A pilot at the Aerospace Research Pilot School in Edwards Air Force Base, California, is seen seated in the Reaction control simulator used to practice controlling space vehicles. He reaches up to pull down a cover. An Air Force Sergeant, monitoring the device, secures it and small hatch at its front. Next, the camera focuses on the simulator, which is seen to move very slowly under the control of the pilot inside. After a while, the simulator makes a significant turn to the left, followed by an increase in elevation, and a turn to the right and what appears to be a return to its initial starting position.
Closeup of pilot in a U.S. Air Force Convair F-106A Delta Dart aircraft, in flight, as seen from another aircraft nearby. The aircraft displays the logo of the U.S. Air Force Flight Test Center, at Edwards Air Force Base, California. The pilot, in helmet and oxygen mask, turns, briefly, toward the camera. View from a little further away shows the entire F-106A and its tail number: 57-0238. The aircraft continues in flight above a white cloud layer below. Blue sky prevails above. Near the end of the film, the pilot is seen again in a closeup from the camera airplane.
Interior of a physical testing and examination room at the U.S. Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School in Edwards Air Force Base, California. A white coated physician or technician observes as a pilot begins walking on a treadmill. The pilot has instruments fastened to his wrists and waist to transmit data to large machines standing nearby. Another pilot is lying, strapped to a cot in the room. That cot begins to rotate, placing the occupant in a head-down position, just as Brigadier General James Stewart enters accompanied by a guide in a business suit, who points to the heads-down pilot and explains something about what is happening. At this point, the entire sequence is re-shown. And it is repeated once more, again. Closeup of General Stewart speaking, as the pilot on treadmill continues walking in the background. Stewart looks down at the pilot (not seen) on the tilted cot and then turns toward the pilot on the treadmill, and finally, back, again, to the man (not seen) on the tilted cot.
Major Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr during a NASA technical meeting in the United States, in advance of the Mercury Atlas MA-9 flight. The technical meeting at General Dynamics/Astronautics (GD/A) shows audience and participants at a table including Major Charles L. Gandy, Jr, Air Force program officer; Richard W. Keehn; Charles S. Ames, Program Director GD/A; Scott Simpkinson and Major L. Gordan Cooper. They all represent NASA.
Atlas 130D missile at San Diego plant in United States. Atlas 130D on a transporter. It rolls out of San Diego plant. Astronaut Major Leroy Gordon Cooper places a mercury seal on the missile and signs a declaration, in advance of NASA Mercury Atlas MA-9 flight. Hand written remarks read 'Launch this way, Gordan Cooper pilot,OK, C Flower TC'. Major Leroy Gordon Cooper and military personnel stand at the side of Atlas 130D.
Atlas rocket LV-3B 130-D in a hangar and test of an engine in Cape Canaveral Florida, in advance of NASA Mercury-Atlas MA-9 mission. Technicians work on the missile in a hangar. They assemble the outer body parts of the missile. A technician stands on the missile and the other technician helps him to put on the outer cover of the missile. They run tests and check out the vernier engine at Cape Canaveral. They work on the engine. A technician with a paper in his hand. Various tools on the table. The vernier engine on a test machine. A man at a control panel.