Amateur photos of Mercury-Atlas 8 recovery

About a month ago I acquired several photos taken by Jack, a navy lieutenant onboard the USS Kearsarge at the time.

On October 3, 1962, Jack took 35mm photos of the recovery.

 

Scans of original slides, color fade corrected and cleaned with Digital ICE.

 

Mercury Atlas 8 Recovery

 

Jack had several tours in Japan prior to this and bought a camera there to pursued that as a hobby. I have been talking with the seller, jack's son.

 

On two photos, Jack is leaning against the Hg8 capsule.

 

Here is part of a memoir written by his wife:

 

"I got up at 5:00 o' clock on Wednesday, October 3, to watch the launching from Cape Canaveral of the Mercury-Atlas 8 with Astronaut Wally Schirra.

It was the fifth United States man mission. It was so exciting! I had the radio on all day with reports. He made six orbits taking about nine hours.

I was able to see the pickup on TV in the late afternoon.

 

Jack's squadron had put in many hours of training in case the capsule didn't land where it was planned to come down.

However it was a perfect landing and came down near the USS Kearsarge. Jack took movies of the capsule floating down, and Schirra being helped out into the lifeboat by a couple of SEALS.

When the lifeboat came near the ship, there was much cheering and applause from the ship's crew.

Wally Schirra was first off the boat and was given a royal welcome.

Soon he was off to sick bay to be carefully checked by the doctors. He received a call from his wife and one from President Kennedy. What a thrilling day!

 

This next day was just as exciting for Jack because he had to honor to fly to Midway Island to pick up Astronaut M. Scott Carpenter, a close friend of Wally Schirra.

Jack was back with his passenger in less than three hours. Scott Carpenter had been on the previous launch into space. The astronauts had dinner with the Captain.

Because there was no admiral on the ship, Wally and Scott were given the Admiral's stateroom."

 

Would like your comments and thoughts on the photos/scans.

 

Regards,

Niels

 

As for the film recording mentioned by his wife... Stay tuned.

 

(-:

Edited August 15, 2019 by dutchsteammachine

Almost forgot, we were space travelers half a century ago.

Almost forgot, we were space travelers half a century ago.

 

Who would have imagined back then that in 2019 the US would no longer have any vehicles capable of sending a person into space.

This is what photography is for! Thanks.

Very nicely restored and presented. They look and feel authentic. I love this historical science stuff! (Color me nerd.)

These are great.

 

I've been a bit of a "space nerd" after visiting Space Camp in Huntsville in the 5th grade(incidentally, the same year as the 30th anniversary of the Moon landing). Looking at the history of the space program, it's amazing to see how things progressed from the Project Mercury "tin can on top of a missile" in the early 1960s to the Saturn V being capable of sending 3 men into lunar orbit 5 years later.

 

Not too long ago, I was at the St Louis Science Center where they one each of never flown Mercury and Gemini capsules on display(I'm guessing that those are there because McDonnell-Douglas was the principle contractor on those). I've also seen a couple of flow Apollo CMs in person.

 

In any case, as a not-small guy myself, it's really something to see and imagine being stuffed into a Mercury capsule. All said and done, Wally Schirra was in Sigma 7(the one pictured in the link) for around 12 hours, and in space for 9 of those 12. It's hard for me to think about being crammed into one of those for Alan Shepard's 15 minute sub-orbital flight, much less the full day that Gordo Cooper spent in one. Being stuffed into a Gemini capsule, which isn't a whole lot larger, for 14 days with one other person seems even more miserable to me. At least the Apollo CM gave a bit of room to move around-I think there was a contingency plan somewhere along the way to stuff 5 astronauts into one if needed for something like a Skylab recovery mission, although obviously that was never done.

 

In any case, thanks again for sharing these.

I have acquired the original 8mm recording, which was shot on Kodachrome and still has vivid colours.

 

I will have this digitized in FullHD and published, among several other recordings of historical interest.

 

Glad you guys are appreciating my work! the photos now have over 1000 views and my Flickr page combined now has over 100k views.

 

This is why i do this. I want these photos to be seen. It makes me happy.

I have acquired the original 8mm recording, which was shot on Kodachrome and still has vivid colours.

 

I will have this digitized in FullHD and published, among several other recordings of historical interest.

 

Glad you guys are appreciating my work! the photos now have over 1000 views and my Flickr page combined now has over 100k views.

 

This is why i do this. I want these photos to be seen. It makes me happy.

I look forward to the 8mm footage. And photos should be seen - what's the point, otherwise?

Great shots. Makes me feel so old having lived through the coming of the space age. Those were exciting times, sometimes scary because of all the nukes. But when we landed on the moon in 1969, what a great high to be an American. I had just finished a stint in the USAF in 1967. Landing on the moon, NASA, and the astronauts were something to really be proud of.

Still of private Mercury Atlas 8 recovery 8mm recording.

Copyright Jack.

Scanning work Niels & FilmKapitaal

I look forward to the 8mm footage. And photos should be seen - what's the point, otherwise?

Collectors are afraid sharing their precious items, sometimes acquired with considerable investments, will decrease their value.

Edited December 6, 2019 by dutchsteammachine

I have got good news!

 

 

National Geographic is working on a new documentary about the Mercury program, and they have interest in the 35 mm and 8 mm material shown here.

 

So maybe these beautiful images can be seen by hundreds of thousands of people!

 

All this is of course discussed with Jack and his family.

 

 

It's all very exciting ^^

How cool to have been there.

Picked up films & digital files today. Have an other still and some footage as a teaser: