posted 11-10-2018 01:59 PM               

Space Cover #491: USS Decatur's Great MA-4 Recovery

After the USSR's spectacular success of Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's one orbit Earth flight, April 12, 1961, and then the failure of NASA's MA-3 flight to compete with the Russians, NASA's Robert Gilruth and Walter Williams are adamant to rework the flight of MA-4 as an orbital NASA flight. Spacecraft 8-A, the jettisoned capsule of MA-3, is refurbished and made ready for this mission, in spite of its landing bag not being installed, a crew port instead of the new window configuration, and absence of the new explosive egress hatch added after Gus Grissom's emergency egress from his sinking spacecraft during his recovery.

More significantly, though, the Mercury Atlas rocket and Project Mercury spacecraft combination had only one successful spacecraft launch out of four tries. The present situation is far from encouraging. Scott Simpkinson, Langley Space Task Group point of contact at Convair, the facility where the rocket interface and spacecraft are being manufactured, matter of factly says, "MA-4 just had to work!"

USS Decatur, DD-936, Operations Officer, LT J. A. Felt, produces a primary recovery ship cover (pictured above) for his ship and the "First U. S. Orbital Space Capsule Flight" using USS Decatur stationery. USS Plymouth Rock is assigned as the primary recovery ship for the MA-4 mission, but upon splashdown, USS Decatur speeds to the MA-4 spacecraft's splashdown position to recover MA-4 and becomes the primary recovery ship instead. The following day, USS Decatur completes the mission by offloading the MA-4 spacecraft in Bermuda.

The above space cover shows an alternate ship's cachet made by USS Decatur's LT. J. A. Felt for the successful recovery of the Mercury Atlas-4's spacecraft by the ship. LT Felt has prepared a red rubber-stamp cachet noting the ship's achievement,"Recovery Ship Project Mercury MA-4" and placed it above the vignette of the destroyer on the cover. A second, rubber-stamped cachet in black affirms, "First U. S. Orbital Space Capsule Flight" USS Decatur's recovery cover showing the Navy destroyer in the recovery cachet is significantly more difficult to collect than the cover showing the ship's seal.

For the very successful one orbit space flight of Mercury Atlas-4, USS Decatur primary recovery ship covers like the two ship's covers shown on this Space Cover of the Week are extremely difficult for space cover collectors to find. Of the two MA-4 ship's covers shown for the spacecraft recovery by the USS Decatur, the cover with the destroyer shown with the ship's cachet is the more difficult of the two ship's covers to find. It is extremely difficult, but it can be found. Wishing you good luck in finding both of them!