mercurycapsule

Recovery of the last Project Mercury manned spaceflight, Mercury Atlas 9 ( MA-9 ) by USS Kearsarge, in the Pacific. The faint white star, shown in other photos in this series, is the work of Cape Canaveral artist CeCe Bibi, who painted the "FAITH 7" insignia on Leroy Gordon Cooper's spacecraft. She also painted the names on the other orbital mission spacecraft of Project Mercury. The inflatable flotation ring was attached by divers and came into use after the loss of "LIBERTY BELL 7", on the MR-4 suborbital flight of July, 1961. On both MA-8 and MA-9, NASA wanted to have the spacecraft taken aboard the recovery ship with the astronaut still on board. This was to facilitate medical tests concerning the effects of weightlessness on returning astronauts.

The straps that connected the Mercury spacecraft heat shield to the main body of the vehicle, after landing bag deployment, are clearly visible in this shot, as NASA personnel and Kearsarge crewmen, seat the recovered FAITH 7 on the handling dolly. At this point, the bag has emptied of sea water and is, again, full of air, as it was when the spacecraft splashed down. The flotation collar ( marked UDT ) is also being removed. The faint white square deliniates the hatch, which is still sealed.

The water, pouring from the bottom of the FAITH 7 MA-9 spacecraft is coming from the stabilization device which Project Mercury capsules used to keep them upright in the water. After reentry, the unneeded heat shield would drop down, after the parachutes opened, to deploy a rubber "landing bag". This perforated rubber sleeve would fill with air to act as a cushion, when the spacecraft hit the water, and then fill with water to act as ballast to keep the spacecraft in a stable, upright, position. When the spacecraft was hoisted out of the water, the seawater would drain out through the same holes by which it had entered.

The brighter ( actual color was yellow ) inflataqble ring around the spacecraft ( which pretty much obscures the landing bag ) was not flown in space. It was deployed and attached by divers in the recovery team, in order to prevent a loss of the vehicle like the one that marred the earlier flight of LIBERTY BELL 7.