Spacelog Mercury 7

Roger. C.e.t. on my mark will be 4 hours 1 minute, 35 seconds, stand by. MARK, 4 01 35.

Roger. Still one second off; that's fine.

The flight plan calls for you to have a drink of water over here. Do you feel like you need one—

Roger. I just, I have had three long drinks of water. The last one was, I think, about 10 minutes ago, Deke.

You're probably loaded for bear, then.

Roger.

—?

Roger. Deke, the haze layer is very bright. I would say 8 to 10 degrees above the real horizon. And I would say that the haze layer is about twice as high above the horizon as the—the bright blue band at sunset is; it's twice as thick. A star, stars are occluded as we pass through this haze layer. I have a good set of stars to watch going through at this time. I'll try and get some photometer readings.

Roger. Understand. It's twice as—sunset.

It is not twice as thick. It's thinner, but it is located at a distance about twice as far away as the top of the—the band at sunset.

Understand.

It's very narrow, and as bright as the horizon of the earth itself.

Rog.

This is a reading on Phecda in—in the Big Dipper prior to entry in the, the, into the haze layer. It occludes—it is extinct at roughly 2.5. The reticle extincts at 5.5. TM mark for the time in the middle of the haze layer. Spica—stand by.

Aurora Seven, Aurora Seven, this Woomera Cap Com. How do you read? Over.

Roger. Stand by, Woomera.

Roger. Standing by.

In the middle of the haze layer, Phecda will not—I can't even get a reading on it through the photometer. Phecda is now below the horizon, or below and mark about 5 seconds ago, now it emerged from the brightest part of the haze layer. It is now clearly visible. Woomera, my status is very good, fuel is 45 and 42 [percent]. Standby, I'll give you a full report very shortly.

Roger. Standing by.

Visor coming open.

Roger. Visor open.

Aurora Seven, this is Woomera. Do you read? Over.

Roger, Woomera, loud and clear.

You say visor is open?

That's negative. I did not open it. I won't open it until I get through with these readings. Phecda now extincts at 1.7 in the mid, in mid position between the haze layer and the earth. Okay, Woomera, my—my status is very good. The suit temperature is coming down substantially. Steam vent temperature is not down much, but the suit environment temperature is 60 [degrees]. I'm quite comfortable. Cabin temperature is 101 [degrees]; cabin is holding an indicated 4.8; oxygen is 75-100 [percent], all d-c power continues to be good, 20 Amps; both a-c busses are good; fuel reads 46 and 40 [percent]. I am in drifting flight. I have had plenty of water to drink. The visor is coming open now. And blood pressure is coming your way at this time.

Hello, Woomera, Woomera Cap Com, this is Aurora Seven. Did you copy my last? Over.

Cabin temperature, cabin water flow is all the way off and reducing back to about 7.5 now, a little bit less. At this time cabin steam vent going to record only.

Cabin steam vent is 10; suit steam vent is 62. I would like to have a little bit more pad on the temperature, but I can't seem to get it. The suit temperature is 60 [degrees]; the cabin temperature continues at 102 [degrees]. I have 22 minutes and 20 seconds left for retrofire. I think that I will try to get some of this equipment stowed at this time.

There is the moon.

Looks no different—here than it does on the ground.

Visor is open and the visor is coming closed now at this time.

I have put the moon—in the center of the window and it just drifts very, very little.

There seems to be a stagnant place in the, my helmet. The suit is cool, but along my face it's warm.

And there is Scorpio.

All right, let's see.

All right for the record. Interesting, I believe. This haze layer is very bright through the airglow filter. Very bright. The time now is 4 17 44.

Now, let me see, I'll get an accurate band width.

That's very handy, because the band width—there is the sun … The horizon band width is exactly equal to the X. I can't explain it; I'll have to, to—

Aurora Seven, Aurora Seven, do you copy? Over.