Spacelog Mercury 6

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.