Word: shielding
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Worrisome as it was, the problem with the attitude control system was nothing as compared with another threat. Just as Glenn was beginning his second orbit, an instrument panel in the Project Mercury Control Center at Canaveral picked up a warning that the Fiberglas heat shield on Friendship 7 had come ajar. If the shield were to separate before or during the capsule's re-entry into the earth's atmosphere, John Glenn would perish in a flash of flame...
...picked up the ominous signal. At the Cape, Project Mercury officials huddled tensely, trying to decide what to do. The answer might mean life or searing death to John Glenn. The final decision was made by Operations Director Walter Williams: an attempt would be made to hold the heat shield in place by changing the re-entry procedure. The retrorocket packet was supposed to be jettisoned after the rockets themselves had been fired. But the packet itself was bound to the capsule by three thin metal bands. Williams figured that the bands might be strong enough to hold the shield...
Apparently trying to avoid hiding behind the shield of classified information, the AEC Commissioners explained the possible reasons for a test resumption, emphasizing that scientists are not certain what will happen in a nuclear explosion high in the stratosphere...
Goheen led those who signed the subsequent letter in favor of the program. The group endorsed the building of shelters as a "shield which may mean the difference between an America that has enough skilled courageous people to keep it going and an America that has lost so large a portion of its people that the survivors are forced to surrender...
...information on each, but insisted: "These individuals are acting under policies for which my senior associates and I must assume responsibility." While the Senators met privately with him to try to break the impasse, McNamara indicated that he would claim the legal right of executive privilege, if necessary, to shield his censors...