Vintage NASA Astronaut Signed Picture John H. Glenn Mercury Autopen (?) 1966

Description: Check out our store under the "Aviation & Space" category for other similar astronaut pictures and save on shipping! Estate sale find, vintage original autopen signed picture of NASA Astronaut John H. Glenn. John Herschel Glenn Jr. (1921-2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space, and the first American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1962. Following his retirement from NASA, he served from 1974 to 1999 as a Democratic United States Senator from Ohio; in 1998, he flew into space again at age 77. Glenn was the backup pilot for Shepard and Grissom on the first two crewed Project Mercury flights, the sub-orbital missions Mercury-Redstone 3 and Mercury-Redstone 4. Glenn was selected for Mercury-Atlas 6, NASA's first crewed orbital flight, with Carpenter as his backup. Putting a man in orbit would achieve one of Project Mercury's most important goals. Shepard and Grissom had named their spacecraft Freedom 7 and Liberty Bell 7. The numeral 7 had originally been the production number of Shepard's spacecraft, but had come to represent the Mercury 7. Glenn named his spacecraft, number 13, Friendship 7, and had the name hand-painted on the side like the one on his F-86 had been. Glenn and Carpenter completed their training for the mission in January 1962, but postponement of the launch allowed them to continue rehearsing. Glenn spent 25 hours and 25 minutes in the spacecraft performing hangar and altitude tests, and 59 hours and 45 minutes in the simulator. He flew 70 simulated missions and reacted to 189 simulated system failures. After a long series of delays, Friendship 7 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on February 20, 1962. There were eleven delays during the countdown due to equipment malfunctions and improvements and the weather. During Glenn's first orbit, a failure of the automatic-control system was detected. This forced Glenn to operate in manual mode for the second and third orbits, and for re-entry. Later in the flight, telemetry indicated that the heat shield had loosened. If this reading had been accurate, Glenn and his spacecraft would have burned up on re-entry. After a lengthy discussion on how to deal with this problem, ground controllers decided that leaving the retrorocket pack in place might help keep the loose heat shield in place. They relayed these instructions to Glenn, but did not tell him the heat shield was possibly loose; although confused at this order, he complied. The retrorocket pack broke up into large chunks of flaming debris that flew past the window of his capsule during re-entry; Glenn thought this might have been the heat shield. He told an interviewer, "Fortunately it was the rocket pack—or I wouldn't be answering these questions."After the flight, it was determined that the heat shield was not loose; the sensor was faulty. When the seven Mercury astronauts were announced to the world in 1959, they were almost immediately deluged by autograph requests. They received so much fan mail that it became practically — if not actually — impossible to respond to it all. Instead of ignoring the letters, NASA decided to employ the use of a machine that would allow secretaries and mail room assistants to apply pen-drawn autographs to astronaut photos and other mailed-in items. The "autopen" relied on a pattern, referred to as a matrix, that the machine would trace. These patterns, for which each astronaut may and often did have several different styles, began with an authentic signature. The machine's operator would select the type of pen and manually feed the item to be signed. As this was a mechanical process the results were not as smooth as an authentic signature. Still, to the untrained eye, autopen autographs appear to be real. As they were based on authentic signatures, the autopen could be passed off easier than an attempt by a secretary to forge the astronaut's handwriting. NOTE - Autopens come to an abrupt halt at the end of a letter and frequently leave a noticeable spot of ink at the ends of letters and words. In addition the lines of the Autopen are typically of the same thickness. The item measures approximately 8" X 10", approximate shipping weight 4 ounces. PLEASE SEE DESCRIPTION AND PHOTOS FOR ADDITIONAL DETAILS - AS IS - NOT AUTHENTICATED - MORE THAN LIKELY AN AUTOPEN SIGNATURE - The item appears to be in overall Fair to Good Minus used condition, signs of wear, creases, fading, tears, chipping, sunning and age toning, soiling, stains, writing, no odors, please see images. (C1B17-211)

Price: 117.37 USD

Location: Bakersfield, California

End Time: 2024-12-02T18:00:00.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD