The first thing he did was position the spacecraft to its retrofire attitude of 34 degrees pitch ( nose of spacecraft pitched down 34 degrees ).
22.
Twelve seconds before the retrofire point was reached for the normal second-orbit Atlantic primary recovery point, Kraft decided to bring Enos back to Earth.
23.
The signal for retrofire was sent at about 1015 UTC on January 16 as the spacecraft passed over the South Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Africa.
24.
On the 21st orbit, John Glenn on board the tracking ship " Coastal Sentry Quebec " near Kykshk, Japan, helped Cooper prepare a revised checklist for retrofire.
25.
Some controllers thought the retrorocket pack should be jettisoned after retrofire, while other controllers thought the retro pack should be retained, as added assurance that the heat shield would stay in place.
26.
The eight-thruster DPS would adjust the spacecraft's attitude and retrofire to slow the X-38 down, allowing gravitational attraction to pull it back into Earth's atmosphere.
27.
The mission suffered from problems including an unusually high rate of fuel usage, a malfunctioning horizon indicator, a delayed retrofire for re-entry, and a splashdown that was downrange from the target area.
28.
Retrofire calculations had not taken into account spacecraft weight loss due to use of onboard consumables ., a destroyer code-named " Steelhead ", had spotted the spacecraft when it was descending on its parachute.
29.
Shepard resumed fly-by-wire control after retrofire, reporting that it felt smooth and gave the sensation of being fully in command of the craft, before letting the automatic systems briefly take over to reorient the capsule for reentry.
30.
Ten seconds after retrofire, commands were sent to separate the Vostok service module from the reentry module ( code name, " little ball " ), but the equipment module unexpectedly remained attached to the reentry module by a bundle of wires.
