Cooper's Mercury flight

On Fri, 14 Sep 2012 17:01:04 +0100, Brian Lawrence
wrote:

It's in the Mercury Project Summary, Appendix F.

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/Hi...P-45/app.f.htm

Thanks, that is a lot to read. They don't seem too worried.

On Friday, September 14, 2012 10:38:51 PM UTC-5, Jan Philips wrote:
On Fri, 14 Sep 2012 17:01:04 +0100, Brian Lawrence

wrote:



It's in the Mercury Project Summary, Appendix F.



http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/Hi...P-45/app.f.htm



Thanks, that is a lot to read. They don't seem too worried.

....It's a *really* fun read if you read it out loud, and try to emulate Gordo's particular "Aw shucks" accent. That being said, here's the part that might answer your question:

"We just had a report from the Cape. Based on Smithsonian 2, you have approximately 20 over 25 orbits. This gives you approximately three times as much on more conservative estimates."

....So essentially here's what appears to have happened: Gordo's flight was planned with at least 7-8 orbits at the bare minimum, but with orbital insertion being as on-target as it was, the estimate was bumped up by almost three times the original minimum estimate. Thus Gordo's flight was given between 20 to 25 orbits, now based on the consumable rates at the time Gordo was given the "go" for at least 20 orbits.

....As history played out, by the time Gordo got to the 19th orbit, the issue with the 0.05G switch showed up, and by the time he'd completed the 21st orbit, not only were they planning for a reentry by the 22nd orbit - Gordo was fed the updated retro data during the 20th thru 21st orbits - before he even got to that orbit he started having trouble with the inverter as well as an O2 issue. Prior to this, his consumables reports showed that Faith 7 was still within nominal for at least 25 orbits.

So, in a nutshell, they didn't exactly bring Gordo down early. It was more of a situation where the flight had exceeded its conservative minimum by three times, and the spacecraft decided for all involved to end the mission while they still were on a winning streak.

Hope this helps, Jan!

OM