Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 59th Anniversary of Mercury-Atlas 8
3 October 1962: Mercury 8 lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying Wally Schirra aboard the Mercury capsule
Sigma 7 atop an Atlas rocket; the six-orbit flight plan focused on optimizing spacecraft performance & burned less fuel than the three-orbit missions of Mercury-Atlas 6 & 7; the
Sigma 7 splashed down on target in the Pacific & was recovered by the U.S.S.
Kearsarge.
Commentary: Schirra stayed inside the Sigma 7
until it was set down on the deck of the Kearsarge
; he then blew his capsule's explosive hatch, bruising his hand. This wound, plus the cut John Glenn had sustained on his hand when he blew the Friendship 7
's explosive hatch (20 February 1962), proved Gus Grissom's account that the explosive hatch on his Liberty Bell 7
capsule blew on its own (21 July 1961), not that he had panicked & blown the hatch as libelous liars such as Tom Wolfe have claimed: unlike Schirra's & Glenn's hands, Grissom's hand was not wounded, as it would have been has he activated the explosive hatch.
Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: Mercury-Atlas 8
Dean Martin, "Ain't That a Kick in the Head" from
Dino: The Essential Dean Martin (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)
Semper exploro.
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