Mercury Books

Captain Wally Schirra was one of the seven Mercury Astronauts named by NASA in April 1959. On October 3, 1962; he piloted the six orbit Sigma 7 Mercury flight; a flight which lasted 9 hours, 15 minutes. The spacecraft attained a velocity of 17,557 miles per hour at an altitude of 175 statue miles and traveled almost 144,000 statute miles before re-entry into the earth's atmosphere. Recovery of the Sigma 7 spacecraft occurred in the Pacific Ocean about 275 miles northeast of Midway Island. His flight was considered a critical flight in the manned space flight program, since the previous two Mercury flights experienced major malfunctions (Scott Carpenter's overshot of the landing site and John Glenn's reentry shield problem).

The book opens with the usual NASA press kit, which covers the basics of the mission, the major hardware components of the Mercury capsule, mission objectives and a biography of the astronaut. The next section of the book contains numerous one and two pages News Releases that cover specific topics of the mission. The next section contains a very interesting scanned in pamphlet called "The Six Orbits of Sigma 7" which as the title indicates provides an overview of his mission. This NASA produced promotional brochure contains many highlights of the mission, from the training exercises, the flight to the splashdown and post-flight celebration tour. It is loaded with numerous black and white photographs, many of which showcase Wally Schirra's personal life.

The next section contains the Flight Operations Debriefing of the mission. The portion of the book is a question and answer section between Wally Schirra and members of the Flight Operations Directorate and was conducted immediately after splashdown. This debriefing contains the astronaut's opinion on the functioning of the capsule. From the answers given in this section, it is clear why Wally Schirra was chosen as an astronaut. His answers are highly technical and give the spacecraft designers an excellent insight to the operation of the Mercury capsule This section maybe difficult for some to follow, since there are numerous undefined NASA acronyms and references to specific pieces of equipment (individual switches), which are probably known only to the astronauts and the designers of the capsule.

The section of the book contains the NASA Special Publication, "Results of the Third United States Manned Orbital Flight, October 3, 1962." This piece discusses the performance of the spacecraft and the launch vehicle, the flight controllers, and the astronaut together with a detailed analysis of the medical aspects of the flight.

As is typical for all the books in the Mission Reports series, this book contains a CD that includes additional material. The CD contains a NASA produced film titled, "The Flight of Sigma 7." The CD also contains a pdf of the hard-to-find NASA Special Publication, Space Medicine In Project Mercury (SP-4003). Finally, the CD has a short interview with Wally Schirra.

Some general information that might be useful.

1) These reports are just scanned-in documents from previously released NASA press kits, etc., In order to preserve the spirit of the original reports, all typographical and grammatical errors have NOT been fixed.

2) Proceeds from the book goes to "The Watch" an asteroid impact research project of the Space Frontier Foundation. In other words, Apogee Books is making very little off the sale of US government produced books and documents.

I really like this book. There is action in every chapter, and I really like the writing. There're interesting relationships between the characters and a bunch of kung-fu. Its a fun and interesting read.

This book was so distrubing it scared me crazy.
But it made me cry too. The writing is just
perfect. It makes you feel so strongly for
Patient X, then hate him the next moment.

A wonderful book to take you away from wherever you live and move you to a NEW and wonderful experience. Survivors in the true sense of the word. Nothing contrived. While reading you will want to pack a backpack and a water bottle and hike with the author and his family into places most of us will never get to go. Not a travel jounal as such, but when you are finished you will feel like you could manage Tibet. Not a far off scientific quest, but when you are finished you will know more than you did when you started about the Top of the World. You will enjoy the whole walk up into the mountains. It is a great way to keep life in perspective. I bought it for myself and to give away! Enjoy!

The title short story is the start of her Prandra and Kreng epic, a masterpiece of cat literature. Wonderful character development. It's amazing how she makes you love the characters and empathize with them and see through the character's eyes and care about them so much. I loved it and the two sequels.

Awesome book. Need an updated book which includes the latest
spaceflights and more color photos. Also needed are books on space
patches from other countries.

Keon takes us through differences & change in three styles, the short, striking poem medium, longer narrative style observations & magical short stories. Keon is a storyteller in all mediums garnishing life with exceptional insights from his Ojibway heritage!

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The Theory of Eternal LIfe assimilates the teaching and the wisdom of great mythological, religious, and spiritual sources into a coherent and complete view on what is uniquely possible when consciousness comes into human form.
Within the framework of his "theory", the mystery and meaning of death are revealed and both life and death are placed in larger context within which to work and grow.
Anyone who can see beyond their own personality will be fascinated and inspired by Mr Collin's work.