The main goal of this mission was a continuation of the first manned mission.  How would man react to space?  Now, remember the changes in this flight?  Sure, the viewing window and the explosive hatch were the two changes.  Seventy bolts held the hatch in place.  This hatch became a problem.  The capsule sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after the bolts exploded prematurely.  NASA did not hold Grissom responsible for the exploding hatch.  He escaped safely.

Okay, let’s get on to some of the specifics of the flight.  The altitude was 118.3 miles.  The distance of the flight was 302 miles.  Liberty Bell 7 went into space on July 21, 1961.  It was rescheduled twice because of poor weather.  Grissom sat in the capsule for 3 hours and 22 minutes before launch.  NASA considered the mission successful.

He rode onboard a Redstone rocket.  The countdown started the day before the launch.  It began at 8:30 am on May 4, 1961.  This countdown included all spacecraft preparations before Shepard was even taken to the launch pad.  He was taken to the launch pad 2 hours and 20 minutes before launch.  Okay, there were no real problems before then.  After Shepard got there, some problems came up with a power inverter.  That problem came at T-15 minutes.  They fixed it and put the countdown back to T-35 minutes.  (T- means T minus.) He launched at 9:34 in the morning.

Shepard flew at an altitude of 116.5 miles.  He flew a distance of 303 miles.  He got up to 5,134 miles per hour.  Wow.  The flight lasted 15 minutes and 28 seconds.

The program ran from 1958 through 1963.  According to NASA, the Mercury Program had specific goals: to orbit a manned spacecraft around Earth; to investigate man’s ability to function in space; to recover both man and spacecraft safely.  The program had both unmanned and manned missions to space.  There were 6 manned missions.  Seven astronauts were chosen, out of over a hundred military test pilots, to become the Mercury Seven.  We will cover these missions and astronauts in more detail during this topic.

In 1965 NASA purchased 34 mechanical pencil units for a total cost of $4,382.50.  That’s not exactly watching your pennies and there was a public outcry over this cost.  Paul Fisher, of Fisher Pen Co., then designed a pen that would write in zero gravity using a pressurized ink cartridge.  It is also supposed to write underwater, in extreme temperatures, and through a stick of butter.  That’s kind of strange, but I guess it’s good for bakers.  He made his pen without any funding from NASA.  Then he sold it to NASA.  However, they were careful not to spend too much for the pen.  In 1967 they bought 400 pens for $6 each.  The Soviet Union also bought the pens.  The good news for Fisher is that he put a patent on the pen and NASA continues to use them.

There is an urban legend about NASA spending millions to develop this pen while the Soviet Union just used pencils.  Well, now you know the real story.  Another interesting tidbit: if the pencil broke in space, it became a floating hazard!  The lead could fly into someone’s eye or into an instrument on the craft.