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Mercury Control was still undecided on the course of action to take with the heat shield problem. Some controllers thought the retrorocket pack should be jettisoned after retrofire, while other controllers thought the retro pack should be retained, as added assurance that the heat shield would stay in place…
Watching the Mission
Splashdown
![mercury-flight-25[3]](https://i0.wp.com/www.spacerockethistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/mercury-flight-253.jpg?ssl=1)
The Mercury 7
![mercury-flight-26[3]](https://i0.wp.com/www.spacerockethistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/mercury-flight-263.jpg?ssl=1)
Glenn and JFK
![mercury-flight-27[3]](https://i0.wp.com/www.spacerockethistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/mercury-flight-273.jpg?ssl=1)
NYC Parade
Friendship 7
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“I am in a big mass of some very small particles, they’re brilliantly lit up like they’re luminescent. I never saw anything like it! They round a little: they’re coming by the capsule and they look like little stars. A whole shower of them coming by. They swirl around the capsule and go in front of the window and they’re all brilliantly lighted.” John Glenn – Friendship 7
John Glenn
Glenn Enters
Launch
Glenn in Space
View from Capsule
By Dave
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The Space Age had barely begun when Soviet engineers started planning ways to destroy enemy satellites. Some Western analysts have speculated that a design for an anti-satellite weapon system was started at Korolev’s OKB-1 bureau as early as 1956…
Polyot-1
Credit: © Dietrich Haeseler
Credit: © Dietrich Haeseler
By Dave
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“It seemed that the nearby and mysterious planet was resorting to tricks to hide the secrets kept beneath its cover of clouds. As the probe drew nearer, Venus’ gravitational field increased its speed. The Doppler effect altered the wavelength of the signals received on Earth. The radio operators needed to be particularly vigilant so that the information sent from the station consistently landed in the narrow “throat” of the ground-based receivers.” Boris Chertok
Venera 4. AKA Venus 4
Venera 4 in Flight Config.
Venera 4 Capsule on Display
