Official flight manual issued for America's first manned space mission, identical to the one used by Alan Shepard: NASA Project Mercury Capsule Flight Operations Manual, Capsule 7 (SEDR 109-7). St. Louis, MO: McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, 15 August 1960. Dark blue leatherette 3-ring binder, 7.5 x 6.5, 126 pages. The binder's cover depicts a rocket boosting the Mercury capsule and escape tower piercing through the atmosphere with clouds below.
The manual contains all critical procedures to accomplish the United States' first manned space flight, Freedom 7, divided into three main sections. The first covers "Normal Operating Procedures," including 28 pages on astronaut entry, final interior inspection, pre-launch checks, launch, separation, re-entry, landing, and egress. A large fold-out sheet illustrates the main instrument panel and other controls. The second section has 36 pages of "Emergency Operating Procedures," with a red outer edge striping that covers launch abort scenarios, capsule systems emergency operations, retro-rocket failure, and landing emergencies. The third section provides "Trouble Shooting" procedures for electrical systems, stabilization control, environmental control, launch separation sequence, abort sequence, retrograde (entry), and recovery. This section uses schematic illustrations to assist problem corrections.
A final section, entitled “Astronaut's Check List: Mercury Redstone Space Capsule 7” (SEDR 109-7(CL)), is printed on heavy yellow cardstock and has eight pages of "Normal Procedures," which make up the flight plan for the mission, plus an additional twelve pages of "Emergency Procedures" defining steps to perform if any steps have failures or emergencies. The emergency checklist pages have red and black diagonally striped borders. In fine condition.
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