Early circa 1987 hand-drawn navigational chart for the recovery of the Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft, accomplished in graphite on an off-white 17.5″ x 16.25″ sheet of graphing paper by Curt Newport, the team leader of the Liberty Bell 7 Recovery Expedition that discovered the spacecraft resting on the Atlantic seabed on May 1, 1999. The chart, which is headed “Mercury Redstone-4 Historical Information, July 21, 1961,” features various tracking lines and plotting points annotated as “U.S.S. Randolph Dead Reckoning Track,” “Capsule Location, Ship Estimate, Loran A, AN/UPN 12,” “Estimated Retro-Pack Location,” and “Pre-Flight Nominal I.P.,” with the impact zone marked as “Capsule Dropped,” “Hatch Jettisoned,” “Splashdown,” “Capsule Position at Bomb Detonation,” “Capsule Position at Bomb Impact in Water,” and “(Mils) Sofar Bomb.” Newport adds a list of statistical data to the right and signs in the upper border, “C. Newport, 1987.” A sofar bomb (Sound Fixing and Ranging), is a long-range position-fixing system that uses impulsive sounds in the deep sound channel of the ocean to enable pinpointing of the location of ships or crashed planes. In fine condition, with some light edgewear.
Accompanied by a signed letter of authenticity from Newport, who states: “I certify that I created this drawing of navigational data sometime in 1987 during my research into the loss of Liberty Bell 7. It is from my personal collection.”
After unsuccessful attempts in 1992 and 1993, Oceaneering International, Inc. and a team led by Curt Newport lifted the Liberty Bell 7 from the Atlantic seabed and onto the deck of the recovery ship Ocean Project on July 20, 1999, the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. The spacecraft was found after a 14-year effort by Newport at a depth of nearly 16,000 feet, some 350 miles east-southeast of Cape Canaveral. Among the items found within were parts of the flight gear, several Mercury dimes, and five one-dollar bills, the latter taken to space to be souvenirs of the flight. The spacecraft was transported to The Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas, where it was disassembled and cleaned and is now on permanent display.
