Skip to main content
Reserve Free Passes Membership
Visit
  • Visit

  • National Air and Space Museum in DC
  • Udvar-Hazy Center in VA
  • Plan a Field Trip
  • Plan a Group Visit
View of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center tower at sunset

One museum, two locations

Visit us in Washington, DC and Chantilly, VA to explore hundreds of the world’s most significant objects in aviation and space history. Free timed-entry passes are required for the Museum in DC.

What's On
  • What's On

  • Events
  • Exhibitions
  • IMAX and Planetarium
Apollo 11: Buzz Aldrin on the Moon

At the museum and online

Discover our exhibitions and participate in programs both in person or virtually.

Explore
  • Explore

  • Stories
  • Topics
  • Collections
  • On Demand
  • For Researchers
space shuttle launch

Dive deep into air and space

Browse our collections, stories, research, and on demand content.

Learn
  • Learn

  • Programs
  • Learning Resources
  • Plan a Field Trip
  • Professional Development
Women in Aviation and Space Family Day

For teachers and parents

Bring the Air and Space Museum to your learners, wherever you are.

Give
  • Give

  • Donate
  • Become a Member
  • Wall of Honor
  • Ways to Give
  • Host an Event
Bob Hoover Gives an Air Show Performance

Be the spark

Your support will help fund exhibitions, educational programming, and preservation efforts.

Mastery of Space

  1. Breadcrumb Home
  2. Mastery of Space

Creator

Kapp, Michael

Archival Repository

National Air and Space Museum Archives

Scope and Contents

Sound track from this film about the "American Rocket Society space flight report to the nation October 9-13." The film follows a young boy through the exhibit. Most of the film is about Project Mercury. Views of Earth from a Mercury spacecraft. Mercury training in zero-g. Centrifuge training (how the centrifuge mimics the mission profile of Project Mercury). John Glenn is interviewed about centrifuge work. Wally Schirra on 7 hour simulator missions and the silver suit. Gordon Cooper in the ALFA trainer and scenes of the MASTIF. Practice escapes from the capsule and survival training. Construction of Redstone and Atlas. Atlas launch. Astronaut specifications (5 feet 10 inches tall, no more than 168 pounds). Capsule design. Abort tests with parachute deployment. Testing the escape rocket motor, posigrade rocket, retrorocket, and landing bag tests. Scenes of Little Joe, Big Joe, Ham, Alan Shepard and Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom's flights, capsule assembly. The film ends with the preparations for a Mercury Atlas flight and uses John Glenn's flight. Coverage of Glenn's flight includes the highlights. Description of the Mercury tracking network, Goddard Space Flight Center computers. View inside the capsule, Glenn's comments about the 'fireflies'. Reentry problems and solutions accompanied by John Glenn's commentary after the fact. The film then goes back the young boy and a view of the Apollo capsule.

Rights

Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.

Restrictions

No restrictions on access

Citation

United States Space Program Oral History Collection [Kapp], Acc. NASM.XXXX.0138, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Type

Archival materials
Audio

Admission is always free.
Open daily 10:00 am – 5:30 pm

National Air and Space Museum

National Air and Space Museum 650 Jefferson Drive SW
Washington, DC

202-633-2214

Free Timed-Entry Passes Required

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center 14390 Air and Space Museum Parkway
Chantilly, VA 20151

703-572-4118

  • About
  • Become a Member
  • Newsroom
  • Host an Event
  • Get Involved
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Accessibility