7. Mercury failures continued through the end of the program
MA 9 was the final manned mission of the Mercury Program, as NASA continued preparations for the Gemini Program. It was also the longest of the Mercury missions, a 22-orbit day and a half flight, and the last time an American flew solo in space. Gordon Cooper named his capsule Faith 7. Despite the mission being the sixth manned Mercury mission problems with the capsule, which had plagued all of the missions in one way or another, continued to be encountered. The Mercury capsule had to be modified to support the demands of the extended mission, with increased batteries and oxygen supplies. The number of orbits widened the area of the globe which would be covered, and increased ground and sea support personnel were assigned to the mission.
Cooper’s flight was fairly smooth until the nineteenth orbit, when false alarms raised concerns that he was re-entering the atmosphere. Shortly after determining that the alarm was false, he lost his attitude indicators, and then electrical power to his stabilization and control system. With John Glenn working with him from a tracking ship, Cooper created a checklist to perform the necessary procedures to align the capsule for re-entry, Glenn eventually giving him a verbal countdown for firing the retro rockets. They were accurate to the point that Faith 7 hit the water less than four miles from the recovery vessel, the most accurate landing of the Mercury flights. Faith 7 was carried by helicopter to USS Kearsarge with Cooper inside the vehicle, another first for the space program.