Project Mercury's Friendship 7 Space Capsule! 

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Its not just friction heating up the capsule. At those speeds, most of it is adiabatic compression of the air. The air can't get out of the way and compresses quickly heating up.

Alan Shepard was the first American in space. Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth. Love all this NASA content.

Cady Coleman is such a fantastic story teller. She is awesome! The story about Jamie was great too. I am not holding my breath, but I would love if he could stop by the Cave some day.

I built the two Mercury capsules for the film HIDDEN FIGURES and we actually changed the screws from Phillips to Allen head because the director was worried that the audience wouldn’t buy that the bolts were Phillips head.

E Ticket is a Disneyland reference. Back in the day, you purchased a booklet of tickets that were your ride vouchers. E tickets were the ticket for the biggest rides.

I can’t get enough of these two nerding out with each other! I sincerely hope Adam does more videos with Cady!

John Glenn was my great grandmother's cousin, and while I never met him, I grew up hearing stories about his flight. I'm fortunate to live an hour or so north of DC in Maryland, and have gotten a chance to see his capsule in the Air and Space Museum several times. Each time is awe inspiring.

My dad owned a vending Machine company from 1950's through his retirement in 2005. Once we were at Kennedy Space Center and we saw the Mercury capsule through Apollo. And Dad pointed out how crude the design was and pointed out they used the SAME toggle switches and SAME solenoids as dad's 1960's Vending Machines and Dad always said "We went to the moon on vending machine parts"!!!

Mid-60s and I was a little kid. I don't remember Alan Shepherd or Gus Grissom's sub-orbitals but I still remember John Glenn and the Friendship 7 orbiting the Earth. 5 year old kid and I thought it was the greatest!

Jamie: "Is this possible?" Physicist: "Well, the steel will burst into flames and explode." Jamie: "So that's a yes?"

In 1965 I got to visit the Smithsonian. I remember climbing the stairs on a platform next to the capsule and being in awe of the spacecraft. I also remember being mad that people had scratched their initials into the surface of the metal skin. I was 5. Seeing that capsule was the beginning of my dream to become an astronaut. That dream sustained me through high school. My skills lead me to teaching high school art and theater. I still wear a NASA ball cap everyday.

Adam, you're such a gift to mankind. I'm glad I got to share time alive with you. Thank you for everything.

"It is real people doing the very best". For some reason that made me tear up a bit. :-) More teamwork, less superheroes. That's what the world needs.

Standing in the Air and Space Museum and looking around at all the history surrounding you is overwhelmingly amazeballs. It gives you goosebumps. I encourage everyone to make it on your bucket list.

So surprised that Adam did not know that Soyuz lands on land! 😊

Cady has great commentary !

I absolutely love this! My granddad was a heat transfer engineer who was a small part of the team that made the heat shield panels for reentry vehicles! He was a maths man, the smartest man I've ever met, and it was so cool to get to see capsules in person and think of him. He passed away this summer and he was still as sharp as a tack. 🥰

These people that agreed to be astronauts are really brave. There are just so many unknowns and things that can go wrong in space, so I take my hat off to them.

Thank you Adam (and team) for bringing us closer to the history and understanding the future with these videos

Watching this again...every episode with Cady Coleman is amazing. She is so down to earth and smart!

I remember looking at the old 'National Geographic' magazines as a young boy with pics of John Glenn standing next to 'friendship' explaining things. The fascination I had back then with space travel...John Glenn...Apollo missions etc. stuck with me. I still never get tired of looking at the pics. and footage.

Another thing about Mercury (and Gemini) that always amazes me is to take a look at the switches and wiring. So basic, analog devices. And somewhere there was a team that figured out, "Hmm... maybe 18 gauge wire here, no let's try getting away with 20 gauge, save some weight. Wait, we need toggle switches that have shorter handles..." Thousands of little decisions by each team, and finding something to do a job that was never done before.

Cady Coleman focused her talk here on the Soyuz experience because it was relevant to John Glenn and the Mercury capsule. But, it wasn't mentioned that she also made two Shuttle flights. And, of course, her Soyuz experience wasn't just an extended up and down; it actually included a long stay at the International Space Station. Wikipedia says she spent a total of 180 days in space. So impressive! Her handful of stories in just a few minutes made it clear that she has a ton of interesting experience and stories not told in this great short video.

I was stationed in DC from 1985 to 1988. I would spend every weekend exploring the air & space museum and all the other things to see in and around Washington. Even having lived there for 3 years there were things I missed. I remember how lucky I felt to be able to have the time to get to see as much as I did. I would see people run from one museum to the next to get in as much as they could in the few days they had in Washington. I met several famous people during my visits to the air & space museum. Benjamin O. Davis, Chuck Yeager, Gene Cernan and a few others. I would not trade those years for anything. Thanks Adam for posting this.

I've seen Friendship 7 and Liberty Bell 7, and they are so tiny, it's not hard to belive that the Mercury astronauts felt like they strapped on the capsule. And since the last Mercury flight no one has gone into orbit solo.

One thing that got me about the Mercury capsules is how small they are. There’s one at the Hiller Aviation Museum (I think is a replica) and it feels terrifying

My parents took me to the Johnson Space Center in Houston back in the 70s. What an amazing experience! I actually got to stand in the thrust chamber of one of the Saturn V F1 engines. They had a complete Saturn V laying on its side, outside. They even bought me mission patches for every NASA space mission up until current for when we were there. Early shuttle missions.

Having seen one of these capsules as a kid while visiting the 64 Worlds Fair, and then again 30 years on, I had the very same feeling as Adam about the use of those Philips head screws. It appeared sort of crudely done, at least in comparison to some of the Soviet things I've seen from the period.

Awesome! Every Astronaut that goes up is still an experiment. Fortunately they accept that and continue to increase our knowledge. Thanks to all of them. And everyone that gets them up and back safely

I saw Friendship 7 when I went to Washington in 1967 on my Senior Class trip. I was a space fanatic so I was blown away. I was a private pilot in Turners Falls, MA. Had my 1946 Globe Swift in a hangar owned by Cady's husband, Josh Simpson...who is a world reknowned glass artist. I have a nice photo both Josh and Cady autographed after her ISS mission.

Cady is an amazing woman, the experiences that she has gone through are unbelievable....

I love how Adam simply can't quote Jamie with impersonating Jamie.

Adam, Jamie, and the rest of the Mythbusters crew did more to make science fun, cool, relatable, and real than all of our science teachers combined.

I remember seeing this as a child in 1965. I was so excited, it was cooler to me than anything else we saw in Washington, DC.

Hello Adam! I worked at Boeing for 42 years. I was technician, and engineer and lead there. I started back when it was McDonnell Douglas. I've seen some really cool things. At Boeing in Saint Louis, there is what is known as the Prologue Room a musuem of sorts where they store engineering models of the space craft and aircraft that McDonnell did. Its engineer's heaven. It's a gold mine of information on the heyday of aviation . There they have engineering models of the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft. The Prologue Room is open to the public and i am amazed that 1) its not promoted and 2) very few people know about it. I HIGHLY recommend you come to Saint Louis and check out the prologue room! OK to the point, i saw the engineering models of those capsules in the prologue room and I was amazed that they are just specialized aircraft that were built by technicians of the day. They were constructed much of off the shelf military components such as standard military connectors (many of which are still used today) , Kaptan wire, toggle switches, relays, panel lights, tie wraps, wire bundles, and yes Philips head screws. They looked like test equipment I used to build in the labs.. LOL because they WERE.. Many of my friends at the time remember when they worked on the space programs in the early 60's. They remembered when the two astronauts were killed when they crashed into building 106. Also, back then reaction control thrusters were only concepts. One friend had 2- 5 gallon flasks (one hydrozine fuel and one oxydizer) delivered to his desktop.. He screamed at at the guys who delivered them and he made the entire bulding clear out in fear that the glas containers may break and blow the building up! LOL true stroy.. that was BEFORE HASMAT and OSHA. Back in those days, we didnt know how to get to the moon and EVERYING had to be figured out. There was a Giant vaccum chanber in bld 103.that they used to test the capsules and huge facility to support it. Now long forgotton. I saw the chamber after it sat not used for 40 years.. HUGE compressors.. it looked like a high powered Frankenstine lab.. Another guy i know (a boy scout leader) worked at Boeing and came across a SIGNED Engineerin Manual for the Mercury capsule. (You can ffind copies on the web now) Hes was letting his boyscout troup page through them at a scout meeting. I was amazed at the complexity of the design for a small capsule. I was also amazed at the difference in the newer Gemini vehicle. Look me up Adam Let's go check out the Prologue room!

3:28: I like to think that we get to experience something similar to this (even if in just a tiny fraction) when flying in an airplane. Press your nose against the window and realize that just ~1/2" on the other side the air is moving by at 550 mph.

Great video, Adam! Cady, you explain things well with feeling!

Thank you, Tested!! Mr. Savage, I get nostalgic warm-fuzzies about my family every time I watch this channel. My late mother and I watched Mythbusters from day 1 and had so much fun watching the science. Every time you use a pneumatic tool, it reminds me of my grandfather, not because of age, but because he held over 100 patents for pneumatic tools. I have a cousin who has restarted the brand and is repurchasing the patens. My grandfather also worked with NASA on the design and reengineering of the Saturn Vs. He was responsible for the concaved rivets on the rockets shielding, preventing the Saturn V from exploding from the drag of escape velocity. Thank you!! Especially for keeping my family alive in my heart.

Notice the differences between the heat shield wear patterns on the Mercury and Apollo capsules shown in the video. In particular, the center of the Apollo pattern is off-axis from the center of the capsule. Apollo actually "surfed" on its heat shield, using it as an active aerodynamic surface to extend the reentry period to avoid overheating due to plunging too deeply too soon into the denser atmosphere. This is part of the reason the Apollo capsule is more "squat" than Mercury, allowing the Apollo capsule to tilt without exposing the top of the capsule to reentry heating.

Cady is the best, she makes me smile and we need more added Cady in Tested.

Adam, I used to work at McDonnell/Boeing for 42 years.. I have seen the capsules in the prolog room.. I was amazed how "'home built" they looked.. and in fact, they WERE. They used off the shelf parts and the prolog room exhibits looked like things I have worked on. Example: They used the same connectors on cables that F4 and other military equipment used. Toggle switches were standard off the shelf stuff. You know, it was all new to them. They had to invent it all as they went.. My favorite story is when an delivery person set two 5 Dewar flasks of hydrozine and its oxidizer on my friends desk (used for altitude control thrusters) ... My friend realized the danger and screamed at the guy delivered who it and then emptied the building and had the company fire department remove the flasks.

Always nice to see Friendship 7 on display. I haven't seen it in many years now. Last time I was at Udvar-Hazy, they had Freedom 7 hanging out just outside of the space and rocket hanger, and it was pleasant surprise to see the first American space capsule to bring someone up and down.

Oh Hey! Air and Space! I was just there! It's such a wonderful exhibit for all kinds of aviation fans. I loved the workshop observation deck in the back so you can see what they're working on restoring. Very very cool.

The "living room" Coleman is talking about is the Orbital Module, according to Wikipedia. Think of a Soyuz as an Apollo spacecraft designed for a different mission... instead of a lander, a Soyuz has a discardable "workshop" module that contains everything that doesn't absolutely *have* to be on the reentry capsule. This allows the reentry capsule to be economical, but strong and safe, and have a smaller heat-shielded area. The Orbital Module, on the other hand, has more space than an Apollo lander because it doesn't have to to anything except temporarily provide space for the crew to survive and work in, no engines, landing gear, or internal staging.

I've had the pleasure of seeing Liberty 7 at the children's museum of Indianapolis it truly is awe-inspiring

Great to be so close to the hardware, but having a conversation with a real life astronaut would be the best part for me!

she really can tell a story. I had so much imagery in my brain the whole time

That was truly amazing. That they stand in front of one of the most iconic price of historic space history ever, and all they talked about was some second-rate astronaut’s experience in a Russian capsule. Well done tested!

I would be in awe standing there. KSC a few years back blew me away. They did a presentation on the shuttle than opened the curtain to a REAL shuttle and my wife turns to say something and I'm crying like a baby. This series is awesome. Thanks.

My grandfather was on the team that designed the landing/recovery systems for Mercury/Gemini/Apollo. He was working on the shuttle when he died. I did not get those smart genes.

I remember seeing the columbia command module in 70 or 71, I recall being allowed to sit in the capsule, though I'm not sure if it was the columbia capsule, there was a moonrock and John Glenns space suit as well. It's a really vivid'ish memory even though I was only around 10 years old.

I was surprised no selfie stick looking into the cabin and such. I love your build stories. I'm old and Mythbusters is top 3 all time of my favorite TV shows.

We were at both Smithsonian Air and Space Museums in October and these videos are bringing back the feelings I had at the time, being a fan of all things Space since the '60s. Thank you Adam for doing these videos!

Jamie's gyro powered robot reminds me of a article I read in Popular Science magazine in the '70s that proposed powering a car with a gyro in the trunk. My thoughts at the time were more about how the gyro would probably play havoc with steering because it would fight every attempt to turn, but if only enough power for a 3 minute bot battle would cause the gyro to catch fire, imagine what powering your car for a little 50 mile trip would entail! I guess the magazine should have been called Popular Science Fiction.

So behind Adam was a Gemini capsule, and what's really interesting about Gemini, was that it was designed as a lifting body. The center of mass was offset slightly so that when the capsule was rotated in a certain orientation it would generate lift and reduce g-load during reentry. That's why the heat shield wasn't ablated from the center, but from slightly off-center. Pretty cool engineering!

Thank you! Great insights from both you. I always love Adam's combination of enthusiasm and tech knowledge with Coleman's experience, and tech knowledge -

Adam, you've got to come visit the Cosmosphere in Kansas. You will LOVE IT. It is one of my very favorite places in the whole wide world insofar as aerospace is concerned!

Best episode of BattleBots ever.🔥

Thanks Jamie, this Freedom 7 mission was so important. Liked your discussion about friction and the heatshield. That shield was also designed that way so that the full heat blast from the shock front was away from the bottom of the capsule. That's why re-entry angle was so important. If the shock front made contact with the heatshield it would burn straight through.

Hey Adam, I can relate to your feelings about seeing John Glenn's Friendship 7 capsule. I've had the opportunity to see Gus Grissom's recovered Liberty Bell 7 capsule first hand at the Strategic Air Command and Space Museum near Omaha Nebraska. I've always been a fan of aeronautics and space flight and it was a thrill to see that capsule. A former coworker and I went together, and he was a retired NASA employee, so he was able to tell me a few things about NASA and it was a pleasure to know him. Before NASA he was an Air Force Officer who flew as a crew member in B-52's during Viet Nam. For the longest time after he retired, he was still in the loop regarding NASA flights. He once told me he had been involved in the design and building of the gantry for the Apollo missions. I want to tell you I am a fan of your Tested videos. I watch every one that I can. Thank you.

Nice video, wish they talked more about Project Mercury and Glenn's flight. I was fortunate to see and touch Gus Grissom's capsule when the had it on tour after recovering it from the ocean and restoring it. People forget that the astronauts were all under 6 feet tall because of weight and space restrictions necessary to fly the missions. I have met one Apollo astronaut and seen others and at 6 foot 5 inches, I tower over them lol America has had numerous successes, but, the space program has got to be top, or at least in the top 2 or 3. Waiting for Orion to splash down in a few hours!

This is an awesome video. The Mercury program is what got me interested in the space program, I was born in 1957 so I grew up with my head in the clouds so to speak. I did lose interest after the second shuttle disaster, but for me it was an amazing ride up to that point.

Thank you Adam for sharing the Jamie story with us!

Wow, what an amazing way of describing her experience 🤩 Loved all the details!!

Fascinating. I could listen to this lady for hours.

My father Otto worked for Boeing as a engineer contractor at NASA Huntsville, Alabama performing static testing of the Lunar Excursion Module. Am proud as can be.

I just visited the USS Intrepid and was overwhelmed with the history associated

I saw Cady give a talk in New Philadelphia, OH. She gave a wonderful presentation

For the record: The first man to complete an orbit of the Earth was Gherman Titov on Vostok 2, 7 August 1961. (Yuri Gargarin's mega-hyped Vostok 1 crash-landed short of a complete orbit.) The first man to orbit the Earth and land in his spacecraft was John Glenn on Mercury-Atlas 6, February 20, 1962; that's the spacecraft featured in this video. (Gagarin and Titiov both bailed out of their spacecraft after re-entry. They were picked up and transported to the crash site to pose for pictures with their spacecraft. They both did stunning HALO jumps, but those feats were hidden by Soviet propaganda until Titov revealed that they both had bailed out and landed independently with their own parachutes.) For more on all that, see "Red Star in Orbit" by James E. Oberg.

Hearing about the not so fun parts of the process of going to and from space is just fascinating... experiences that so few people will ever have!

Loving these videos with Cady!

Great story! Privileged to hear it, thank you!

Fascinating how this technology didn't exist at the time and humans were capable of designing and calculating all of it in just a couple of years. The 50s and 60s had some of the best minds in history. 🧠

Once upon a time when this was first put on display at the Smithsonian, this was an open display. I remember sitting inside the capsule!

We just got a Quest and I've gone through "the shop" on the Tested app. This is a nice complement to the video about Adam's Friendship 7 console replica. Was great to see that up close in VR and look forward to checking this in VR.

My favorite story from this channel, so far.

@tested you should go pay a visit to the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson Kansas. They have and I quote "the largest combined collection of U.S. and Russian space artifacts in the world" including the Apollo 13 Command Module, Liberty Bell 7, Gemini X, and so many other cool things. I grew up visiting the Cosmosphere and watching it transform into the museum it is today!

I spent about 5 hours in the Air & Space museum in '93. In the main atrium, just after the donation box, was a small capsule. It had no barriers around it and was painted all bluish gray. Two things hit me, how small and cramped it was, and the scortched heat shield just inches away from the pilot.

What is that next to Friendship 7 ??? Is that the glider capsule, with landing gear? Adam look at that !!!!

what wonderful place to be, and Adam and Cady is the perfect way to share it with us .. I notice in the background the inflatable rogolo wing landing test vehicle for a proposed way of having the spacecraft come back and land on a runway/desert strip .. I wish they would have showed the heat shield on his capsule, there was an indicator that suggested the heat shield was loose (it comes down after reentry to cushion the landing) that he was told to retain the normally jettisoned retro rocket pack to help hold it in place during reentry

I can't imagine trying to fit in that capsule. Incredible how small that is.

I would love to see Tested do an episode of an astronaut getting a mold for their seat.

Going by how most Robot Wars builders think, I can't help imagining that Jamie's first reaction to hearing that his intended creation would set itself on fire would probably have been "Cool, can I weaponise that?"

I geeked out when it got to stand next to the Liberty Bell 7 space capsule and the Apollo 13 Odyssey capsule in Kansas. I was on a high for at least a week.

Adam, you will never guess how some of the aerodynamic data was acquired on the Mercury space Capsule. My father who worked at GE as a engineer was witness to a large model of the capsule mounted to a regular truck and driven at High Speed around Schenectady NY ! Lol !

I am loving these videos about spacecraft

I could listen to her and Adam all day 😌

Excellent! I saw Scott Carpenter's Aurora 7 capsule in Chicago...amazingly small!

Special mention for Alan Shepard - 1st American in space!

Adam, you absolutely need to interview Jim Lovell and/or Fred Haise in the near future! I realize that getting that done is extremely diffcult but at least try.

The ablative patterns at 9:50 are amazing. Friendship 7 came straight down thru hell and the other capsule at very specific angle thru hell.

The Friendship 7 has some meaning to me. When I changed careers to the film industry, the movie "Hidden Figures" was the first film I crewed on. I made the Mercury Capsules for the movie. (The prop later wound up in Zombieland 2). It's funny how Adam mentioned phillips head screws.. because we had a discussion on what fasteners to use on the model for the movie. I went to the library and found some old books and was able to verify phillips head screws. However, we were told "hex heads will play better on film"..

Great episode, thanks to both of you.

Those capsules are extremely small. While in Colorado saw one being transported from A to B. It was in specially designed two wheeled trailer pulled by a standard pickup truck.

I admit to being old enough to have watched the flights of the Mercury Seven as kid. If I recall, it was a post flight interview with Alan Shepard where he remarked that he could feel the heat of reentry on the back of his gloves where the material was black. I believe the interior wall of the Mercury capsule got to about 150 deg. F. The lower outer shingles are made of Rene-41 while the nose shingles are some type of beryllium alloy. By the way, beryllium is pretty toxic, but I don’t know if the Mercury nose shingles are hazardous. I guess, don’t lick the museum display just to be safe!

I would watch hours of this conversation

Great video and great story telling. The capsule looks like a large Walnut Whip!!!

The burnt heat shield looks similar in color and pattern to a lunar impact crater. Very cool, thank you.

If you never grew up in Sacramento CA or lived in the NASA launch area of Florida to see these things on static display you have NO IDEA of the size or power they have. I had to great fortune to live in Rancho Cordova (16 miles East of Sacramento) where my dad was a designer and my uncle was a fuel developer. WE would listen to our windows rattle and sometimes even break from the sound of the Saturn engines even though we were 10 miles as the crow flies from the test stands. and when I moved to Florida in the late 80's to see the launch to the larger space shuttles was unreal. As much as they look like small items until you stand next to them you have no idea of the sizes. Even the Mercury capsules were a "giant" thing though they were really small by the current standards. Now that I live just east of Tampa Florida now you can still to this day watch the East coast when a rocket goes off and that is about 140 miles as the crow flies. The power and size of even todays equipment can not be understood until you stand by it