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As Enos and his capsule swept above the Pacific, Mercury Flight Director Christopher Columbus Kraft, at Canaveral's Mercury Control, was forced to make a fast decision. Peroxide fuel was pouring out through the stuck-open jet. An emergency control system, activated by radio, returned the capsule into its proper attitude, but there was probably not enough peroxide left to keep it pointing correctly for three full orbits. Deciding to play it safe and bring the capsule down on the second orbit, Chris Kraft ordered Flight Operations Chief Arnold Aldrich at Point Arguello, Calif., to start the automatic firing system that would touch off the retrorockets.
Rest in Bermuda. As Enos approached California at 17,500 m.p.h., Aldrich transmitted the necessary signal. The re-entry mechanism—retro-rockets, parachutes, etc. —worked without flaw. At 1:28 p.m., the capsule plopped gently into the Atlantic 200 miles south of Bermuda, almost smack in the center of a planned emergency landing area. Aircraft spotted the spaceship at once, and the destroyer Stormes, which was 30 miles away, raced up to pick it out of the water. When the capsule was opened, Enos was reported to be "excitable but in good shape." He was taken to St. George's, Bermuda, for a well-deserved rest in a hospital room.
Project Mercury officials are sure that if Chimponaut Enos had been a human astronaut, the full three-orbit flight would have been finished successfully. "The primate shots," says Operations Director Walter Williams, "are the toughest flights we have." They carry a vulnerable living creature that must be protected tenderly, but still they must be fully automated. Williams believes that a human passenger in the capsule could have controlled it manually and kept its attitude correct for three orbits without wasting fuel.
Enos' capsule, which was recovered intact, will have to be studied carefully before anyone can be sure exactly what caused the peroxide jet to malfunction. If changes are called for, the first manned orbital shot, now scheduled for Christmas week, may be delayed for a while. But everything possible is being done to keep the schedule, and Mercury Chief Robert R. Gilruth confidently announced that the astronaut for the manned orbital shot had been selected. The U.S.'s first orbital spaceman will be Marine Lieut. Colonel John Herschel Glenn Jr., 40, a veteran pilot who sports a chestful of medals from both World War II and Korea. His back-up man will be Lt. Cdr. Scott Carpenter. Specialists in the astronaut guessing game picked Glenn early as an odds-on favorite to become the first U.S. space rider. When Commander Alan Shepard Jr. and Captain Virgil Grissom were picked for the first suborbital hops. Glenn's backers merely said: "They're saving the Marine for the big one." And indeed they were.
After Enos had been recovered safely, Col. Glenn looked toward the future by affirming his belief in the superiority of astronauts over chimponauts. "I am happy about the selection," he said. "Needless to say, we feel that a man today would have handled the problem in good shape."