POST-FLIGHT DEBRIEFING

The helicopter took me to the aircraft carrier Lake Champlain, where the preliminary medical and technical debriefing commenced. Since no serious physiological defects were noted, only an immediate cursory examination was necessary. The period I spent in talking into a tape recorder at this time with the events fresh in my mind was also a help. I had a chance to report before becoming confused with the “facts.”

I went from the carrier to the Grand Bahama Island where I spent the better part of two days in combined medical and technical debriefings. A great deal of data was gathered, and the experience was not unduly uncomfortable. It appears profitable to provide a loca­tion where a debriefing of this sort can be accomplished.

It is now our plan to show you a film of the flight taken from the onboard equipment. The film has been taken from the onboard camera and step-printed to real time, and the tape recorder conversations have been synchronized for the entire flight. (At this point onboard footage was shown)

In closing I would like to say that the participants in Project Mercury are indeed encour­aged by the pilot’s ability to function during the ballistic flight which has just been described. No inordinate physiological change has been observed, and the control exer­cised before and after the flight overwhelmingly support this conclusion. The Space Task Group is also encouraged by the operation of the spacecraft systems in the automatic mode, as well as in the manual mode. We are looking forward to more flights in the future, both of the ballistic as well as the orbital type.