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Theodor Schwann
Theodor Schwann was a German physiologist.
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Enos, a chimpanzee, is launched into space.29.11.1961

Wikipedia (13 Jan 2014, 10:06)
Mercury-Atlas 5 was an American unmanned spaceflight of the Mercury program. It was launched on November 29, 1961 with Enos the Chimp, a chimpanzee, aboard. The craft orbited the Earth twice and splashed down about 200 miles south of Bermuda.


History

By November 1961, the Soviets had launched Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov into orbit during the Vostok 1 and Vostok 2 manned orbital flights while the United States had managed only suborbital ones. At that time NASA was still debating placing a chimpanzee in orbit as part of the Mercury-Atlas subprogram, with NASA headquarters questioning the wisdom of the Manned Spacecraft Center launching another unmanned Mercury mission. The NASA Public Affairs Office issued a press release stating "The men in charge of Project Mercury have insisted on orbiting the chimpanzee as a necessary preliminary checkout of the entire Mercury program before risking a human astronaut." prior to the flight.



Launch and orbit

The flight used Mercury spacecraft # 9 and Atlas # 93-D. On February 24, 1961 spacecraft # 9 arrived at Cape Canaveral. It took 40 weeks of preflight preparation. This was the longest preparation time in the Mercury program. The mission of spacecraft # 9 kept changing. It had been first been configured for a suborbital instrumented flight, then for a suborbital chimpanzee flight, then a three-orbit instrumented mission, and finally for the orbital flight that Enos flew.

MA-4's successful flight in September had renewed confidence in the Atlas's reliability, and although an Atlas E test carrying a monkey was lost in a launch failure that November, NASA officials assured the public that it was a different model of booster than the Atlas D used for the Mercury program and that that accident had no relevance to the Mercury program.

MA-5 was planned as a close approximation of the upcoming MA-6 manned orbital mission. Mercury-Atlas 5 would be launched from Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral on a heading 72.51 degrees east of north. Orbital insertion of the Mercury spacecraft would occur 480 miles (770 km) from Cape Canaveral. The altitude would be 100 miles (160 km) and the speed would be 25,695 feet per second (7,832 m/s). Retrofire was planned to take place at 4 hours, 32 minutes, and 26 seconds after launch. The spacecraft would land 21 minutes and 49 seconds after retrofire. Reentry temperatures were expected to reach 3,000 °F (1,650 °C) on the heatshield, 2,000 °F (1,090 °C) on the antenna housing, 1,080 °F (582 °C) on the cylindrical section, and 1,260 °F (682 °C) on the conical section. The spent Atlas sustainer engine was expected to reenter the atmosphere after 9⅓ orbits.

On October 29, 1961, three chimps and 12 medical specialists moved into quarters at the Cape to prepare for the flight. The name given to "Enos," the chimp selected to fly the MA-5 mission, in Hebrew means "man". Enos's backups were (in order possible call-up) Duane, Jim, Rocky and Ham (the MR-2 veteran). Enos was from Cameroon, Africa, (originally called Chimp # 81), and was purchased by the USAF on April 3, 1960.

On November 29, 1961, about five hours before launch, Enos and his spacesuit-couch were inserted in the spacecraft. During the countdown, various holds took 2 hours and 38 minutes. Liftoff came at 15:08 UTC. The Atlas launched the MA-5 spacecraft into an orbit of 99 by 147 miles (159 by 237 km).

The turnaround and damping maneuver consumed 6 pounds (2.7 kg) of the 61.5 pounds (27.9 kg) of control fuel aboard. The spacecraft used less fuel than the MA-4 did during the same maneuver. MA-5 assumed its planned 34-degree orbital attitude and after that, through the first orbit the thrusters used only 1.5 pounds (0.68 kg) of fuel to maintain a correct position.

At the end of the first orbit, ground controllers noticed the capsule clock was 18 seconds too fast. As it passed over Cape Canaveral a command was sent to update the clock to the correct time. The Mercury Control Center at Cape Canaveral received information that all spacecraft systems were in good condition.

Then as the MA-5 passed over the Atlantic tracking ship at the beginning of the second orbit, indications were received that inverter temperatures were rising. The environmental control system malfunction was also confirmed by Canary Island trackers. Abnormal heating had occurred on earlier flights; in such cases, inverters had continued working or had been switched to standby. There was no alarm at Mercury Control. When the spacecraft reached Muchea, Australia, high thruster signals and capsule motion excursions were detected. Other data indicated that the 34-degree orbit mode was being maintained. When the MA-5 crossed the tracking station at Woomera, Australia, attitude control problems were not detected, so earlier reports were discounted.


Enos

Enos was brought from the Miami Rare Bird Farm on April 3, 1960. He completed more than 1,250 hours of training for his mission at the University of Kentucky and Holloman Air Force Base. His training was more intense than that of Ham, the Americans' first chimp in space, because Enos would be exposed to weightlessness and a higher g for longer periods of time. His training included psychomotor training and aircraft flights.

Enos was selected to make the first orbital animal flight only three days before the launch. Two months before allowing a chimp to be launched into orbit, NASA had launched Mercury Atlas 4 on September 13, 1961, to conduct the same mission with a "crewman simulator" in the spacecraft. Enos flew into space on board Mercury Atlas 5 on November 29, 1961. He completed his first orbit in 1 hour and 28.5 minutes.

Enos was originally scheduled to complete three orbits, but was brought back after the second orbit because the spacecraft was not maintaining proper attitude. According to observers, Enos jumped for joy and ran around the deck of the recovery ship enthusiastically shaking the hands of his rescuers. Enos's flight was a full dress rehearsal for the next Mercury launch on February 20, 1962, which would make Lt. Colonel John Glenn the first American to orbit the Earth, after astronauts Alan Shepard, Jr. and Gus Grissom's successful suborbital space flights.

On November 4, 1962, Enos died of dysentery caused by shigellosis, which was resistant to antibiotics of the time. He had been under constant observation for two months before his death. Pathologists reported that they found no symptom that could be attributed or related to his space flight a year before. Enos's remains are thought to have suffered a fate similar to those of his astro chimp predecessor Ham. Ham is known to have been subjected to extensive study at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology after his death. Some of Ham's remains, minus the skeleton (which remained in the custody of AFIP), were buried at the entrance to the International Space Hall of Fame in New Mexico. Recent attempts by space scholars to determine the fate of Enos's remains have been unsuccessful. It is known that some post-mortem study was undertaken, but there is no further trail beyond that, and Enos's body is assumed to have been unceremoniously discarded after the examinations were completed.



   
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