Der NASA Astronaut John Glenn flog die erste bemannte US Mission mit dem Mercury-Atlas 6 Raumschiff "Friendship 7".
Mit 77 Jahren kehrte John Glenn mit der Mission STS-95 noch einmal in den Weltraum zurück!!!
Diese Tatsache dokumentiert der Sonderstempel auf diesem Beleg.
Ich habe im Internet folgenden interessanten Vergleich der Daten zu den beiden Missionen gefunden:
Spacecraft Comparison:
Mercury/Friendship 7 / Space Shuttle Discovery
Category Mercury Capsule / Discovery Orbiter
Launch Feb. 20, 1962 / Oct. 29, 1998
Launch Time 8:47:39 a.m. CST / 1:19 p.m. CST
Site Launch Complex 14, Cape Canaveral, Fla. / Launch Pad 39B, Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
Spacecraft Mercury Capsule 13, Vehicle Number 109-D / Space Shuttle Orbiter Vehicle 103 (25th flight)
Name Friendship 7 (one flight) / Discovery (25 flights as of STS-95)
Milestones Fabrication begins May 1960; capsule arrives at Cape Canaveral on Aug. 27, 1961; mated to Atlas booster on pad on Jan. 3, 1962. / Fabrication of aft fuselage begins July 5, 1977; Crew module fabrication begins March 3, 1980; Discovery rolls out of Rockwell plant in Palmdale, Calif. on Oct. 16, 1983; arrives Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 9, 1983; Flight Readiness Firing of three main engines on June 2, 1984 for 18 seconds; maiden launch on STS-41D mission on Aug. 30, 1984; Discovery launched on Sept. 29, 1988 on STS-26 mission to mark Shuttle program return to flight after Challenger accident; For STS-95, Discovery moves to Launch Pad 39-B in late September 1998; Flight Readiness Review conducted on Oct. 9, 1998
Countdown Initial launch dates of Dec. 20, 1961, Jan. 16, 1962, and Jan. 23, 1962 were moved to Jan. 27, 1962 when the Mercury-Atlas rocket was finally fueled; countdown was scrubbed at T-13 minutes by adverse weather; subsequent launch attempts on Feb. 13, 14, 15, and 16 were also scrubbed by adverse weather or technical problems and the launch was reset for Feb. 20. / Began Oct. 29, 1998
Altitude 261 x 160 kilometers
(162.2 x 100 statute miles) / 523 kilometers
(325 statute miles)
Inclination 32.54 degrees / 28.45 degrees
Orbits 3 orbits / 134 orbits during STS-95
Orbital Period 88 minutes, 29 seconds / About 90 minutes
Duration 4 hours, 55 minutes, 23 seconds / 8 days, 21 hours, 44 minutes
Distance Flown 121,794 kilometers
(75,679 statute miles) / Approximately 5,793,638 kilometers
(3,600,000 miles)
Velocity 28,234 kilometers (17,544 miles) per hour / 28,163 kilometers
(17,500 miles) per hour
Maximum G's 7.7 / 3
Payload Spacehab Research Module; Hubble Orbital Systems Test Platform (HOST); SPARTAN-201-05 Reflight; International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker (IEH-03); Getaway Special Canisters
Landing Feb. 20, 1962, 1:43:02 p.m. CST, 800 miles southeast of Bermuda / Nov. 7, 1998, Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility at 11:04 a.m. CST
Recovery Navy Destroyer U.S.S. Noa; Friendship 7 hoisted onto the deck 21 minutes after splashdown
Total mission time aloft for Mercury program and Shuttle program 53 hours, 55 minutes, 27 seconds (six missions) / 18,132 hours, 43 minutes, 30 seconds (89 missions)
Total individual spacecraft mileage 121,793 kilometers
(75,679 statute miles); one mission 14,223,091 kilometers
(8,837,819 statute miles); 23 Discovery orbiter missions
Total number of spacecraft orbits 3 orbits / 2,658 orbits (23 Discovery orbiter missions)
Maximum mission duration 1.5 days / 18+ days
Weight 1,931 kilograms (4.256 pounds) / 1,205 kilograms (2,657 pounds) at re-entry 69,771 kilograms (153,819 pounds) (Orbiter empty but with three Main Engines)
Lift-off thrust 360,000 pounds; Atlas Launch Vehicle 7,000,000 pounds; SSMEs and Solid Rocket Boosters
Launch system One and one-half stage liquid propellant Atlas launch vehicle with one sustainer and two booster engines / Two solid rocket boosters and three space shuttle main engines fueled by an external tank
Windows 1 10 (six forward, two overhead, two aft)
Crew size 1 / 2-7
Electrical power Battery, 3 primary, 9000 Ah / 3 fuel cells; 7 kilowatts continuous each
Electrical buses 4 / 110
Circuit breakers 20 / 961
Total measurements (Number of sensors) 100 / 7,800+
Thermal control Cabin gas cooling, water boiler Two Freon-21 coolant loop systems, cold plate networks for cooling avionics units, liquid/liquid heat exchangers, radiators, flash evaporators, ammonia boilers
Onboard computers none 5 general purpose computers (4 primary and 1 backup)
Guidance and Navigation and attitude reference Three gyroscopes, Horizon scanner Three inertial measurement units, Star tracker, Radar, Tactical Air Navigation system, Microwave Scan Beam Landing System
Volume (habitable) 1 cubic meter
(36 cubic feet) Crew compartment of 66 cubic meters (2,325 cubic feet). During Mercury, a crewmember had 1 cubic meter (36 cubic feet), compared to the 9.4 cubic meters (332 cubic feet) per crewmember aboard Discovery. Discovery's crew compartment could hold 66 crew members if each was allotted just 1 cubic meter (36 cubic feet).
Cabin atmosphere 100% O2 21% O2/79% N2 at 14.7 pounds per square inch or 27% O2/73% N2 at 10.2 pounds per square inch
Items stowed 48 / about 2,600
Work stations 1 / 9
Total cockpit display components 143 / 2,312
Toggle switches 56 / 856
Pushbutton switches 8 / 219
Event indicators 19/ 559
Landing system 3 solid-fuel rockets for reentry retrofire maneuvers, drag braking, main and drogue-stabilization parachutes, ocean landing Traditional aircraft tricycle configuration with nose landing gear and a left and right main landing gear; each has a shock strut with two wheel and tire assemblies; nose gear is steerable
Parachute diameter Main parachute: 19.2-meter (63-foot diameter), drogue stabilizer: 1.8-meter (6-foot) diameter Drag chute: 11.9-meter (39-foot diameter)
Thermal protection Ablative heatshield on the blunt face and heat-radiating shingles on the afterbody. Reinforced carbon-carbon tiles on nose cap and wing leading edges; High-temperature reusable surface insulation tiles mainly on lower surface; Low-temperature reusable surface insulation tiles on upper wing and fuselage side; Advanced flexible reusable surface insulation -- Coated Nomex felt -- on parts of payload bay doors, sides of fuselage, and upper wing.
Automated vs. crew control Although designed to have automatic control, the pilot's ability to manually control the spacecraft attitude allowed the mission to be completed successfully when the automatic system malfunctioned. Ascent, orbit, and re-entry are typically automatic. However, rendezvous with or fly around of another spacecraft is manual. Once the orbiter has slowed to subsonic speeds after re-entry, the landing is manual. During automatic mode, the crew usually has the option of switching to manual operation of the orbiter.
Interior environment Astronaut JohnGlenn was restrained by his couch harness assembly and by the limited space in the interior. Only one stowage compartment was available. Other items were stowed in bags, in pouches, or on specific attachments to the interior structure. During ascent and descent the crew members are strapped into seats on either the flight deck or the middeck. The flight deck holds four persons, while the middeck is usually equipped for three. (STS-71 saw Atlantis bring eight members down, four on each deck.) On orbit, crewmembers have a free range of movement throughout the crew compartment, as well as the SPACEHAB in the payload bay.
Curator: Kim Dismukes | Responsible NASA Official: John Ira Petty | Updated: 03/04/2003
Liebe Grüße
mx5schmidt
