Gordon Cooper, one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts, flew the final Mercury mission 50 years ago this week. It was the longest U.S. space mission yet: 22 orbits in a 34-hour solo flight. Cooper became the first person to sleep in space.
The story doesn't end there, though: Cooper also ran into some trouble. On his 19th orbit, the solo astronaut encountered a problem with the indicator light on the craft he named himself, Faith 7. On the 20th, he lost his attitude readings. On the 21st, a short-circuit occurred, leaving the tiny craft's automatic stabilization and control systems without electrical power.
Suddenly, the crackling radio connecting Gordo to Earth became even more crucial than it had been before. John Glenn, aboard a ship in Japan at the time, communicated with Cooper as he swept around the planet, helping the solo space traveler to revise the checklist NASA had prepared for his entry back to Earth. Meanwhile, Mercury Control Center was in a flurry of worried activity," one history has it, "cross-checking Faith 7's problems and Cooper's diagnostic actions with identical equipment at the Cape [Canaveral] and in St. Louis, then relaying to each communications site questions to ask and instructions to give."
The team soon had another problem to wrestle with: rising carbon dioxide levels in Cooper's craft -- and in his suit. The cabin temperature was rising to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. "Things are beginning to stack up a little," Cooper told the ground of the issue, understatedly.
Cooper was forced to land the craft manually, which would have been impossible of the Mercury astronauts had not fought to be able to control their spacecrafts. Read what happened at the Atlantic. Link -via Metafilter
Comments (1)
TONIGHT WE DINE IN HELL!!!!!
I agree.....how enchanting a wedding day themed on war and death?
I also couldn't quite figure out the line in the article that said the couple planned to live apart until their children left school...like graduated? Was this a wedding or just an elaborate costume party?
Anyway, everyone here so far was ripping on war as a wedding theme, not war in general. The two are rather antithetical. I wish they'd kept it as a general 1940s theme.
BTW, no war is "just and noble".
The British have got a thing for WWII, probably always will. That's what the 40's was about.
What difference between this "show" and watching a movie about WWII?
Why not just have casulities on each side of the aisle way and mortars and machine gun fire in the distance while starving jews shamble around behind the alter. And for the ending we have a low-yield nuclear weapon go off overhead burning everyone's shadow into the ground(not to mention their retinas out!) YAY WORLD WAR TWO! I LOVE YOU HONEY!
To my wingnut friend Carruthers:
There's no such thing as a "noble and just" war, even one that by most measures had to be fought, like WW2. Nobility and fairness get tossed out the window the moment somebody starts a war.
Yeah, I think a 1940s themed wedding would be OK (albeit corny), but declaring war and wearing a uniform as a costume rubs me the wrong way.
Of course there are "just" wars. Or would you rather we lived here in the States as part of the British Commonwealth? Or perhaps Lincoln should have appeased the South in order to avoid war.
Apparently some of you have forgotten that there are Civil-War themed weddings in the USA every year. And you know what? They didn't "earn" the right to wear either uniform there, because that war's been over for 140 years.
Regardless about how one feels about the concept of war in general, the reality of war for veterans is almost always a double-sided sword. For all the misery they saw and caused it was the moment in time when an 18 yr old farm boy could be sent to training camps all over America and then see Hawaii, Polynesia and Japan first hand and come back knowing that they personally and literally saved the world from Adolf Hitler, arguably the worst human being who ever lived ever. For my father and frankly, for every WW2 vet I ever talked to in detail, while there were lots of sad and horrible things about the war, the triumph of democracy in the face of fascism was a goal they felt was worth dying for.
I can't argue with that, can you?
There is a small group of people who live vintage everyday of their lives. I happen to be friends with some of them here in California. They not only dress in re-pro vintage clothes (and sometimes real vintage clothes) but they drive vintage cars, use vintage vacuum cleaners, toasters, radios, TVs, telephones, egg timers, lights, fans, doorknobs, desks and the like. Getting married in a vintage setting would only be natural to them. In fact, my cousin already has her dressed picked out and waiting.
I admit, the war aspect is a little odd....but then again, there is an annual dance in LA that has a blackout re-enacting a very strange occurrence back in the 40s.
As far as vintage people disrespecting those who were in the war....the friends I have regularly make friends with the war veterans. I have yet to see a war veteran refrain from smiling and talking to them.
1. No trench scene it was Iron mike statue in normandy.
2. Do any of these people leaving comments know that there were quite a few American servicemen who married English women during the war,so there were happy times during the dark days of war and that was what we tried to create.As for my uniform,i have done my time in the army which i think is more than some of these people leaving comments.
3.Do these people moan about people wearing military uniforms,best you have a word with hollywood then when actors are playing well known people through history.
4.We had a fantastic day even those who lived through the war said they had a great time,and all that matters is I MARRIED the WOMAN of my dreams and we are happy,maybe some of you should get out more and get a life.