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Mercury Program

May 5th, 1961 - May 15-16, 1963

Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States.

 


 

The "Mercury seven" astronauts pose with an Atlas model July 12, 1962. L to R: Grissom, Shepard,Carpenter, Schirra, Slayton, Glenn,Cooper.

 

Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States. It ran from 1959 through 1963 with the goal of putting a human in orbit around the Earth. The Mercury-Atlas 6 flight on February 20, 1962, was the first Mercury flight to achieve this goal.[1] Early planning and research was carried out by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics,[2] and the program was officially conducted by the newly created NASA. The name comes from Mercury, a Roman mythological god who is often seen as a symbol of speed. Mercury is also the name of the innermost planet of the solar system, which moves faster than any other and hence provides an image of speed, although Project Mercury had no other connection to that planet.
The Mercury program cost approximately $384 million,[3] the equivalent of about $2.8 billion in 2008 dollars.


 

Mission Rocket Call Sign Launch Date Launch Time Duration Remarks
Mercury-Jupiter Jupiter N/A N/A N/A N/A Cancelled in July, 1959 - Proposed suborbital launch vehicle for Mercury. Not flown.
Little Joe 1 Little Joe LJ-1 21 August 1959 N/A 00d 00h 00 m 20s Test of launch escape system during flight.
Big Joe 1 Atlas 10-D Big Joe 1 9 September 1959 N/A 00d 00h 13 m Test of heat shield and Atlas / spacecraft interface.
Little Joe 6 Little Joe LJ-6 4 October 1959 N/A 00d 00h 05 m 10s Test of spacecraft aerodynamics and integrity.
Little Joe 1A Little Joe LJ-1A 4 November 1959 N/A 00d 00h 08 m 11s Test of launch escape system during flight.
Little Joe 2 Little Joe LJ-2 4 December 1959 N/A 00d 00h 11 m 06s Carried Sam the monkey to 85 kilometres in altitude.
Little Joe 1B Little Joe LJ-1B 21 January 1960 N/A 00d 00h 08 m 35s Carried Miss Sam the monkey to 9.3 statute miles (15 kilometres) in altitude.
Beach Abort Launch escape system Beach Abort 9 May 1960 N/A 00d 00h 01 m 31s Test of the Off-The-Pad abort system.
Mercury-Atlas 1 Atlas MA-1 29 July 1960 13:13 UTC 00d 00h 03 m 18s First flight of Mercury spacecraft and Atlas Booster.
Little Joe 5 Little Joe LJ-5 8 November 1960 N/A 00d 00h 02 m 22s First flight of a production Mercury spacecraft.
Mercury-Redstone 1 Redstone MR-1 21 November 1960 N/A 00d 00h 00 m 02s Launched 4 inches (100 mm). Settled back on pad due to electrical malfunction.
Mercury-Redstone 1A Redstone MR-1A 19 December 1960 N/A 00d 00h 15 m 45s First flight of Mercury spacecraft and Redstone booster.
Mercury-Redstone 2 Redstone MR-2 31 January 1961 16:55 UTC 00d 00h 16 m 39s Carried Ham the Chimpanzee on suborbital flight.
Mercury-Atlas 2 Atlas MA-2 21 February 1961 14:10 UTC 00d 00h 17 m 56s Test of Mercury spacecraft and Atlas Booster.
Little Joe 5A Little Joe LJ-5A 18 March 1961 N/A 00d 00h 23 m 48s Test of the launch escape system during the most severe conditions of a launch.
Mercury-Redstone BD Redstone MR-BD 24 March 1961 17:30 UTC 00d 00h 8 m 23s Redstone Booster Development - test flight.
Mercury-Atlas 3 Atlas MA-3 25 April 1961 16:15 UTC 00d 00h 07 m 19s Test of Mercury spacecraft and Atlas Booster.
Little Joe 5B Little Joe AB-1 28 April 1961 N/A 00d 00h 05 m 25s Test of the launch escape system during the most severe conditions of a launch.
Mercury-Atlas 4 Atlas MA-4 13 September 1961 14:09 UTC 00d 01h 49 m 20s Test of Mercury spacecraft and Atlas Booster. Completed 1 orbit.
Mercury-Scout 1 Scout MS-1 1 November 1961 15:32 UTC 00d 00h 00 m 44s Test of Mercury tracking network.
Mercury-Atlas 5 Atlas MA-5 29 November 1961 15:08 UTC 00d 03h 20 m 59s Carried Enos the Chimpanzee on a two orbit flight.

From Wikipedia 4-10-2010
 

Text and Scans listed below courtesy of NASA:
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Project Mercury

Program Overview

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Unmanned Missions

Manned Missions

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