William Atkins
Wednesday, 18 February 2009 04:39
Science -
Space
Page 2 of 4
John H. Glenn, Jr. and his capsule (all part of the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission) then made three complete orbits around the Earth.
Glenn’s orbits consisted of a perigee (closest point to Earth’s surface) of about 159 kilometers (99 miles), apogee (farthest point from Earth) of approximately 265 kilometers (165 miles), inclination (angle from the equatorial plane) of 32.5 degrees, and period (time for one orbit) of about 88.5 minutes.
During his first orbit he crossed the Atlantic Ocean, passed over the Canary Islands, past the coast of Africa, and over the country of Nigeria.
While over Kano, Nigeria, Glenn became the pilot of his spacecraft, making a major movement in the vertical (up and down) axis, what is called yaw. Glenn positioned the spacecraft so he was facing forward into his direction of motion—into his orbital flight path.
As he crossed the Indian Ocean, the American astronaut observed the first sunset off of the surface of the Earth.
Glenn described the event as
“beautiful.” He then crossed the coast of Australia, seeing the extra bright lights of the city of Perth, as its citizens turned on their lights so Glenn could see them as he passed overhead.
At the end of his first “day” in space, Glenn exclaimed:
"That sure was a short day. That was about the shortest day I've ever run into."
Page three reports on problems Glenn encountered on his space trip.
