularly
when do you have to get back to work?

GLENN: I don't know, I think our schedule for the next few days is a little bit vague
at the moment.. I don't know what we are putting out on that.

WEBB- May I say just a word there? The Speaker of the House has invited Col. Glenn
and all of the astronauts and their wives to a joint session of the Congress on Monday. It is
not yet determined whether all wish to go, or can go, but certainly Col. Glenn will be there,
I say, because lie has been invited to address the joint session. Beyond that, it is planned
to have a press conference ii; Washington for the Washington press, following a luncheon
which the Vice President and I will give on Monday. Beyond that, it is planned that the
four astronauts who have not yet flovn vwill continue with their prog.jam, znd the Mayor of New
York has invited Col Glenn and Commander Shepard and Captain Grissom and Bob Gilruth up
to see the welcome of the city and have a parade and to be received in City Hall by his Honor,
the Mayor. All of this is at sort of tentative or somewhat indefinite planning stage. We are
going to have a conference right after this meeting with all the astronauts to see what theit
desires are. Dr. Dryden, Dr. Seamans, and I are going to meet with Bob Gilruth and fly
back together tonight to try to figure out precisely what the situation is. I may say that the
Mayor of St. Louis has asked very urgently that I bring Alan Shepard with me there tomorrow
where I am going to make the Founder's Day Address at Washington University. Again, this
is a subject we will discuss after the meeting.

GLENN: Any other questions about my schedule?

Q: Col. Glenn, did you hear Commander Shepard advise you to try to jettison your
retropack when you reached one to one and a half g's on reentry?
GLENN: No, I did not, and this occurred just at the beginning of communications
loss, and the reason we know this is last night after we had finished the meeting, we finally
got copies of the onboard recorder tape and we played these over last night rather late and
went through the reentry and Al comes on the air just at the start of this communication and
starts to tell me to jettison this, and the people-who were listening with me said that that is
what he went ahead and said. He is about halfway through his transmission and it fades
right out to nothing, and I never received it. If we had had three more seconds, I guess, of
time before we got our communications blackout during reentry, I would have received the
message.

Q: Were the straps gone by then?

GLENN: Yes, the straps were gone by then, anyway. The straps burned off . . .
when we had, I estimate, not over a half g on the capsule. It was early in the program.
17
Coi. Glen.:,, your wnite shoIRed us this morning the pin that you gave her -- the
INec. o'rital Friendship 7. Whai other personal effects did you have in the cap-
sule ?

GLENN: None to speak of'.

Q: Did you Lse the little red lights at the end of your fingertips?

GLENN: Yes, I found these very handy. I could turn them on and off with a
little switch on the back of the hand -- the little ringertip lights with a small
bulb -- for looking at charts, ,or checking a map in Whe c psule type lighting we
had. These turned out to be very handy, and I used Lheni repeatedly. I like them
very much, and am glad they decided to put them on.

Q: I woul d like to know if it has been determined as yet as to whether the


heat shield was in danger of becoming loose or whether it was a false signal ?

GLENN: No, it was a false signal. I think this has been reasonably well
determined now that it was a false signal.

GILRUTH: It was the day iBef ore yesterday, Walt, before you came over to
GTI that it was a malfunctio ning limit switch that gave a false signal. The
heat shield was securely latched all the time we were worry hi y so. -

Q: Colonel, if we could get back to your schedule... do you have any plans
to go outside the United States or would you object to being utilized in the
way that Major Gagarin was ?

GLENN: Well I think this gets into a little different field than I am qualified
to comment on right now. We may have to discuss some things like this in the
future. I think there are no plans immediately that I know of.

WEBB: Obviously this program has many implications for the total foreign
policy image of the United States abroad. We, of course, want to learn all
we can about space. We want to learn the use of men in space, but we must
be conscious of these other implications. These questions will be debated
with great care. Col. Glenn and the other astronauts will be consulted with
respect to the workout or L::e 'pl .ns 'nd I think you can expect more activity
than in the past.

As a matter of fact, I told Al an Shepard and Gus Grissom this morning that
after the New York parade, if they wanted to have some time out of jail, they
would not be under the same. ;est-ictions they have been in the past.

Now I believe I forgot to mention the fact that Col. Glenn's home town is
very anxious to have him on Friday after the New Yorkparade, ..ut I think all
of this will come oult pretty. soon after .we decisions yave been ..ade. Obviously,
he is going to decide himselh what he is going to do.

0 POWERS: We are out of time. Thank you very much.

- LN -

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