Word: shepards
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Grissom has flown more than 3,000 hours, 2,000 of them in jets. Chosen as one of the seven astronauts in 1959, he went about his tasks quietly and efficiently, was almost unnoticed as he backstopped the more ebullient Commander Alan Shepard during the first shot. His specialty: control of the space capsule's, attitude system. After he was picked as an astronaut, he admitted that he sometimes lay in bed thinking: "Now what in the hell do I want to get up in that thing for?" He had his own answer. "I'm a test pilot...
Heart & Temperature. The U.S. kept no secrets about its first spaceman. For hours, scientists, engineers and doctors went over masses of intricate detail. The complicated Mercury capsule was described completely. Experts explained the instruments that kept track of all Commander Shepard's reactions to space flight. A group of physicians reported on the astronaut's physical condition before the flight and after: his temperature was slightly higher after landing, and his heart was beating a little faster than normal. A broken toenail and a small patch of sunburn were noted as preflight lesions...
NASA officials then enlivened the symposium with a dramatic movie of the flight, some of it taken by cameras in the capsule focused on Commander Shepard's face. He showed little discomfort as the forces of acceleration and deceleration rose to their peaks. His eyes swung methodically to check instrument dials, and his lips moved to make his now-famous remarks: "All systems, A-O.K.," and "What a beautiful sight...
Soft Landing. Last to take the stand was Commander Shepard himself. As coolly and unemotionally as any of the scientists, he told exactly how he spent every moment of his 15-minute rocket ride-how he watched the instruments, maneuvered his craft according to plan, snatched hasty looks through the periscope and the capsule's two portholes. The sky was almost black, he said, but because of the position of the sun, he did not see any stars or planets. When the first parachute opened, he got an 11-G shock, but did not mind it much. Through...
...Soviet Russia there is surely as complete, or almost as complete, a record of Major Yuri Gagarin's orbital flight around the earth. But so far, the Russians have released only trifles. Major Gagarin's heart speeded up during the flight, just as Shepard's did; he was reportedly in normal condition soon after landing. But little more has been told. Non-Russian space specialists who are interested in the technical details of man's first orbital flight will have to wait until the Soviet government attaches less value to secrecy...