Friendship 7

Reentry

Friendship 7 lost altitude in its reentry glide over the continental United States, and headed toward splashdown in the Atlantic. The Texas tracking station told Glenn to retain the retro pack until the accelerometer read 1.5 g (14.7 m/s). Glenn reported as he crossed Cape Canaveral that he had been controlling the spacecraft manually and would use the fly-by-wire mode as a backup. Mercury Control then gave him the 0.05 g (0.49 m/s) mark, and he pressed the override button. About the same time, Glenn heard noises that sounded like "small things brushing against the capsule". "This is Friendship 7 – a real fireball outside," he radioed Mercury Control. A strap from the retro package broke partially loose and hung over the spacecraft window as it was consumed in the reentry plasma stream. The spacecraft control system was working well but the manual fuel supply was down to 15 percent. The peak of reentry deceleration was still to come. Glenn switched to fly-by-wire and the automatic tank supply. This combination had more available fuel.