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The Post's 1962 Map of Glenn's Flight
This chart shows the sequence of events in the Glenn's space flight.
At staging, the Atlas booster engines cut off and the booster section jettisoned.
Then the Mercury escape tower was released and Atlas sustainer and vernier engines accelerated the spacecraft to about 17,500 miles an hour. These engines cut off at an altitude of 100 miles and the capsule separated from the Atlas.
After three trips around the earth retro-rockets fired to slow the capsule and it was then positioned for re-entry through the atmosphere with its blunt end first.
After the retro-rockets were jettisoned, a drogue chute opened to stabilize the spacecraft and at 10,000 the main chute opened.
The black lines illustrate the flight paths of Astronaut Glenn on his circuits of the globe. The small circles locate the tracking stations that picked up his messages during his 4 hours, 56 minutes aloft.
© Copyright 1962 The Washington Post Company
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