Spacelog Mercury 6

Friendship Seven, this is Zanzibar Cap Com. Telemetry indicates all systems go. Medical status go, … reports same, we have a little bit of telemetry drop out. … Standby to pick up IOS in about 3 minutes. Zanzibar Cap Com out.

Roger, Zanzibar.

Hello, Friendship Seven, Friendship Seven. This is Indian Com Tech. …

This is Friendship Seven, going on to eye patch.

Hello, Friendship Seven. Friendship Seven, IOS Com Tech. Over.

Hello, IOS Com Tech, Friendship Seven. Go ahead.

Friendship Seven, Friendship Seven. This is Indian Com Tech on HF UHF. How do you read? Over.

IOS, this is Friendship Seven. Do you read? Over.

Friendship Seven, Friendship Seven. This is Indian Com Tech on HF UHF. How- do you read? Over.

Indian Com Tech. Read you loud and clear on HF. Over.

Hello Friendship Seven, Friendship Seven. This is Indian Com Tech on HF UHF. How do you read? Over.

Indian Com Tech, Friendship Seven. Loud and clear, how me?

Roger, Friendship Seven, reading you loud and clear—

This is Friendship Seven. Had a beautiful sunset and can see the light way out almost up to the northern horizon.

…

Friendship Seven, Friendship Seven,. … Over.

Indian Cap Com, I'm receiving you very garbled. Over.

Roger, … , now. Over.

Friendship Seven, Friendship Seven, this is Indian Cap. Over.

Go ahead Indian Cap Com. I read you fairly good now. Over.

Roger. Proceed with the rest of your status please. Over.

Say again, Indian. Over.

Would you give me your status and consumable readings please? Over.

Roger. This is Friendship Seven. My status is very good. I feel fine. Fuel is 90-98 [percent], oxygen 75-100 [percent], amps, 21 present time, cabin pressure holding at 5.5. Over.

Roger, understand, reading you loud and clear now. Over.

Roger, loud and clear.

This is Friendship Seven. At this, MARK, at this present time, I still have some clouds visible below me, the sunset was beautiful. It went down very rapidly. I still have a brilliant blue band clear across the horizon almost covering my whole window. The redness of the sunset I can still see through some of the clouds way over to the left of my course. Over.

Roger, under. …

The sky above is absolutely black, completely black. I can see stars though up above. I do not have any of the constellations identified as yet. Over.

Roger, understand Friendship Seven.

Friendship Seven. Would you confirm you received retrosequence time 1 Delta from Zanzibar? Over.

This is Friendship Seven. Roger, 1 Delta is 00 50 24.

Roger. I have areas 1 Echo, Foxtrot, and Hotel. Are you prepared to copy? Over.

Standby one.

Roger. Let me know.

All right, go ahead with retrotimes. Over.

Roger. Area 1 Echo is one hour, 15 minutes, 42 seconds. I say again, one hour, 15 minutes, 42 seconds. Over.

Roger. One Echo is 01 plus 15 plus 42.

Roger. Area Foxtrot is one hour, 28 minutes, 50 seconds. I say again, one hour, 28 minutes, 50 seconds.

Roger. Foxtrot is 01 plus 28 plus 50.

That is affirmative. Area Hotel is four hours, 32 minutes, 42 seconds. Four hours, 32 minutes, 42 seconds. Over.

Roger. 04 plus 32 plus 42. Over.

Roger. That is affirmative. Over.

Roger. This is Friendship Seven. I am having no trouble at all seeing the night horizon. I think the moon is probably coming up behind me. Yes, I can see it in the scope back here and it's making a very white light on the clouds below. Over.

Roger, understand.

Friendship Seven, we have launched our flare. You understand it is. … Over.

That is affirmative.

We have been advised that it has been ignited. Do you see anything? Over.

This is Friendship Seven. Negative. I don't have anything in the scope or out the window.

Roger, understand IOS.

Your voice transmissions are starting to fade very badly. Over.

Roger. Friendship Seven.

… clear, IOS Cap Com. Out.

Roger.

This is Friendship Seven, broadcasting in the blind. Wait a minute. Friendship Seven, broadcasting in the blind, making observations on night outside. There seems to be a high layer way up above the horizon; much higher than anything I saw on the daylight side. The stars seem to go through it and then go on down toward the real horizon. It would appear to be possibly some 7 or 8 degrees wide. I can see the clouds down below it; then a dark band, then a lighter band that the stars shine right through as they come down toward the horizon. I can identify Aries and Triangulum.

Friendship Seven, Muchea Com Tech. We read you. Would you.

Hello, Muchea Com Tech. This is Friendship Seven, reading you loud and clear. How me?

Roger, Friendship Seven. Muchea Cap Com. How me? Over.

Roger. How are you doing Gordo? We're doing real fine up here. Everything is going very well. Over.

John, you sound good.

Roger. Control fuel is 90-100 [percent], oxygen is 75-100 [percent], amps are 22, all systems are still go. Having no problems at all. Control system operating fine. Over.

Roger. Do you have any star or weather or landmark observations as yet? Over.

Roger. I was just making some to the recorder. The only unusual thing I have noticed is a rather high, what would appear to be a haze layer up some 7 or 8 degrees above the horizon on the night side. The stars I can see through it as they go down toward the real horizon, but it is a very visible single band or layer pretty well up above the normal horizon. Over.

Roger, very interesting.

This is Friendship Seven. I had a lot of cloud cover coming off of Africa. It has thinned out considerably now and although I can't definitely see the ocean, there is a lot of moonlight here that does reflect off what clouds there are. Over.

Roger. You had an excellent cutoff, John. Your velocity was 8 feet per second low. V over V_R, 1.0002. Can you confirm your retrosequence 1 Easy, Foxtrot, and Hotel from Indian Ocean Ship? Over.

That is affirmative. I did.

Roger. Your yaw check over ATS was good. Your yaw when you were on fly-by-wire over IOS was excellent.

Roger.

Are we clear to send you a Z and R Cal? Over.

Roger.

Z Cal coming through now.

Roger. Shortly you may observe some lights down there. You want to take a check on that to your right? Over.

Roger. I'm all set to see if I can't get them in sight.

Roger. You do have your visor closed at this time. Over.

This is affirmative. I had it open for a little while; it's closed now. Cabin pressure is holding in good shape. Over.

Roger, Z Cal is off. R Cal is coming through now.

Roger.

Any symptoms of vertigo or nausea at all? Over.

Negative, no symptoms whatsoever. I feel fine. Over.

Very well.

Roger. Your 150 VA inverter is 180°. Looks like it's doing pretty well.

Roger. Looks like it is holding up fine.

R Cal is off.

Roger.

That was sure a short day.