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

Exploring the Unknown 235
diverging, and that there were times when the spacecraft was 30 or 40 degrees
small end down. This I remember occurring two or three times. Each time it was
worse. I reported that the oscillations were getting too bad and said, “I’m going
to have to chance the drogue now.” I did deploy the drogue parachute manually
at around 25,000 feet. [3-6]
Although I did not make a concerted effort to deploy the drogue parachute
when the spacecraft was properly aligned in attitude, I think that it did come out
when the spacecraft was in normal attitude, because there was no marked snap
on deployment. There was a sudden shock, but I do not think that it dragged the
spacecraft around from bad yaw or pitch angle. The spacecraft moved maybe 10
or 20 degrees. I could see the drogue pulsing and vibrating. It was visible against
a cloudy sky. I saw no blue sky at this time. All was gray. The drogue was pulsing
and shaking much more than I had expected. I watched the parachute for a while
along with some other material that came out at this time.
After the drogue parachute was deployed, I operated the snorkel manually.
The rate handle did come up but I reached over and pushed it up, too. I did not
notice any more cooling at this time. I also did not notice the suit fan cutting
down so I assume it continued to run.
I got the main fuse switch at 15,000 feet and waited for the main parachute
to deploy. It did not, and I manually operated the main parachute deploy switch
at about 9,500 feet. It was just a little below 10,000 feet. It came out and streamed.
It was reefed for a little while. Boy! There is a lot of stress on that parachute! You
can see how it is being tried. The parachute unreefed and it was beautiful. I could
see no damage whatsoever.
Rate of descent was right on 30 feet per second. Incidentally, prior to
retrofire the rate of descent indicator was reading about six or seven feet per
second. I was convinced that the main para chute was good and selected the auto
position on landing bag switch and the bag went out immediately. I went through
the post reentry, post-10K, and post landing checklists and got everything pretty
well taken care of.
The impact was much less severe than I had expected. It was more
noticeable by the noise than by the g-load. There was also a loud knock at impact. I
thought “We have a recontact problem of some kind.” I was somewhat dismayed to
see water splashed on the face of the tape recorder box immediately after impact.
My fears that there might be a leak in the spacecraft were somewhat confirmed by
the fact that the spacecraft never did right itself on the water. It continued to stay
in a 60 degree attitude on the water. [3-7] The direction of list was about halfway
between pitchdown and yaw left. That is the attitude it maintained on the water.
I got everything disconnected and waited for the spacecraft to right itself.
We do not have a window in the egress trainer, but the level of the water on the
window seemed to be higher than I had expected. The list did not change.