Orbital

Mercury-Thor-2

A/N: Between 5th May 1961 and 16th May 1963, the USA launched six crewed space missions under the Mercury space program. These included two suborbital missions, MR-3 and MR-4, and four orbital missions, MA-6 till 9, were completed, carrying six astronauts to space for varying times between 15 minutes and a whole day. I highly recommend watching the video above for more details on thespace program. 

Date: 30th May 1963 Time: 14:00 hours UTC

Location: LaunchPad CCAFS LC 26A

Alex POV

I can't tell if this was madness or just an experiment. No one believes that the Thor, the booster intended for my space travel mission, could match the Redstone Rocket's reliability and flexibility or the Atlas D's long-range capability or the power as well. But it's still flexible and reliable enough, not to mention that it is much more efficient than both the Redstone and the Atlas.

They think that if this suborbital mission can achieve all of its objectives to a percentage of 10, it can be modified to stay in orbit for 12 orbits. But it includes innovating on the main missile a ton to loft us with enough velocity to let the upper stage be weaker and may be less efficient, and be cheaper and simpler to operate and be more reliable and predictable in performance.

Today, I've come here with Sir Alan Shepard, Pilot of the Mercury-Redstone-3 flight, and well, my good friend and mentor. Suddenly, while I was inspecting the Spacecraft for my needs, he spoke up, "You will have to think beyond physical comfort here. Though a little wouldn't hurt. You've got a better Spacecraft than us main seven combined."

I got startled by that sudden enlightenment but regained my composure just as fast. "I'm not trying to find comfort points. I know about the more advanced Spacecraft pros. I'm trying to see the Life Support's Efficiency and the Heat Shield Quality. I do have to complain about the smell of Ammonia that's there. Here, smell it!"

He came forward and detected the Ammonia-like odour I was getting. I reported it to Quality Supervisors. It turned out that some of the adhesives had burnt down in the separator shield of the Capsule during Re-entry testing of the Heat Shield and the result was that the seal to separate the Heat Shield from the Capsule had burned down. The resultant exhaust of that burning had displaced all Oxygen and Air from the Capsule. The Capsule Crew Cabin had become a suffocation chamber. The Capsule had to be sent to Missouri, back to McDonnell Aircraft Company to be repaired and refurbished.

Date: 1st June Time: 9:00 UTC

Location: Lewis Research Centre, Brook Park, Ohio.

As per routine, I'm going through training for the "Time-Wasting" Mercury-Thor 2 mission on the MASTIF (Multi-Axis Spin-Test Inertia Facility) simulation trainer under supervision. The human trainers were present to check my abilities to perform optimally in more adverse conditions than I trained for during the Redstone launch profiles. Thor turns out to have more thrust and acceleration than the Redstone by using a more efficient and powerful Kerosene/Liquid Oxygen Propellant mixture. I was the first amongst the Astronauts to be selected for dedicated Suborbital and Orbital missions, both on Thor!

It was exciting as HELL! But of course, my routine was HELL as well! Unlike other Mercury Astronauts, I was out of the publicity-raising interviews and meetings and what not! (Lucky if you ask me!) You have an advantage when you know what's going on in the Rocket as well as the Spacecraft. Yup! I'm a full-fledged Rocket-enthusiast, ready to rock!

I was on the Project Vanguard team as the Solid and Liquid Propulsion "Optimizer", as they called me. My job was to supervise the Quality Control of the engines. Nonetheless, failure was called for as well. Mainly since even the present inventions of Rocket science could not match the modernity and ambitious nature of the Vanguard.