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Author
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Topic: Photo of the week 464 (September 14, 2013)
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heng44
Member Posts: 3387
From: Netherlands
Registered: Nov 2001
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posted 09-14-2013 02:24 AM
   
 Alan Shepard squeezes through the opening at the top of a Mercury capsule during training as Gordon Cooper's backup on MA-9 in 1963. This was an emergency egress route and judging from his face it was a tight fit. |
moorouge
Member Posts: 2454
From: U.K.
Registered: Jul 2009
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posted 09-14-2013 04:34 AM
No doubt someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but if memory serves there was a panel that had to be removed to allow access to the opening through which an emergency exit from the capsule could be made. The gap Shepard is trying to get through was just 18 inches wide. |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 2915
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 09-14-2013 04:46 AM
Great photo of Shepard that I never saw before during the later Mercury era!Judging from his face, the emergency egress-exit procedure from the top of a Mercury capsule looks to be nearly-impossible to perform. Suited-up and carrying a survival kit, I just don't know how the Mercury astronauts could successfully perform such an operation. Recently while I was viewing a flown Mercury spacecraft, I was thinking about this very same thing — emergency exit from the top — and there is just no way I could see it happening. It just baffles me that all the Mercury pilots had to "pass this test" so-to-speak.
And seeing Shepard's face in doing so for backing up Cooper's MA-9, just confirmed my original thinking of this emergency requirement in their training; No way! |
PeterO
Member Posts: 399
From: North Carolina
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 09-14-2013 05:24 AM
quote:
Originally posted by moorouge:
No doubt someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but if memory serves there was a panel that had to be removed to allow access to the opening through which an emergency exit from the capsule could be made.
The right side of the instrument panel had to be detached and moved out of the way, then the forward pressure bulkhead hatch had to be removed. The empty parachute canister was then pushed out the top to clear the way.Not only was the top end a tight squeeze, the astronaut also had to rotate from feet-first to head-first before starting. Scott Carpenter exited Aurora 7 this way. |
space1
Member Posts: 853
From: Danville, Ohio
Registered: Dec 2002
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posted 09-14-2013 05:27 AM
quote:
Originally posted by moorouge:
...if memory serves there was a panel that had to be removed to allow access to the opening through which an emergency exit from the capsule could be made.
That's right, the right hand section of the main control panel had to be removed and set aside to allow the astronaut to access the forward section of the capsule. The removable section was to the right of the periscope. A lever with a large ring to the right of the periscope would be pulled downward to unlock the panel section. This could simplify egress through the side hatch as well. |
dabolton
Member Posts: 419
From: Seneca, IL, US
Registered: Jan 2009
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posted 09-14-2013 04:54 PM
It's amazing you could do this without snagging/ripping the suit. I would imagine being upside down and getting caught by a strap would be quite a claustrophobic situation. |
mach3valkyrie
Member Posts: 719
From: Albany, Oregon
Registered: Jul 2006
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posted 09-14-2013 10:53 PM
No way I could ever fit through that opening, but I couldn't have fit in the Mercury spacecraft either! Nice photo I had not before seen. |
Philip
Member Posts: 5952
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jan 2001
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posted 09-17-2013 04:37 AM
A rare photo indeed...Reminds us of the tight fit in the bloated tube used by Leonov to perform his March 1965 spacewalk out of the Voskhod 2 capsule... He had to deflate his spacesuit in order to get into the tube again. |
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