In the 1950s, a plan was considered in the Soviet Union, in the design office of Sergey Korolov, to carry out a dozen or so minutes' long flight of a ballistic missile with a man on board. To Korolev, however, this seemed to be a half-hearted undertaking. He believed that the amount of work and financial resources for the implementation of this project would be in principle not less than for the preparation of a launch rocket and a spacecraft capable of carrying out a human flight around the Earth. And he was right, it was thanks to this move that the Russians surprised the world with the first piloted space flight around the Earth. And thanks to this, the first in space was Gagarin, and not the American astronaut Alan Shepard, who only made a ballistic ascent, and this was after the flight of the first Soviet cosmonaut.
The Americans made the mistake of opting for a ballistic take-off plan and thus neglecting preparations for orbit flights. This mistake took revenge on them in 1961 when the Soviet Union showed the world that it had gone much further in space technology than the US. The first American attempt at unmanned Mercury cockpit flight failed. On July 19, 1960, Mercury MA-1 exploded 65 seconds after take-off. The second attempt on November 21, 1960, was also unsuccessful. The cabin of the unmanned Mercury MR-1 detached too early from the rocket. Only the Mercury MR-2 flight was successful. The cabin flew up the ballistic curve and after a dozen or so minutes it was launched. Its passenger was Florida's favorite Cape Canaveral rocket facility, an "astronaut" chimpanzee named Ham. In February 1961, the Mercury MA-2 unmanned ballistic flight was successfully completed.
On April 12, 1961, the Vostok spacecraft with cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin took off from the Soviet Baikonur cosmodrome, making the first orbital space flight completely orbiting the Earth. So the Mercury MR-3 cabin flight with Alan Shepard onboard only on May 5, 1961, did not have the sound the Americans wanted. The space cabin reached a height of 186 kilometers, after which, according to the program of the project, it did not enter orbit, but fell down the ballistic path and landed after 15 minutes and 22 seconds of flight.
During the second American ballistic flight of the Mercury MR-4 cabin, astronaut Virgil Grissom had a dangerous accident. On July 21, 1961, the Redstone-4 rocket launched the Mercury Liberty Bell cabin with Grissom to an altitude of over 180 km. Two minutes and 22 seconds after firing the engines, the cabin with the astronaut disconnected from the Redstone rocket. The speed of the cabin was 2 km / s. Grissom was weightless for nearly five minutes.
Grissom could rotate the capsule around several axes. After reaching the maximum height, the braking engines were fired. During the descent, the astronaut noticed a tear in the parachute, but luckily it did not increase until the launch itself.
After the fifteen-minute ascent, the cabin of the Mercury MR-4 "Liberty Bell 7" was launching gently, yet tilted slightly to the side. Grissom was concerned that the porthole was below the surface of the water. He also heard the suspicious gurgling. He scanned the interior of the cabin in an instant. Everything was fine, the water didn't get through anyway. The Liberty Bell 7 slowly straightened and regained its normal position thanks to the ring-shaped floats surrounding the cabin.
Two helicopters hovered over the capsule. The astronaut began to break free from the wires attached to his suit. After finishing work, he made an appointment with the helicopter pilot watching over the capsule that after attaching the rope with the hook to the handle and lifting the cabin above the water, he would shoot the hatch door. Suddenly, even before the helicopter could lift the capsule, the explosives fired prematurely and water began to pour rapidly through the opening of the discarded hatch. Grissom, as befits an experienced test pilot, did not give in to panic, acted prudently, though quickly. He took off his helmet and tossed it at his feet. With his right hand, he grasped the edge of the instrument panel, pushed himself up and out of the hatch.
When he was in the water, next to the capsule, he noticed that the emergency system was activated and aquamarine paint began to spill on the surface of the water around the ship. This meant the capsule was sinking. A stain of aquamarine paint in the water was supposed to indicate the place of its sinking. The astronaut swung to the side to prevent being pulled underwater by vortices caused by the sinking of the lander.
It turned out, however, that in the throes of forced evacuation, he forgot to close one of the valves in his suit, through which water began to seep between the double walls. The astronaut was losing his strength. A lifebuoy was thrown at Grissom from a second rescue helicopter, hovering all the time nearby. However, the helicopter pilot could not get close enough to the drowning man due to the first helicopter still fighting nearby to save the drowning cabin. Grissom failed to catch the lifebuoy. His head began to disappear under the water from time to time. Despite excellent training, the astronaut was less and less able to stay afloat.
The situation was getting dangerous. The pilot of the first helicopter was finally forced to make a difficult decision - he released the line and the valuable Mercury MR-4 capsule went to the bottom of the ocean. The freed helicopter jumped to the side, making room for the second machine. Its pilot finally towed the lifebuoy to the drowning astronaut. He got inside, put it over his shoulders and a moment later was on board the helicopter. The first thing he did after crawling inside the machine was reach for a life vest. He explained, "If your damn trash is taken to the sea, I'm not going to relive the story again."
After this unsuccessful launching, the causes of the sinking of the cabin were analyzed. Grissom explained that there was a surprising technical error and this version was adopted by the committee, but there were many press voices and other speculations that the astronaut might have made a mistake, maybe he had accidentally blown the hatch off, etc.
The mystery was solved after almost 40 years, in 1999, which we write about below.
Virgil Grissom flew into space again in March 1965 aboard a Gemini-3 two-seater in the first manned orbital flight of a spacecraft of its type. Then he participated in the preparations for the American Apollo lunar expeditions. In January 1967, during ground training, he died in a fire inside the cabin of the Apollo spacecraft.
On April 4, 1999, the location of the cabin of Virgil Grissom's spacecraft, Liberty Bell 7, was located. It was found approximately 480 km southeast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, approximately 150 km north of the Bahamian island of Great Abaco. A few months later, on July 20, 1999, a search expedition conducted by enthusiasts of this type of underwater exploration, excavated the cabin of the Mercury MR-4 by Virgil Grissom. It was located at a depth of about 4.6 km. It was made of the highest-quality metals, so the 38-year stay at the bottom of the ocean did not harm it. Its cover clearly featured the indelible Liberty Bell 7 inscription.
A detailed examination was carried out. The technical condition of the hatch to the cabin confirmed Grissom's version that it was the construction, not the pilot, that was at fault. The condition of the discovered vehicle was exceptionally good for nearly 40 years spent in the water.
The capsule is now an extraordinary monument of space technology of the 20th century. It has undergone restoration, and before being displayed at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center as a museum exhibit, it embarked on a demonstration tour across the United States.
No comments:
Post a Comment