Mercurial

Under the current Covid-19 Lockdown I am aware that many have taken the opportunity to think about taking another direction in their employment and career. 

It is understandable where someone's livelihood suddenly seems more precarious than it should be or where an enforced lay-off arouses those past dreams and aspirations that had to be put on the back-burner for the sake of earning a steady wage. 

Long gone are the days of a job for life as the generations could look forward to well into the mid to late last century. 

On this theme of another career I found the following qualifying criteria for a position. 

1. Less than 40 years old;
2. Less than 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) tall;
3. In excellent physical condition;
4. With a bachelor's degree or equivalent;
5. A graduate of test pilot school;
6. With a minimum of 1,500 hours total flying time; and
7. A qualified jet pilot.

Unfortunately I have to stick to the day job as I meet only two of the conditional aspects. I will not go into too much detail as to what they are but those that know me will know what they are (oh, alright- 2 and 4)

Fortunately the closing date for selection was back in 1958 which, ironically, would help me to satisfy the first of the seven points especially as I was not born until 1963. 

The list comes from the recruitment process, or rather a very select shopping list of a very small number of suitable candidates who became known as The Mercury Seven as in the first Astronauts in the fledgling United States Space Programme. 

All of the special ones flew in space but it was Alan Shepard who became the first American to do this. 

You may recall previous bits of writing about the very small contribution that I made through a Kickstarter Project to restore the space suit worn by Neil Armstrong on the Moon Landing. 

Well, seems that some spare cash was found after a tremendously successful "Reboot The Suit" campaign and this is to be put towards a similar saving for posterity of the metallic silver suit of Alan Shepard worn for his Mercury Redstone 3 flight into space on 5th May 1961. 

Here are some pictures from The Smithsonian of the ambitious project.

The suit was adapted for space and confinement in a capsule from an existing Jet Pilots but with specific modifications to pressurise and sustain main functions in a hostile environment.   

In close up the detail and features are even more fascinating.

The straps and buckles kept Shepard in place during the 15 minute sub-orbital flight as he was exposed to one minute of that time in micro-gravity.

Shoulder restraints were also part of the safety measures.

Although not shown here the suit gloves had pinpoint lights in the fingertips.

The silver finish, although dropped in the later Apollo Missions, was to reflect light and be more visible from a distance as well as intended to give higher resistance to radiation beyond Earth's atmosphere.

It is actually a classic conception of a space suit commonly found in Sci-Fi literature and Movies.

The Armstrong Suit is now on permanent display and both restorations will go well together as iconic markers in human endeavour in the Space Race.