Mercury-Atlas 10

Mercury-Atlas 10
Mission insignia
Mission statistics
Mission name	Mercury-Atlas 10
Spacecraft name	Freedom 7-II
Spacecraft mass	3,284 pounds (1,490 kg) (est.)[1]
Crew size	1
Launch vehicle	Atlas LV-3B
Mission duration	3 days (planned)
Related missions
Previous mission Subsequent mission MA-9 Gemini 1

Mercury-Atlas 10 (MA-10) was a cancelled early manned space mission, which would have been the last flight in NASA's Mercury program. It was planned as a three-day extended mission, to launch in late 1963; the spacecraft, Freedom 7-II, would have been flown by Alan Shepard, a veteran of the suborbital Mercury-Redstone 3 mission in 1961. However, it was cancelled after the success of the one-day Mercury-Atlas 9 mission in May 1963, to allow NASA to focus its efforts on the more advanced two-man Gemini program.

Planning

Scheduling for the MA-10 mission began as early as mid-1961, before a single orbital flight had been flown. It was planned as a one-day orbital mission, using Spacecraft #15.^[2] The - by now heavily-modified - spacecraft #15A was delivered to Cape Canaveral on 16 November 1962,^[3] renumbered #15B in January 1963, and prepared for use as a backup spacecraft for MA-9;^[4] by this stage, NASA were noncomittal about whether or not a fifth orbital flight would be flown.^[5]

Shortly after the Mercury-Atlas 8 flight in October 1962, some commentators speculated on the possibility of MA-10 being flown as a "dual mission". In this approach, MA-10 and a new MA-11 flight, the latter using the MA-10 backup capsule, would be launched in close proximity, and fly a loosely co-ordinated mission, similar to the Soviet Vostok 3 and Vostok 4.^[6]

Whilst in late 1962 the MA-10 mission had still been planned as a nominal one-day flight,^[7] as of early 1963, the tentative plan for the MA-10 mission anticipated it being around three days long.^[8] The mission was to be flown by Alan Shepard, the backup pilot for MA-9, then in preparation, and previously the pilot of the MR-3 suborbital mission in 1961. In a nod to his earlier spacecraft, Shepard named #15B "Freedom 7-II".^[9]

The mission would have carried a re-entry communications experiment, which involved injecting water into the plasma sheath surrounding the spacecraft on reentry, in the hope that it would disrupt the sheath enough to allow radio communications; this was later flown on Gemini 3.^[10]

Cancellation

By April, NASA had begun referring to MA-9 as the "culmination" of the program,^[11] and on 11 May NASA declared publicly that it was "absolutely beyond question" that a successful MA-9 flight would mean no MA-10.^[8] During the MA-9 postflight press conference on 19 May, Robert C. Seamans was asked about the possibility of a fifth orbital flight, and described it as "quite unlikely". President Kennedy, when asked a similar question three days later, demurred, saying that the decision was one for NASA to make.^[12]

A meeting on 6 and 7 June debated carrying on to the MA-10 flight - or possibly beyond. The main argument put forward was that it would gain usable information for the Gemini and Apollo missions without needing a great deal of investment; the spacecraft and launch vehicles were available and almost ready for flight.^[13] Pressure had come from a more directly involved constituency as well; both NASA officials and the President himself had been lobbied by the "Mercury Seven" astronauts for a seventh Mercury mission.^[8]

Work continued on modifying Spacecraft #15B until 8 June, but on 12 June, the NASA Administrator, James E. Webb, stated publicly to the Senate Space Committee that there would be no further Mercury flights. All work ceased on the program, with personnel and resources reassigned to the Gemini and Apollo programs.^[14]

The capsule was placed in storage, then later displayed at the Ames Research Center in California; it is now on display at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.^[15]

Notes

1. ^ Project Mercury quarterly status report no. 19, p. 4
2. ^ Grimwood, p. 146
3. ^ Grimwood, p. 177
4. ^ Grimwood, p. 180
5. ^ Grimwood, p. 181
6. ^ "U.S. Now Has Capability for Twin Space Shot". The Science News-Letter 82 (16): 254. October 20, 1962. JSTOR 3944968. 
7. ^ Mercury spacecraft no. 15A configuration specification, p. 1
8. ^ ^{a b c} This new ocean, p. 492
9. ^ "Alan B. Shepard, Jr.". NASA. http://history.nasa.gov/40thmerc7/shepard.htm. Retrieved 2009-11-03. 
10. ^ On the shoulders of titans, p. 231
11. ^ Grimwood, p. 188
12. ^ Grimwood, p. 194
13. ^ Grimwood, pp. 195-196
14. ^ Grimwood, p. 196
15. ^ http://www.nasm.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?id=A19680241000

References

• Grimwood, J. M. (1963). Project Mercury : a chronology. NASA. http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19630011968. Retrieved 2009-11-03.  HTML copy
• Alexander, C. C.; Grimwood, J. M.; Swenson, L. S. (1966). This new ocean : a history of Project Mercury. NASA. http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19670005605. Retrieved 2009-11-03.  HTML copy
• Hacker, Barton C.; Grimwood, J. M. (1977). On the shoulders of titans : a history of Project Gemini. NASA. http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19780012208. Retrieved 2009-11-03.  HTML copy
• Mercury spacecraft no. 15A configuration specification (Mercury-Atlas 10). NASA. November 1962. http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19730065749. Retrieved 2009-11-03. 
• Project Mercury quarterly status report no. 19. NASA. 1963. http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19910074178. Retrieved 2009-11-03. 

Further reading

• Wilson, Keith T. "Mercury Atlas 10: A Mission Not Flown". Quest, vol. 2, no. 4 (1993), pp. 22–25

External links

• Freedom 7-II museum pictures of Freedom 7-II posted at Space Modelers website - Ninfinger Productions
• Field Guide to American Spacecraft Pictures of Freedom 7-II on display.
  • see also: Field Guide to American Spacecraft Spacecraft of the Week: Freedom 7-II