RESULTS OF THE THIRD U.S. MANNED ORBITAL SPACE FLIGHT OCTOBER 3, 1962

摘要

The Mercury spacecraft and the Atlas launch vehicle used in the orbital flight of Astronaut Walter M. Scherrer, Jr., performed extremely well in every respect. All objectives of the eighth Mercury-Atlas mission (MA-8) were accomplished, and no malfunctions occurred which compromised the success of the mission. The third United States manned orbital flight marked another key milestone in the Mercury program, in that the period of observation in space for both the astronaut and the spacecraft systems was twice that of previous missions. The only anomaly which caused concern during the flight was an elevated suit temperature experienced in the first 2 hours after launch. This condition was later found to have resulted from a foreign substance in the control valve, but the flight control task was further aggravated by a difference between the suit-inlet temperature readings telemeter to the ground stations and those indicated to the astronaut by the instrument panel gages.