Spacelog Mercury 8

Sigma Seven, Cape Flight.

Go ahead there Chris.

The . . . retrosequence now shows 08 51 21 which means you can advance it exactly 1 minute and that would be the correct time. You can do that anytime you want to.

Advance it 1 minute?

Affirmative. That would be 08 51 21.

Okay. I will throw a minute in now. You reading me alright?

Affirmative.

Okay.

. . . That's a trick. Okay, I got 08 51 20 . I'll throw another second in. I've got 08 plus 51 plus 21.

Roger. We concur.

Roger.

Ah boy, I just happened to drift into an inverted position right now. For some reason or another, you can tell that the bowl was upside down.

Cape Flight, Sigma Seven.

. . .

You can tell Cape Sir John that we have practically nothing on the navel engagement.

Sigma Seven, this is Cape Cap Com, we did not get your message to Sir John.

Roger. Never mind.

. . . Cape Cap Com.

I took picture 4,—4a at 4 48 29, which is the coast of United States. I assume—I will have to look at my map shortly and see where we are. A rather large cloud mass at this point. We will stow the camera again. The drift rate isn't consistent enough that you can just take a picture and then put the camera away. Plus, the camera is a little hard to take out and put back in again.

At 4 hours and 50 minutes, I can't get that camera back out of that box again. Time to take a picture. Better stay in there for awhile.

Camera will not work in (to) the glove box favorably.

Reading at light value 13-½, and a . . . inside.

. . . .

I punched the wrong button twice. I did not get a picture of the iris.

I am just about straight down. We will take some cumulus pictures. The time hack is 4 hours 51 minutes. The picture will be a 5a color.

The dome (temperature) is holding at 70 degrees. Cabin dome is 50 degrees. Suit inlet is comfortable at 62 (degrees). Suit pressure is steady at 5 psi. Very interesting cloud formation for picture 6b on the color back. Rather nice collection of circular clouds.

. . . shot at 250 56. (1/250 second at f 5.6).

At 04 53 53. Bit of in a rolled over attitude with the nose fairly high. . . . the light value (setting) was 13.

I can actually see the little object that looked like a snowflake this time, going away from the capsule. In the same flight path, of course. Definitely, looked like a piece of white, but it is quite visible against the black sky that I see now. . . . the stars that go away from us. Definitely has a different velocity than the capsule itself.

4 55 and still am sighting some of the snowflake effects. 250 inverter is now approximately 135 degrees. Suit dome (temperature) is 72 (degrees). The cabin dome is about 46 (degrees).

Sun right in view again. . . . that should be the proper yaw angle, approximately, because that's where the sun would be at sunset.

Coming up on 5 hours, so I'll be getting prepared to copy the intermediate report at this time. I will not put the camera all the way in the case at . . .

. . .

Capsule is working very well at this point. 250 (inverter) is 132 (degrees), 150 (inverter) is . . . 5. Standby (inverter) is 120 . . . thrusters . . . right, over 100 (degrees) left. Pitch down (thruster) is 105 (degrees). Pitch up (thruster) is 100 (degrees). Cabin heat exchanger (setting) is 4.0. Roll left manual (thruster)is 79 (degrees). Roll right auto (thruster) is 110 (degrees), roll left auto (thruster) is 105 (degrees). Think we will go back and pick up the retro. Temperature is 80 (degrees). This is at almost exactly 5 hours.

Ready for the 5 o'clock report. Fuel is 89-90 (percent). Oxygen 56-75 (psi, in hundreds). Suit inlet is . . .. Dome (temperature) is 70 (degrees). Cabin dome (setting) is . . . 0.8. That should be enough for now.

Got more targets of opportunity.

At 5 hours and 1 minute I am shooting pictures of weather almost vertically. There is a light value of 13-½. Gives me 250 and 5 6 (1/250 second and f5.6) roughly. Infinity is the setting.

Light value of 13 for that same subject. I shot at 13-½. Seems like a very low setting.

If I don't talk much more than this, it won't be very long to real time this tape recorder. Coming up on IOS at 5 hours and 15 minutes. Quite obvious that you don't care really what attitude you are in. There is always that concern about trying to get back into the attitude you must be in. Particularly, when you are coming around at the end of the third orbit to buy off on a go or no-go.

When I get much more I look at the earth. Rates at this time, having powered down at approximately 4 hours and 35 minutes are almost exactly 0. There is a very, very slight pitch rate. Approximately maybe ½ degree per second.

. . . stowing the camera again . . . to get out until after . . ..

Okay, should be coming up on Africa pretty soon. Tip her over and see how she looks without light.

. . . sunlight in my eyes now. Get a tan on this flight at last.

Hello Ascension, hello Ascension, this is Sigma Seven. Over.

Hello Ascension, hello Ascension, this is Sigma Seven. Over.

Hello Ascension, hello Ascension, this is Sigma Seven. Over.

Sigma Seven, Sigma Seven, Ascension Cap Com on HF, do you read?

This is Sigma Seven. I read a station, very garbled, please identify.

At this point in time, which is of course just prior to sunset, we are coming up with a batch of the white particles. They show up in the blue sky. I have the horizon almost in sight. And they are drifting away from me.

Let's check and see if we actually do get yaw out of these. They are tending to go up in relation to me, rather than tending to draw away aft. With this kind of lighting I can really see the illusion of visibility, due to the external problem of having smoke on the outer panel. Definitely is not on inner panels. It is quite easy to see by changing panels through reflections that it's the outer panel.