Launch
Schirra was awakened at 1:40 am ET on the morning of October 3, and after a hearty breakfast—including a bluefish he had speared the day before—and a brief physical he left for the launchpad at around 4 am. He entered the spacecraft at 4:41 am ET, where he found a steak sandwich left for him in the 'glove compartment', and began the pre-launch checks. The launch countdown proceeded as planned until 6:15, when there was a 15-minute hold to allow the Canary Islands tracking station to repair a radar set. The countdown resumed at 6:30 and proceeded to booster ignition with no further delays. The launch itself began nominally, but after 10 seconds the booster began to roll clockwise, threatening a possible abort. However, after a few tense moments, the roll stopped as suddenly as it had begun. This was later identified as being due to a slight misalignment of the main engines and was kept under control by the booster's vernier thrusters.
Around three and a half minutes into the flight, Deke Slayton, the capsule communicator, cut in to ask Schirra "Are you a turtle today?" Schirra, nonplussed, announced that he was switching to the on-board voice recorder (rather than the broadcast radio circuit) to leave his answer; the mission communications transcript noted this as "". The "turtle club" was a recurrent joke among the astronaut corps; on being challenged with this question, the correct response was "you bet your sweet ass I am", with a failure to give the password being punishable by buying a round of drinks. Schirra noted later that he "wasn't ready for all the world to hear it", and chose to use the on-board recorder to avoid saying the answer over the air.
The booster engines cut off 2 seconds earlier than planned, but the sustainer engine burned for about 10 seconds longer than intended, giving an extra 15 feet per second (4.6 m/s) of velocity and putting the spacecraft in a slightly higher orbit than planned. Initial analysis of the trajectory confirmed that the capsule could remain in a stable orbit for at least seven orbits, ensuring there would be no need for an early de-orbit.
Read more about this topic: Mercury-Atlas 8
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