What is the legacy of Mercury?
Video © Courtesy of Apogee Books
Used with permission

• Falling asleep on the way to the launch pad.
• Answering Slayton on the on board voice recorder "YBYSAIA"
• Solving the coolant valve settings during the first orbit. Slowly adjusting.
• Saving almost all of the attitude control fuel by minimum thruster use instead of automatic attitude thrusters. Flew in "Chimp Mode" rarely.
• Preflight work on reading yaw attitude. This saved Cooper on MA-9
• First Mercury flight to land near carrier and picked up to be placed by # 3 elevator.
• Blew hatch on carrier deck and wounded right hand from recoil of push button, proving that Grissom did not blow hatch on his flight.

Schirra was named as one of the "Original Seven" Mercury Astronauts on April 9, 1959. NASA announced that the seven men, Alan B. Shepard, Jr., Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, John H. Glenn, Jr., M. Scott Carpenter, Schirra, L. Gordon Cooper, Jr., and Donald K. "Deke" Slayton, had been selected from among 110 of the nation's top military test pilots to train as astronauts for Project Mercury, the first phase of the U.S. space program, involving one-man suborbital and orbital missions. Schirra, Shepard and Carpenter were from the Navy; Grissom, Cooper, and Slayton were from the Air Force; and Glenn was from the Marine Corps.

Schirra's special responsibility in Project Mercury was the development of environmental controls or life-support systems that would ensure the safety and comfort of the astronaut within the spacecraft during the mission. His tasks also included the testing and improvement of the pressurized suit worn by the astronauts.

On May 24, 1962, he served as backup pilot for MA-7, the three orbit mission flown by Carpenter. On June 27, 1962, Schirra was designated for America's fifth manned space mission and third orbital flight, originally scheduled for September 28, 1962. A malfunctioning fuel-control valve delayed the flight of MA-8 until October 3, 1962. Schirra piloted the capsule Sigma 7 on a six-orbit mission lasting 9 hours, 13 minutes, and 11 seconds. The capsule attained a velocity of 17,557 miles per hour and an altitude of 175 statute miles, the capsule traveled almost 144,000 statute miles before reentry into Earth's atmosphere. He proved that an astronaut could carefully manage the limited amounts of electricity and maneuvering fuel necessary for longer, more complex flights. He chose the name Sigma because it symbolized engineering precision, and the result was precisely engineered flight that many have termed a "textbook spaceflight." The capsule splashed down only 4.5 miles from the aircraft carrier Kearsarge in the Pacific Ocean about 275 miles northeast of Midway Island. He was later awarded with the NASA Distinguished Service Medal for his work in the Mercury Project.

I proved man's advantage in space in other ways. With the photographic experiments, for example, I took the approach of an engineer rather than a sightseer. I sought advice from professional photographers such as Ralph Morse and Carl Mydans of Life and Dean Conger and Luis Marden of National Geographic. I decided that a Hasselblad, with its larger film frame, was more suitable than a 35 mm camera. I had the Hasselblad adapted. A 100 exposure film container was installed, and an easy aiming device was mounted on the side of the camera. Focusing would not be required from the infinity of space, I figured. Finally I learned how to repair the Hasselblad.

Scientific observations were on my agenda as well. I observed the planet Mercury, not normally seen from earth, because the apparent position of Mercury is close to the sun. In orbit we're not affected by the diffuse light of the atmosphere, so I would see Mercury as it passed through layers of light. I tracked its passage against a yardstick of time.