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  Mercury - Gemini - Apollo
  Mercury 7 astronaut capcoms in Australia

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Author Topic:   Mercury 7 astronaut capcoms in Australia
Philip
Member

Posts: 6281
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jan 2001

posted 09-20-2024 05:39 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Philip   Click Here to Email Philip     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
During the Mercury program, four of the Mercury 7 astronauts visited Australia to act as CapCom - Capsule Communicator — at the Muchea tracking station north of Perth in Western Australia:
  • MA-4 Carpenter (unmanned orbital)
  • MA-5 Schirra (Enos orbital)
  • MA-6 Cooper (Friendship-7 Glenn)
  • MA-7 Slayton (Aurora-7 Carpenter)
Does anyone have photos of these visits to station no. 8 (of 14 stations) in the Mercury Space Flight Network (MSFN)?

oly
Member

Posts: 1483
From: Perth, Western Australia
Registered: Apr 2015

posted 09-22-2024 07:38 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for oly   Click Here to Email oly     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The Honeysuckle Creek website has a few articles covering the Muchea Tracking Station. This one has a photograph of Gordon Cooper speaking to John Glenn.

Philip
Member

Posts: 6281
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jan 2001

posted 10-18-2024 02:21 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Philip   Click Here to Email Philip     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I've seen a photo of Carpenter riding a horse down under...

ColinBurgess
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Posts: 2163
From: Sydney, Australia
Registered: Sep 2003

posted 10-18-2024 03:36 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for ColinBurgess   Click Here to Email ColinBurgess     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The horse Scott was riding was called Butch. I tell the story of Scott's time (and horse riding) at Muchea in "Into That Silent Sea".

Henry Heatherbank
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Posts: 330
From: Adelaide, South Australia
Registered: Apr 2005

posted 10-18-2024 04:28 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Henry Heatherbank     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Not Mercury, but I always understood that astronauts were posted to Australia as CapComs for the early Gemini flights (maybe only Gemini 3) before the MSFN became more capable (ie; before functions moved from Goddard to Houston). Further, these postings did not always go smoothly, with some suggestions Conrad ruffled feathers asserting he was in charge of the Australian site (probably Muchea or Carnarvon) during the mission he was assigned to (I’m pretty sure this was Gemini 3).

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