Mercury-Atlas Three-orbit Flight Events
| T+ Time | Event | Description |
|---|---|---|
| T+00:00:00 | Liftoff | Mercury-Atlas lifts off, onboard clock starts. |
| T+00:00:02 | Roll Program | Mercury-Atlas rotates along its axis 2.5 deg/s from 30° to 0°. |
| T+00:00:16 | Pitch Program | Mercury-Atlas begins a 0.5 deg/s pitch from 90° to 0°. |
| T+00:00:30 | Radio Guidance Lock | General Electric-Burroughs guidance system locks onto radio transponder in Atlas booster to guide the vehicle until orbit insertion. |
| T+00:01:24 | Max Q | Maximum dynamic pressure ~980 lbf/ft² (47 kPa) |
| T+00:02:10 | BECO | Atlas Booster Engine Cutoff. Booster engines drop away. |
| T+00:02:33 | Tower Jettison | Escape Tower Jettison, no longer needed. |
| T+00:02:25 | Atlas Pitchover | After tower separation, vehicle pitches over further. |
| T+00:05:20 | SECO | Atlas Sustainer Engine Cutoff, spacecraft reaches orbit, velocity 17,547 mph (7,844 m/s). |
| T+00:05:24 | Spacecraft Separation | Posigrade rockets fire for 1 second giving 15 ft/s (5 m/s) separation. |
| T+00:05:25 | 5-Second Rate Damping | ASCS damps spacecraft rates for 5 seconds in preparation for turnaround maneuver. |
| T+00:05:25 | Turnaround Maneuver | Spacecraft (ASCS) system rotates spacecraft 180 degrees, to heat shield forward attitude. Nose is pitched down 34 degrees to retro fire position. |
| T+00:05:30 T+04:30:00 |
Orbital Operations | Orbital operations and experiments for 3 orbits. |
| T+04:30:00 | Retro Sequence Start | Retrofire in 30 s; (ASCS) checks for proper retro attitude −34° pitch, 0° yaw, 0° roll. |
| T+04:30:30 | Retrofire | Three retro rockets fire for 10 seconds each. They are started at 5 second intervals, firing overlaps for a total of 20 seconds. Delta V of 550 ft/s (168 m/s) is taken off forward velocity. |
| T+04:31:00 | Retract Periscope | Periscope is automatically retracted in preparation for reentry. |
| T+04:31:50 | Retro Pack Jettison | One minute after retrofire retro pack is jettisoned, leaving heatshield clear. |
| T+04:33:00 | Retro Attitude Maneuver | (ASCS) orients spacecraft in 34° nose down pitch, 0° roll, 0° yaw. |
| T+04:40:30 | 0.05 G Maneuver | (ASCS) detects beginning of reentry and rolls spacecraft at 10 degrees per second to stabilize spacecraft during reentry. |
| T+04:50:20 | Drogue Parachute Deploy | Drogue parachute deployed at 22,000 ft (6.7 km) slowing descent to 365 ft/s (111 m/s) and stabilizing spacecraft. |
| T+04:50:25 | Snorkel Deploy | Fresh air snorkel deploys at 20,000 ft (6 km) ECS switches to emergency oxygen rate to cool cabin. |
| T+04:51:55 | Main Parachute Deploy | Main parachute deploys at 10,000 ft (3 km). Descent rate slows to 30 ft/s (9 m/s). |
| T+04:52:00 | Landing Bag Deploy | Landing Bag Deploys, dropping heat shield down four feet (1.2 m). |
| T+04:52:30 | Fuel Dump | Remaining hydrogen peroxide fuel automatically dumped. |
| T+04:57:10 | Splashdown | Spacecraft lands in water. |
| T+04:57:10 | Rescue Aids Deploy | Rescue aid package deployed. The package includes green dye marker, recovery radio beacon and whip antenna. |
Read more about this topic: Mercury-Atlas 7
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