Friendship 7 puts an American in orbit

[Webb]

Friendship 7

Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) was the third human spaceflight for the US and part of Project Mercury. Conducted by NASA on February 20, 1962, the mission was piloted by astronaut John Glenn, who performed three orbits of the Earth, making him the first US-astronaut to orbit the Earth.

The Mercury spacecraft, named Friendship 7, was carried to orbit by an Atlas LV-3B launch vehicle lifting off from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. After four hours and 56 minutes in flight the spacecraft re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean and was safely taken aboard the USS Noa ...

But there is more to the story ...

None of the Soviet Vostok missions qualified as complete spaceflights because the cosmonauts did not land with their spacecraft. Vostoks were not able to "land" so the cosmonauts had to jump out of them with parachutes. Also, Yuri Gagarin's Vostok 1 came to earth several hundred miles west of its launch point so it didn't make a complete orbit. The Soviet Union lied about both of these facts for 30 years. By then the fiction was fact.

So ... Yuri Gagarin was the first person in space (that we know of). Alan Shepard made the first official spaceflight (suborbital) and John Glenn Made the first official orbital spaceflight.

[Jetranger]

Ohhhh boy, this is gonna cause some Discussion ?

But, But It was "Rumored" that all this moon stuff and moon landing were filmed on a Hollywood back lot studio and out in the Utah Desert ??

[OldAirmail]

Look Mr Jet, people are human.


Haven't YOU ever left something behind when you started a long trip?

I bet you have.


What you have to remember is that there were no 7-11 stores on the moon back then.

So when they returned they had to get a movie studio to, you know, make a little video.


Besides, Webb is talking about the Ring-Around-The-Earth project, not the MGM Moon project.

[ftldave]

Fiction was fact? No amount of spin will change the facts. A special review of Yuri Gagarin's and Gherman Titov's spaceflights by The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale determined that the method of landing used by the spacecraft was irrelevant, and Gagarin's original achievement was valid. Yuri Gagarin achieved the first orbital flight in history. Read the words:

From Orbspace.com:

In order to understand what "orbital" means you can think of the following:

When throwing for instance a ball anywhere on Earth, the trajectory of the ball is a curve called a parabola (approximately). If the ball is thrown stronger, the trajectory becomes flatter, this means less curved. Now if the ball was thrown really fast, the curvature of the trajectory could become the same as the curvature of the Earth. If in addition the ball had been thrown in the vacuum of space, the ball would keep flying along the curvature of Earth and actually never fall back to Earth. This is exactly what happens to a satellite after it has been successfully launched ("thrown") by a rocket into an Earth orbit. In such a case we speak of orbital space flight.


John Glenn himself said it best: “Let’s face it, they beat the pants off us. Now let’s all go on and let’s learn how to fly in space.”

[ftldave]

Actually, when it comes to the early space programs of the USA and USSR, it might be more accurate to say "Their Germans beat our Germans!"

[Fozzer]

When its late in the evening, there's nothing interesting on the 'Tele, I'm a bit bored, and to stop myself from falling asleep, I love having a read through this.... ...>>>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landi ... y_theories

Never fails to attract my attention, and keep me awake!...

Paul.... ...!

P.S...I ain't sayin' nuffin'..... ...!

[Webb]

Space Safety Magazine

Yuri’s flight almost wasn’t counted as the first space flight. At the time an organization called the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) acted as recordkeeper and arbiter of air-based sports and events. FAI’s procedures were derived from aircraft and this heritage was reflected in FAI’s definition of spaceflight which required the spacefarer to land in his spacecraft. The USSR submitted a record to the FAI that indicated Gagarin did just that. However, it was later revealed that Gagarin did not and could not land in the Vostok I. Actually, he ejected from the craft prior to landing. Instead of disqualifying Gagarin, FAI changed their definition of a successful spaceflight.

Why Yuri Gagarin Remains the First Man in Space, Even Though He Did Not Land Inside His Spacecraft

Yuri Gagarin ejected at 20,000 feet and landed safely on Earth. Soviet engineers had not discussed this shortcoming with Soviet delegates to the FAI prior to his flight. They prepared their documents for the FAI omitting this fact. This led everyone to believe that Gagarin had landed inside his spacecraft. It was not until four months later, when German Titov became the second human to orbit the Earth and the first person to spend a full day in space, when the controversy began to brew. Titov owned up to ejecting himself. This led to a special meeting of the delegates to the FAI to reexamine Titov’s spaceflight records. The conclusion of the delegates was to rework the parameters of human spaceflight to recognize that the great technological accomplishment of spaceflight was the launch, orbiting and safe return of the human, not the manner in which he or she landed. Gagarin and Titov’s records remained on the FAI books.