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

Exploring the Unknown 225
and I could see it move back and forth as the capsule oscillated slightly. Yes, I
think the reentry was probably the most impressive part of the flight.
Starting back with highlights of the flight: Insertion was normal this
morning except for the delays that were occasioned by hatch-bolt trouble and by
the microphone fitting breaking off in my helmet. The weather cleared up nicely
and after only moderate delays, we got off.
Lift-off was just about as I had expected. There was some vibration.
Coming up off the pad, the roll programming was very noticeable as the spacecraft
swung around to the proper azimuth. There also was no doubt about when the
pitch programming started. There was some vibration at lift-off from the pad. It
smoothed out just moderately; never did get to very smooth flight until we were
through the high q area. At this time – I would guess a minute and fifteen to
twenty seconds – it was very noticeable. After this, it really smoothed out and by
a minute and a half, or about the time cabin pressure sealed off, it was smooth as
could be.
The staging was normal, though I had expected a more sharp cutoff. It
felt as though the g ramped down for maybe half a second. For some reason, it
was not as abrupt as I had anticipated it might be. The accelerometers read one
and a quarter g’s when I received a confirmation on staging from the Capsule
Communicator. I had been waiting for this message at that point because I was
set to go to tower jettison as we had planned, in case the booster had not staged.
At this time, I also saw a wisp of smoke and I thought perhaps the tower had
jettisoned early. The tower really had not jettisoned at that time and did jettison
on schedule at 2+34. As the booster and capsule pitched over and the tower
jettisoned, I had a first glimpse of the horizon; it was a beautiful sight, looking
eastward across the Atlantic.
[2]
Toward the last part of the insertion, the vibration began building up again.
This I hadn’t quite expected; it wasn’t too rough but it was noticeable. Cutoff was
very good; the capsule acted just as it was supposed to. The ASCS damped and
turned the spacecraft around. As we were completing the turnaround, I glanced
out of the window and the booster was right there in front of me. It looked as
though it wasn’t more than a hundred yards away. The small end of the booster
was pointing toward the northeast and I saw it a number of times from then on
for about the next seven or eight minutes as it slowly went below my altitude and
moved farther way. That was very impressive.
I think I was really surprised at the ease with which the controls check
went. It was almost just like making the controls check on the Procedures Trainer
that we’ve done so many times. The control check went off like clockwork; there
was no problem at all. Everything damped when it should damp and control was
very easy. Zero-g was noticeable at SECO. I had a very slight sensation of tumbling
forward head-over-heels. It was very slight; not as pronounced an effect as we
experience on the centrifuge. During turnaround, I had no sensation of angular
acceleration. I acclimated to weightlessness in just a matter of seconds; it was very
surprising. I was reaching for switches and doing things and having no problem.