Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in ... - The Black Vault

Exploring the Unknown 189
flights including those in the DOD Discoverer series are necessary to insure the
safety of man in space. [15]
VI.
Manned Suborbital Flight
As with most development projects, it is desirable and often mandatory that
the final mission capability be attained in a series of development steps. The Redstone
manned flights provide such steps prior to orbiting a man. The MR-3 is the first in a
series of proposed manned suborbital flights. These provide much of the actual flight
training for the pilot and qualification of the equipment under realistic condition
but with considerable reduction in the severity of flight conditions and consequent
dangers which may be encountered when orbiting conditions are possible but not
necessarily intended. In particular, the environmental control system of the capsule
itself can be used to demonstrate its functional adequacy under limited ballistic flight
conditions with reduced risk to the man compared to that of the later Atlas flights.
The Redstone mission is limited in range and the capsule will necessarily
land in water (short of possible aborts on the stand). The pilot can commit
errors without affecting his landing region dangerously or inadvertently leaving
himself in orbit. In the same sense the basic systems, particularly the automatic
stabilization and control system and the ground command and data links can
be demonstrated for adequacy without undue severe consequences if there are
failures. Therefore, if the Redstone booster reliability is equal to or better than
that of the Atlas, its use can provide an invaluable step in the progression to an
orbital mission.
In addition, in the earlier phases of the Mercury program, concern
over the unknown factors involved in having a man perform specific duties
under weightless conditions following high acceleration resulted in an approach
commands. Training programs since that time have shown that man’s tolerance
for conditions in flight is considerably higher than early estimates. As a result, it
appears that the man may be the most reliable single item in the capsule. The
suborbital manned flight will give a better insight into whether this is the case by
combining stresses which cannot be adequately simulated and testing the skill of
the pilot under these conditions. For all of these reasons, the suborbital flight is a
necessary prerequisite to later manned orbital flights.
Nevertheless, for the reasons mentioned in the preceding section, we are
concerned that enough data has been accumulated to predict with certainty the
margin of physiological safety for the astronaut.
Before further ballistic flights are undertaken, it must be seriously
inquired in each case whether the objectives justify the repeated risk of a man’s
life. [16]
VII.
Conclusions
1. The program is a reasonable step in attaining manned space flight.
It represents the highest degree of technical advancement available
at the time of its inception.