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

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First Steps into Space: Projects Mercury and Gemini
I knew that I was way off track. I had heard the Cape Cap Com transmitting
blind that there would be an hour before recovery. I decided to get out at that
time and went about the business of egressing from the spacecraft.
Egress is a tough job. The space is tight and egress is hard. But everything
worked properly. The small pressure bulkhead stuck a little bit. Pip pins and
initiators came out very well. I easily pushed out the canister with my bare head.
I had the raft and the camera with me. I disconnected the hose after I had the
canister nearly out.
I forgot to seal the suit and I did not put the neck dam up. I was aware
at this time that the neck dam was not up. It should have been put up right after
impact, but I had forgotten it. I think one of the reasons I did not was that it was
so hot. However, it wasn’t nearly as hot as I expected it to be. I think after impact
I read 105 on the cabin temperature gage. I was much hotter in orbit than I was
after impact. I did not notice the humidity. I felt fine.
I climbed out. I had the raft attached to me. I placed the camera up on
top of the recovery compartment so that I could get it in the raft with me if the
capsule sank. I did not want to take it with me while I inflated the raft.
I slid out of the spacecraft while holding on to the neck. I pulled the raft
out after me and inflated it, while still holding on, to the spacecraft. The sea state
was very good. Later on the swells may have increased to eight or nine feet. But
at impact the swells were only five or six feet. I got in the raft upside down. It was
attached to the spacecraft.
The rest of the debriefing I can do later. This is the only part I really need
to talk about now. The rest will come back in much clearer detail when I get the
voice tapes.
Document I-46
Document Title: Richard L. Callaghan, NASA, Memorandum for Mr. James E.
Webb, “Meeting with President Kennedy on Astronaut Affairs,” 30 August 1962.
Source: Folder 18674, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History
Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.
From the beginning of NASA’s human spaceflight effort the activities of the astronauts outside
of their official duties had been a source of concern and contention. The public, of course,
relished as much information as could be obtained about the Mercury Seven and NASA had
facilitated the sale of their personal stories to Life magazine as a means of both satisfying that
thirst and as a form of insurance for the astronauts should any lose their lives in spaceflight.
This decision faced numerous criticisms, however, and NASA had to explain and find more
equitable approaches to the issue in later years. Moreover, companies sought endorsements
and some entrepreneurs offered the astronauts gifts such as homes at no expense so they could
use the fact that the astronauts lived in their housing developments as selling points for other