Space: Aurora 7. Do You Read Me?

The U.S. held its breath when Alan Shepard led the way into space. It suffered anxiety as Gus Grissom swam for his life in the Atlantic. It thrilled to the historic adventure of John Glenn. Now, as Astronaut Malcolm Scott Carpenter, 37, a wiry, laconic Navy lieutenant commander, hurtled three times around the earth, there was interest, but little of the intense excitement that had focused on previous flights. The nation seemed to be getting sophisticated about space travel—until, at the end, a harrowing, wildly suspenseful 57 minutes showed just how thin the veneer of sophistication is.

For the first time in U.S. man-in-space operations, no technical difficulties marred the countdown. "It wasn't just smooth," said Project Mercury Operations Director Walter Williams. "It was perfect." Waiting inside his Aurora 7 capsule, Carpenter had no problems. With eleven minutes to go, a morning ground haze at Cape Canaveral caused a 45-minute delay. Then the sun burst through, and at 7:45 E.S.T. the huge Atlas missile blazed into the sky.

"Sweet Words." To watching Americans, the flight began uneventfully. Sitting in the control center at Cape Canaveral, Gus Grissom, handling the ground-to-space communication, told Carpenter that Aurora 7 was in a near-perfect orbit. "Sweet words," replied Carpenter. "I have the moon in the center of the window, and the booster is off to the right slightly." During his flight, Carpenter was supposed to complete several experiments that Glenn had been unable to carry out because of attitude-control system problems. He was scheduled to photograph cloud formations, test for the polarization of sunlight, look for comets close to the sun, take eye and balance tests, and exercise with a thick rubber band. But on the first orbit Carpenter began maneuvering the capsule by the "fly-by-wire" system, a semiautomatic device something like power steering on an automobile. As a result, he fell behind in his experiments, and began using up precious hydrogen peroxide, the fuel that is ejected as a gas to turn the capsule in flight. Says one Mercury official: "These guys all want to wobble the stick, and that's where the damn fuel goes." Balloon Bust. Little things kept going wrong. Passing over Nigeria, the temperature in Carpenter's suit went up by 3.2°.

Because of cloud cover, he could not see the flares fired by rocket from Australia.

A washer appeared from nowhere and floated weightless around the cabin: Carpenter picked it out of midair. Approaching Guaymas, Mexico, on his first orbit, Carpenter tried one of the major experiments of his flight: he deployed a 30-in. balloon from his capsule on a nylon line to see what kind of drag it would have in the near vacuum of space. But the experiment was ruined when the multi-colored balloon inflated only partially.

On his second orbit, the temperature of the cabin and of Carpenter's space suit fluctuated widely. Carpenter complained that he was sweating profusely. His body temperature was recorded at 104°. Dr.

Stanley White ordered Carpenter to stop using his rubber exerciser, told him to take plenty of water. He had no trouble drinking, although some of his bite-size food cubes crumbled, freeing particles to drift around the cabin.