• Interior of spacecraft.
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    The abort handle could have been used by John Glenn during the launch of Friendship 7. If he detected an emergency not picked up by the automated system, he would have held down the button on top while rotating the handle to the left. That would trigger the escape rocket to pull the Mercury spacecraft away from the Atlas launch vehicle. Fortunately, the launch went well.

  • Interior of spacecraft.

Created:

April 12, 2016

Photographer:

Dane Penland

ID#:

NASM 2016-01982

Source:

Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum

Copyright/Owner:

Smithsonian Institution

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