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Project Mercury

January 01, 1970

This article is about the NASA crewed spaceflight program. For other uses, see Mercury project (disambiguation).

Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Union. Taken over from the US Air Force by the newly created civilian space agency NASA, it conducted 20 uncrewed developmental flights (some using animals), and six successful flights by astronauts. The program, which took its name from Roman mythology, cost $2.68 billion (adjusted for inflation).[1][n 2] The astronauts were collectively known as the "Mercury Seven", and each spacecraft was given a name ending with a "7" by its pilot.

Project Mercury
Retroactive logo[n 1]
Program overview
CountryUnited States
OrganizationNASA
PurposeCrewed orbital flight
StatusCompleted
Program history
Cost
  • $277 million (1965)[1]
  • $2.68 billion (adjusted for inflation)
Duration1958–1963
First flight
First crewed flight
Last flight
Successes11
Failures3 (MA-1, MA-3, and MR-1)
Partial failures1 (Big Joe 1)
Launch site(s)
Vehicle information
Crewed vehicle(s)Mercury capsule
Launch vehicle(s)

The Space Race began with the 1957 launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1. This came as a shock to the American public, and led to the creation of NASA to expedite existing US space exploration efforts, and place most of them under civilian control. After the successful launch of the Explorer 1 satellite in 1958, crewed spaceflight became the next goal. The Soviet Union put the first human, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, into a single orbit aboard Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961. Shortly after this, on May 5, the US launched its first astronaut, Alan Shepard, on a suborbital flight. Soviet Gherman Titov followed with a day-long orbital flight in August 1961. The US reached its orbital goal on February 20, 1962, when John Glenn made three orbits around the Earth. When Mercury ended in May 1963, both nations had sent six people into space, but the Soviets led the US in total time spent in space.

The Mercury space capsule was produced by McDonnell Aircraft, and carried supplies of water, food and oxygen for about one day in a pressurized cabin. Mercury flights were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, on launch vehicles modified from the Redstone and Atlas D missiles. The capsule was fitted with a launch escape rocket to carry it safely away from the launch vehicle in case of a failure. The flight was designed to be controlled from the ground via the Manned Space Flight Network, a system of tracking and communications stations; back-up controls were outfitted on board. Small retrorockets were used to bring the spacecraft out of its orbit, after which an ablative heat shield protected it from the heat of atmospheric reentry. Finally, a parachute slowed the craft for a water landing. Both astronaut and capsule were recovered by helicopters deployed from a US Navy ship.

The Mercury project gained popularity, and its missions were followed by millions on radio and TV around the world. Its success laid the groundwork for Project Gemini, which carried two astronauts in each capsule and perfected space docking maneuvers essential for crewed lunar landings in the subsequent Apollo program announced a few weeks after the first crewed Mercury flight.

Creation edit

Project Mercury was officially approved on October 7, 1958, and publicly announced on December 17.[5][6] Originally called Project Astronaut, President Dwight Eisenhower felt that gave too much attention to the pilot.[7] Instead, the name Mercury was chosen from classical mythology, which had already lent names to rockets like the Greek Atlas and Roman Jupiter for the SM-65 and PGM-19 missiles.[6] It absorbed military projects with the same aim, such as the Air Force Man in Space Soonest.[8][n 3]

Background edit

Following the end of World War II, a nuclear arms race evolved between the US and the Soviet Union (USSR). Since the USSR did not have bases in the western hemisphere from which to deploy bomber planes, Joseph Stalin decided to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles, which drove a missile race.[10] The rocket technology in turn enabled both sides to develop Earth-orbiting satellites for communications, and gathering weather data and intelligence.[11] Americans were shocked when the Soviet Union placed the first satellite into orbit in October 1957, leading to a growing fear that the US was falling into a "missile gap".[12][11] A month later, the Soviets launched Sputnik 2, carrying a dog into orbit. Though the animal was not recovered alive, it was obvious their goal was human spaceflight.[13] Unable to disclose details of military space projects, President Eisenhower ordered the creation of a civilian space agency in charge of civilian and scientific space exploration. Based on the federal research agency National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), it was named the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).[14] The agency achieved its first goal of launching a satellite into space, the Pioneer 1, in 1958. The next goal was to put a man there.[15]

The limit of space (also known as the Kármán line) was defined at the time as a minimum altitude of 62 mi (100 km), and the only way to reach it was by using rocket-powered boosters.[16][17] This created risks for the pilot, including explosion, high g-forces and vibrations during lift off through a dense atmosphere,[18] and temperatures of more than 10,000 °F (5,500 °C) from air compression during reentry.[19]

In space, pilots would require pressurized chambers or space suits to supply fresh air.[20] While there, they would experience weightlessness, which could potentially cause disorientation.[21] Further potential risks included radiation and micrometeoroid strikes, both of which would normally be absorbed in the atmosphere.[22] All seemed possible to overcome: experience from satellites suggested micrometeoroid risk was negligible,[23] and experiments in the early 1950s with simulated weightlessness, high g-forces on humans, and sending animals to the limit of space, all suggested potential problems could be overcome by known technologies.[24] Finally, reentry was studied using the nuclear warheads of ballistic missiles,[25] which demonstrated a blunt, forward-facing heat shield could solve the problem of heating.[25]

Organization edit

T. Keith Glennan had been appointed the first Administrator of NASA, with Hugh L. Dryden (last Director of NACA) as his Deputy, at the creation of the agency on October 1, 1958.[26] Glennan would report to the president through the National Aeronautics and Space Council.[27] The group responsible for Project Mercury was NASA's Space Task Group, and the goals of the program were to orbit a crewed spacecraft around Earth, investigate the pilot's ability to function in space, and to recover both pilot and spacecraft safely.[28] Existing technology and off-the-shelf equipment would be used wherever practical, the simplest and most reliable approach to system design would be followed, and an existing launch vehicle would be employed, together with a progressive test program.[29] Spacecraft requirements included: a launch escape system to separate the spacecraft and its occupant from the launch vehicle in case of impending failure; attitude control for orientation of the spacecraft in orbit; a retrorocket system to bring the spacecraft out of orbit; drag braking blunt body for atmospheric reentry; and landing on water.[29] To communicate with the spacecraft during an orbital mission, an extensive communications network had to be built.[30] In keeping with his desire to keep from giving the US space program an overtly military flavor, President Eisenhower at first hesitated to give the project top national priority (DX rating under the Defense Production Act), which meant that Mercury had to wait in line behind military projects for materials; however, this rating was granted in May 1959, a little more than a year and a half after Sputnik was launched.[31]

Contractors and facilities edit

Twelve companies bid to build the Mercury spacecraft on a $20 million ($209 million adjusted for inflation) contract.[32] In January 1959, McDonnell Aircraft Corporation was chosen to be prime contractor for the spacecraft.[33] Two weeks earlier, North American Aviation, based in Los Angeles, was awarded a contract for Little Joe, a small rocket to be used for development of the launch escape system.[34][n 4] The World Wide Tracking Network for communication between the ground and spacecraft during a flight was awarded to the Western Electric Company.[35] Redstone rockets for suborbital launches were manufactured in Huntsville, Alabama, by the Chrysler Corporation[36] and Atlas rockets by Convair in San Diego, California.[37] For crewed launches, the Atlantic Missile Range at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida was made available by the USAF.[38] This was also the site of the Mercury Control Center while the computing center of the communication network was in Goddard Space Center, Maryland.[39] Little Joe rockets were launched from Wallops Island, Virginia.[40] Astronaut training took place at Langley Research Center in Virginia, Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio, and Naval Air Development Center Johnsville in Warminster, PA.[41] Langley wind tunnels[42] together with a rocket sled track at Holloman Air Force Base at Alamogordo, New Mexico were used for aerodynamic studies.[43] Both Navy and Air Force aircraft were made available for the development of the spacecraft's landing system,[44] and Navy ships and Navy and Marine Corps helicopters were made available for recovery.[n 5] South of Cape Canaveral the town of Cocoa Beach boomed.[46] From here, 75,000 people watched the first American orbital flight being launched in 1962.[46]

Spacecraft edit

The Mercury spacecraft's principal designer was Maxime Faget, who started research for human spaceflight during the time of the NACA.[47] It was 10.8 feet (3.3 m) long and 6.0 feet (1.8 m) wide; with the launch escape system added, the overall length was 25.9 feet (7.9 m).[48] With 100 cubic feet (2.8 m3) of habitable volume, the capsule was just large enough for a single crew member.[49] Inside were 120 controls: 55 electrical switches, 30 fuses and 35 mechanical levers.[50] The heaviest spacecraft, Mercury-Atlas 9, weighed 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg) fully loaded.[51] Its outer skin was made of René 41, a nickel alloy able to withstand high temperatures.[52]

The spacecraft was cone shaped, with a neck at the narrow end.[48] It had a convex base, which carried a heat shield (Item 2 in the diagram below)[53] consisting of an aluminum honeycomb covered with multiple layers of fiberglass.[54] Strapped to it was a retropack (1)[55] consisting of three rockets deployed to brake the spacecraft during reentry.[56] Between these were three minor rockets for separating the spacecraft from the launch vehicle at orbital insertion.[57] The straps that held the package could be severed when it was no longer needed.[58] Next to the heat shield was the pressurized crew compartment (3).[59] Inside, an astronaut would be strapped to a form-fitting seat with instruments in front of him and with his back to the heat shield.[60] Underneath the seat was the environmental control system supplying oxygen and heat,[61] scrubbing the air of CO2, vapor and odors, and (on orbital flights) collecting urine.[62] The recovery compartment (4)[63] at the narrow end of the spacecraft contained three parachutes: a drogue to stabilize free fall and two main chutes, a primary and reserve.[64] Between the heat shield and inner wall of the crew compartment was a landing skirt, deployed by letting down the heat shield before landing.[65] On top of the recovery compartment was the antenna section (5)[66] containing both antennas for communication and scanners for guiding spacecraft orientation.[67] Attached was a flap used to ensure the spacecraft was faced heat shield first during reentry.[68] A launch escape system (6) was mounted to the narrow end of the spacecraft[69] containing three small solid-fueled rockets which could be fired briefly in a launch failure to separate the capsule safely from its booster. It would deploy the capsule's parachute for a landing nearby at sea.[70] (See also Mission profile for details.)

The Mercury spacecraft did not have an on-board computer, instead relying on all computation for reentry to be calculated by computers on the ground, with their results (retrofire times and firing attitude) then transmitted to the spacecraft by radio while in flight.[71][72] All computer systems used in the Mercury space program were housed in NASA facilities on Earth.[71] (See Ground control for details.)

  •  
    1. Retropack. 2. Heatshield. 3. Crew compartment. 4. Recovery compartment. 5. Antenna section. 6. Launch escape system.
  •  
    Retropack: Retrorockets with red posigrade rockets
  •  
    Landing skirt (or bag) deployment: skirt is inflated; on impact the air is pressed out (like an airbag)

Pilot accommodations edit

 
John Glenn wearing his Mercury space suit

The astronaut lay in a sitting position with his back to the heat shield, which was found to be the position that best enabled a human to withstand the high g-forces of launch and reentry. A fiberglass seat was custom-molded from each astronaut's space-suited body for maximum support. Near his left hand was a manual abort handle to activate the launch escape system if necessary prior to or during liftoff, in case the automatic trigger failed.[73]

To supplement the onboard environmental control system, he wore a pressure suit with its own oxygen supply, which would also cool him.[74] A cabin atmosphere of pure oxygen at a low pressure of 5.5 psi or 38 kPa (equivalent to an altitude of 24,800 feet or 7,600 metres) was chosen, rather than one with the same composition as air (nitrogen/oxygen) at sea level.[75] This was easier to control,[76] avoided the risk of decompression sickness ("the bends"),[77][n 6] and also saved on spacecraft weight. Fires (which never occurred during the course of Project Mercury) would have to be extinguished by emptying the cabin of oxygen.[62] In such case, or failure of the cabin pressure for any reason, the astronaut could make an emergency return to Earth, relying on his suit for survival.[78][62] The astronauts normally flew with their visor up, which meant that the suit was not inflated.[62] With the visor down and the suit inflated, the astronaut could only reach the side and bottom panels, where vital buttons and handles were placed.[79]

The astronaut also wore electrodes on his chest to record his heart rhythm, a cuff that could take his blood pressure, and a rectal thermometer to record his temperature (this was replaced by an oral thermometer on the last flight).[80] Data from these was sent to the ground during the flight.[74][n 7] The astronaut normally drank water and ate food pellets.[82][n 8]

Despite the lessons learnt from the U2 program, which also utilized a pressure suit, initially no urine collection device was included for the Mercury astronauts. An inquiry on the subject was made in February 1961 by a student, but NASA responded by stating that "the first space man is not expected to have 'to go".[83] The expected short flight times meant that this was overlooked, although after Alan Shepard had a launch delay of four hours, he was forced to urinate in his suit, short-circuiting some of the electrodes monitoring his vital signs. Gus Grissom wore two rubber pants on the second Mercury flight as a crude workaround. It would take until the third flight in February 1962 before a dedicated urine collection device was installed.[84]

Once in orbit, the spacecraft could be rotated in yaw, pitch, and roll: along its longitudinal axis (roll), left to right from the astronaut's point of view (yaw), and up or down (pitch).[85] Movement was created by rocket-propelled thrusters which used hydrogen peroxide as a fuel.[86][87] For orientation, the pilot could look through the window in front of him or he could look at a screen connected to a periscope with a camera which could be turned 360°.[88]

The Mercury astronauts had taken part in the development of their spacecraft, and insisted that manual control, and a window, be elements of its design.[89] As a result, spacecraft movement and other functions could be controlled three ways: remotely from the ground when passing over a ground station, automatically guided by onboard instruments, or manually by the astronaut, who could replace or override the two other methods. Experience validated the astronauts' insistence on manual controls. Without them, Gordon Cooper's manual reentry during the last flight would not have been possible.[90]

Cutaways and interior of spacecraft
Spacecraft cutaway
  •  
    Interior of spacecraft
  •  
    The three axes of rotation for the spacecraft: yaw, pitch and roll
  •  
    Temperature profile for spacecraft in Fahrenheit
Control panels and handle
  •  
    The control panels of Friendship 7.[91] The panels changed between flights, among others the periscope screen that dominates the center of these panels was dropped for the final flight together with the periscope itself.
  •  
    3-axis handle for attitude control

Development and production edit

 
Spacecraft production in clean room at McDonnell Aircraft, St. Louis, 1960

The Mercury spacecraft design was modified three times by NASA between 1958 and 1959.[92] After bidding by potential contractors had been completed, NASA selected the design submitted as "C" in November 1958.[93] After it failed a test flight in July 1959, a final configuration, "D", emerged.[94] The heat shield shape had been developed earlier in the 1950s through experiments with ballistic missiles, which had shown a blunt profile would create a shock wave that would lead most of the heat around the spacecraft.[95] To further protect against heat, either a heat sink, or an ablative material, could be added to the shield.[96] The heat sink would remove heat by the flow of the air inside the shock wave, whereas the ablative heat shield would remove heat by a controlled evaporation of the ablative material.[97] After uncrewed tests, the latter was chosen for crewed flights.[98] Apart from the capsule design, a rocket plane similar to the existing X-15 was considered.[99] This approach was still too far from being able to make a spaceflight, and was consequently dropped.[100][n 9] The heat shield and the stability of the spacecraft were tested in wind tunnels,[42] and later in flight.[104] The launch escape system was developed through uncrewed flights.[105] During a period of problems with development of the landing parachutes, alternative landing systems such as the Rogallo glider wing were considered, but ultimately scrapped.[106]

The spacecraft were produced at McDonnell Aircraft, St. Louis, Missouri, in clean rooms and tested in vacuum chambers at the McDonnell plant.[107] The spacecraft had close to 600 subcontractors, such as Garrett AiResearch which built the spacecraft's environmental control system.[33][61] Final quality control and preparations of the spacecraft were made at Hangar S at Cape Canaveral.[108][n 10] NASA ordered 20 production spacecraft, numbered 1 through 20.[33] Five of the 20, Nos. 10, 12, 15, 17, and 19, were not flown.[111] Spacecraft No. 3 and No. 4 were destroyed during uncrewed test flights.[111] Spacecraft No. 11 sank and was recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after 38 years.[111][112] Some spacecraft were modified after initial production (refurbished after launch abort, modified for longer missions, etc.).[n 11] A number of Mercury boilerplate spacecraft (made from non-flight materials or lacking production spacecraft systems) were also made by NASA and McDonnell.[115] They were designed and used to test spacecraft recovery systems and the escape tower.[116] McDonnell also built the spacecraft simulators used by the astronauts during training,[117] and adopted the motto "First Free Man in Space".[118]

  •  
    Shadowgraph of the reentry shock wave simulated in a wind tunnel, 1957
  •  
    Evolution of capsule design, 1958–59
  •  
    Experiment with boilerplate spacecraft, 1959
Development of Earth landing system
  •  
    Drop of boilerplate spacecraft in training of landing and recovery. 56 such qualification tests were made together with tests of individual steps of the system.[44]

Launch vehicles edit

 
Launch vehicles: 1. Mercury-Atlas (orbital flights). 2. Mercury-Redstone (suborbital flights). 3. Little Joe (uncrewed tests)

Launch escape system testing edit

A 55-foot-long (17 m) launch vehicle called Little Joe was used for uncrewed tests of the launch escape system, using a Mercury capsule with an escape tower mounted on it.[119][120] Its main purpose was to test the system at max q, when aerodynamic forces against the spacecraft peaked, making separation of the launch vehicle and spacecraft most difficult.[121] It was also the point at which the astronaut was subjected to the heaviest vibrations.[122] The Little Joe rocket used solid-fuel propellant and was originally designed in 1958 by NACA for suborbital crewed flights, but was redesigned for Project Mercury to simulate an Atlas-D launch.[105] It was produced by North American Aviation.[119] It was not able to change direction; instead its flight depended on the angle from which it was launched.[123] Its maximum altitude was 100 mi (160 km) fully loaded.[124] A Scout launch vehicle was used for a single flight intended to evaluate the tracking network; however, it failed and was destroyed from the ground shortly after launch.[125]

Suborbital flight edit

 
 
Space pioneers Ham (left), who became the first great ape in space during his January 31, 1961, mission, and Enos, the only chimpanzee and third primate to orbit the Earth (November 29, 1961), were research subjects in the Project Mercury program.

The Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle was an 83-foot-tall (25 m) (with capsule and escape system) single-stage launch vehicle used for suborbital (ballistic) flights.[126] It had a liquid-fueled engine that burned alcohol and liquid oxygen producing about 75,000 pounds-force (330 kN) of thrust, which was not enough for orbital missions.[126] It was a descendant of the German V-2,[36] and developed for the U.S. Army during the early 1950s. It was modified for Project Mercury by removing the warhead and adding a collar for supporting the spacecraft together with material for damping vibrations during launch.[127] Its rocket motor was produced by North American Aviation and its direction could be altered during flight by its fins. They worked in two ways: by directing the air around them, or by directing the thrust by their inner parts (or both at the same time).[36] Both the Atlas-D and Redstone launch vehicles contained an automatic abort sensing system which allowed them to abort a launch by firing the launch escape system if something went wrong.[128] The Jupiter rocket, also developed by Von Braun's team at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, was considered as well for intermediate Mercury suborbital flights at a higher speed and altitude than Redstone, but this plan was dropped when it turned out that man-rating Jupiter for the Mercury program would actually cost more than flying an Atlas due to economics of scale.[129][130] Jupiter's only use other than as a missile system was for the short-lived Juno II launch vehicle, and keeping a full staff of technical personnel around solely to fly a few Mercury capsules would result in excessively high costs.[citation needed]

Orbital flight edit

Orbital missions required use of the Atlas LV-3B, a man-rated version of the Atlas D which was originally developed as the United States' first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)[131] by Convair for the Air Force during the mid-1950s.[132] The Atlas was a "one-and-one-half-stage" rocket fueled by kerosene and liquid oxygen (LOX).[131] The rocket by itself stood 67 feet (20 m) high; total height of the Atlas-Mercury space vehicle at launch was 95 feet (29 m).[133]

The Atlas first stage was a booster skirt with two engines burning liquid fuel.[134][n 12] This, together with the larger sustainer second stage, gave it sufficient power to launch a Mercury spacecraft into orbit.[131] Both stages fired from lift-off with the thrust from the second stage sustainer engine passing through an opening in the first stage. After separation from the first stage, the sustainer stage continued alone. The sustainer also steered the rocket by thrusters guided by gyroscopes.[135] Smaller vernier rockets were added on its sides for precise control of maneuvers.[131]

Gallery edit

  •  
    Little Joe assembling at Wallops Island
  •  
    Erection of Redstone at Launch Complex 5
  •  
    Unloading Atlas at Cape Canaveral
  •  
    Atlas - with spacecraft mounted - on launch pad at Launch Complex 14

Astronauts edit

 
Left to right: Grissom, Shepard, Carpenter, Schirra, Slayton, Glenn and Cooper, 1962

NASA announced the following seven astronauts – known as the Mercury Seven – on April 9, 1959:[136][137]

Name Launch Rank Unit Born Died
M. Scott Carpenter 1962/5/24 Lieutenant USN 1925 2013
L. Gordon Cooper 1963/5/15 Captain USAF 1927 2004
John H. Glenn, Jr. 1962/2/20 Major USMC 1921 2016
Virgil I. Grissom 1961/7/21 Captain USAF 1926 1967
Walter M. Schirra, Jr. 1962/10/3 Lt Commander USN 1923 2007
Alan B. Shepard, Jr. 1961/5/5 Lt Commander USN 1923 1998
Donald K. Slayton Major USAF 1924 1993

Alan Shepard became the first American in space by making a suborbital flight on May 5, 1961.[138] Mercury-Redstone 3, Shepard's 15 minute and 28 second flight of the Freedom 7 capsule demonstrated the ability to withstand the high g-forces of launch and atmospheric re-entry. Shepard later went on to fly in the Apollo program and became the only Mercury astronaut to walk on the Moon on Apollo 14.[139][140]

Gus Grissom became the second American in space on Mercury-Redstone 4 on July 21, 1961. After the splashdown of Liberty Bell 7, the side hatch opened and caused the capsule to sink although Grissom was able to be safely recovered. His flight also gave NASA the confidence to move on to orbital flights. Grissom went on to participate in the Gemini and Apollo programs, but died in January 1967 during a pre-launch test for Apollo 1.[141][142]

John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth on Mercury-Atlas 6 February 20, 1962. During the flight, the spacecraft Friendship 7 experienced issues with its automatic control system but Glenn was able to manually control the spacecraft's attitude. He quit NASA in 1964, when he came to the conclusion that he likely would not be selected for any Apollo missions, and was later elected to the US Senate, serving from 1974 to 1999. During his tenure, he returned to space in 1998 as a Payload Specialist aboard STS-95.[143][144]

Scott Carpenter was the second astronaut in orbit and flew on Mercury-Atlas 7 on May 24, 1962. The spaceflight was essentially a repeat of Mercury-Atlas 6, but a targeting error during re-entry took Aurora 7 250 miles (400 km) off-course, delaying recovery. Afterwards, he joined the Navy's "Man in the Sea" program and is the only American to be both an astronaut and an aquanaut.[145][146] Carpenter's Mercury flight was his only trip into space.

Wally Schirra flew aboard Sigma 7 on Mercury-Atlas 8 on October 3, 1962. The mission's main goal was to show development of environmental controls or life-support systems that would allow for safety in space, thus being a flight mainly focused on technical evaluation, rather than scientific experimentation. The mission lasted 9 hours and 13 minutes, setting a new U.S. flight duration record.[147] In December 1965, Schirra flew on Gemini 6A, achieving the first ever space rendezvous with sister spacecraft Gemini 7. Three years later, he commanded the first crewed Apollo mission, Apollo 7, becoming the first astronaut to fly three times and the only person to fly in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.

Gordon Cooper made the last flight of Project Mercury with Mercury-Atlas 9 on May 15, 1963. His flight onboard Faith 7 set another U.S. endurance record with a 34-hour and 19 minute flight duration, and 22 completed orbits. This mission marks the last time an American was launched alone to conduct an entirely solo orbital mission. Cooper later went on to participate in Project Gemini where he once again beat the endurance record during Gemini 5.[148][149]

Deke Slayton was grounded in 1962 due to a heart condition, but remained with NASA and was appointed senior manager of the Astronaut Office and later additionally assistant director of Flight Crew Operations at the beginning of Project Gemini. On March 13, 1972, after doctors confirmed he no longer had a coronary condition, Slayton returned to flight status and the next year was assigned to the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, which successfully flew in 1975 with Slayton as the docking module pilot. After the ASTP, he managed the Space Shuttle Program's Approach and Landing Tests (ALT) and Orbital Flight Tests (OFT) before retiring from NASA in 1982.

One of the astronauts' tasks was publicity; they gave interviews to the press and visited project manufacturing facilities to speak with those who worked on Project Mercury.[150] The press was especially fond of John Glenn, who was considered the best speaker of the seven.[151] They sold their personal stories to Life magazine which portrayed them as 'patriotic, God-fearing family men.'[152] Life was also allowed to be at home with the families while the astronauts were in space.[152] During the project, Grissom, Carpenter, Cooper, Schirra and Slayton stayed with their families at or near Langley Air Force Base; Glenn lived at the base and visited his family in Washington DC on weekends. Shepard lived with his family at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia.

Other than Grissom, who was killed in the 1967 Apollo 1 fire, the other six survived past retirement and died between 1993 and 2016.[153]

Astronauts' assignments
  •  
    Mercury 7 astronaut assignments. Schirra had the most flights with three; Glenn, though being the first to leave NASA, had the last with a Space Shuttle mission in 1998.[154] Shepard was the only one to walk on the Moon.

Selection and training edit

Prior to Project Mercury, there was no protocol for selecting astronauts, so NASA would set a far-reaching precedent with both their selection process and initial choices for astronauts. At the end of 1958, various ideas for the selection pool were discussed privately within the national government and the civilian space program, and also among the public at large. Initially, there was the idea to issue a widespread public call to volunteers. Thrill-seekers such as rock climbers and acrobats would have been allowed to apply, but this idea was quickly shot down by NASA officials who understood that an undertaking such as space flight required individuals with professional training and education in flight engineering. By late 1958, NASA officials decided to move forward with test pilots being the heart of their selection pool.[155] On President Eisenhower's insistence, the group was further narrowed down to active duty military test pilots, which set the number of candidates at 508.[156] These candidates were USN or USMC naval aviation pilots (NAPs), or USAF pilots of Senior or Command rating. These aviators had long military records, which would give NASA officials more background information on which to base their decisions. Furthermore, these aviators were skilled in flying the most advanced aircraft to date, giving them the best qualifications for the new position of astronaut.[155] During this time, women were banned from flying in the military and so could not successfully qualify as test pilots. This meant that no female candidates could earn consideration for the title of astronaut. Civilian NASA X-15 pilot Neil Armstrong was also disqualified, though he had been selected by the US Air Force in 1958 for its Man in Space Soonest program, which was replaced by Mercury.[157] Although Armstrong had been a combat-experienced NAP during the Korean War, he left active duty in 1952.[7][n 13] Armstrong became NASA's first civilian astronaut in 1962 when he was selected for NASA's second group,[159] and became the first man on the Moon in 1969.[160]

It was further stipulated that candidates should be between 25 and 40 years old, no taller than 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m), and hold a college degree in a STEM subject.[7] The college degree requirement excluded the USAF's X-1 pilot, then-Lt Col (later Brig Gen) Chuck Yeager, the first person to exceed the speed of sound.[161] He later became a critic of the project, ridiculing the civilian space program, labeling astronauts as "spam in a can."[162] John Glenn did not have a college degree either, but used influential friends to make the selection committee accept him.[163] USAF Capt. (later Col.) Joseph Kittinger, a USAF fighter pilot and stratosphere balloonist, met all the requirements but preferred to stay in his contemporary project.[161] Other potential candidates declined because they did not believe that human spaceflight had a future beyond Project Mercury.[161][n 14] From the original 508, 110 candidates were selected for an interview, and from the interviews, 32 were selected for further physical and mental testing.[165] Their health, vision, and hearing were examined, together with their tolerance to noise, vibrations, g-forces, personal isolation, and heat.[166][167] In a special chamber, they were tested to see if they could perform their tasks under confusing conditions.[166] The candidates had to answer more than 500 questions about themselves and describe what they saw in different images.[166] Navy Lt (later Capt) Jim Lovell, who was later an astronaut in the Gemini and Apollo programs, did not pass the physical tests.[161] After these tests it was intended to narrow the group down to six astronauts, but in the end it was decided to keep seven.[168]

The astronauts went through a training program covering some of the same exercises that were used in their selection.[41] They simulated the g-force profiles of launch and reentry in a centrifuge at the Naval Air Development Center, and were taught special breathing techniques necessary when subjected to more than 6 g.[169] Weightlessness training took place in aircraft, first on the rear seat of a two-seater fighter and later inside converted and padded cargo aircraft.[170] They practiced gaining control of a spinning spacecraft in a machine at the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory called the Multi-Axis Spin-Test Inertia Facility (MASTIF), by using an attitude controller handle simulating the one in the spacecraft.[171][172] A further measure for finding the right attitude in orbit was star and Earth recognition training in planetaria and simulators.[173] Communication and flight procedures were practiced in flight simulators, first together with a single person assisting them and later with the Mission Control Center.[174] Recovery was practiced in pools at Langley, and later at sea with frogmen and helicopter crews.[175]

Mission profile edit

Suborbital missions edit

 
Profile. See timetable for explanation. Dashed line: region of weightlessness.

A Redstone rocket was used to boost the capsule for 2 minutes and 30 seconds to an altitude of 32 nautical miles (59 km); the capsule continued ascending on a ballistic curve after booster separation.[176][177] The launch escape system was jettisoned at the same time. At the top of the curve, the spacecraft's retrorockets were fired for testing purposes; they were not necessary for reentry because orbital speed had not been attained. The spacecraft landed in the Atlantic Ocean.[178] The suborbital mission took about 15 minutes, had an apogee altitude of 102–103 nautical miles (189–191 km), and a downrange distance of 262 nautical miles (485 km).[149][179] From the time of booster-spacecraft separation until reentry where air started to slow down the spacecraft, the pilot would experience weightlessness as shown on the image.[n 15] The recovery procedure would be the same as an orbital mission.[AS]

Orbital missions edit

 
Launch Complex 14 just before launch (service tower rolled aside). Preparations for launch were made in the blockhouse.

Preparations for a mission started a month in advance with the selection of the primary and back-up astronaut; they would practice together for the mission.[180] For three days prior to launch, the astronaut went through a special diet to minimize his need for defecating during the flight.[181] On the morning of the trip he typically ate a steak breakfast.[181] After having sensors applied to his body and being dressed in the pressure suit, he started breathing pure oxygen to prepare him for the atmosphere of the spacecraft.[182] He arrived at the launch pad, took the elevator up the launch tower and entered the spacecraft two hours before launch.[183][n 16] Once the astronaut was secured inside, the hatch was bolted, the launch area evacuated and the mobile tower rolled back.[184] After this, the launch vehicle was filled with liquid oxygen.[184] The entire procedure of preparing for launch and launching the spacecraft followed a time table called the countdown. It started a day in advance with a pre-count, in which all systems of the launch vehicle and spacecraft were checked. After that followed a 15-hour hold, during which pyrotechnics were installed. Then came the main countdown which for orbital flights started 6½ hours before launch (T – 390 min), counted backwards to launch (T = 0) and then forward until orbital insertion (T + 5 min).[183][n 17]

 
Launch and reentry profiles: A-C: launch; D: orbital insertion; E-K: reentry and landing

On an orbital mission, the Atlas' rocket engines were ignited four seconds before lift-off. The launch vehicle was held to the ground by clamps and then released when sufficient thrust was built up at lift-off (A).[186] After 30 seconds of flight, the point of maximum dynamic pressure against the vehicle was reached, at which the astronaut felt heavy vibrations.[187] After 2 minutes and 10 seconds, the two outboard booster engines shut down and were released with the aft skirt, leaving the center sustainer engine running (B).[183] At this point, the launch escape system was no longer needed, and was separated from the spacecraft by its jettison rocket (C).[56][n 18] The space vehicle moved gradually to a horizontal attitude until, at an altitude of 87 nautical miles (161 km), the sustainer engine shut down and the spacecraft was inserted into orbit (D).[189] This happened after 5 minutes and 10 seconds in a direction pointing east, whereby the spacecraft would gain speed from the rotation of the Earth.[190][n 19] Here the spacecraft fired the three posigrade rockets for a second to separate it from the launch vehicle.[192][n 20] Just before orbital insertion and sustainer engine cutoff, g-loads peaked at 8 g (6 g for a suborbital flight).[187][194] In orbit, the spacecraft automatically turned 180°, pointed the retropackage forward and its nose 14.5° downward and kept this attitude for the rest of the orbital phase to facilitate communication with the ground.[195][196][n 21]

Once in orbit, it was not possible for the spacecraft to change its trajectory except by initiating reentry.[198] Each orbit would typically take 88 minutes to complete.[199] The lowest point of the orbit, called perigee, was at about 87 nautical miles (161 km) altitude, and the highest point, called apogee, was about 150 nautical miles (280 km) altitude.[179] When leaving orbit (E), the angle of retrofire was 34° downward from the flight path angle.[195] Retrorockets fired for 10 seconds each (F) in a sequence where one started 5 seconds after the other.[192][200] During reentry (G), the astronaut would experience about 8 g (11–12 g on a suborbital mission).[201] The temperature around the heat shield rose to 3,000 °F (1,600 °C) and at the same time, there was a two-minute radio blackout due to ionization of the air around the spacecraft.[202][58]

After reentry, a small, drogue parachute (H) was deployed at 21,000 ft (6,400 m) for stabilizing the spacecraft's descent.[67] The main parachute (I) was deployed at 10,000 ft (3,000 m) starting with a narrow opening that opened fully in a few seconds to lessen the strain on the lines.[203] Just before hitting the water, the landing bag inflated from behind the heat shield to reduce the force of impact (J).[203] Upon landing the parachutes were released.[64] An antenna (K) was raised and sent out signals that could be traced by ships and helicopters.[64] Further, a green marker dye was spread around the spacecraft to make its location more visible from the air.[64][n 22] Frogmen brought in by helicopters inflated a collar around the craft to keep it upright in the water.[205][n 23] The recovery helicopter hooked onto the spacecraft and the astronaut blew the escape hatch to exit the capsule.[63] He was then hoisted aboard the helicopter that finally brought both him and the spacecraft to the ship.[n 24]

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    Mercury crewed launches
  •  
    John Glenn in orbit, 1962 (Mercury-Atlas 6)
  •  
    Alan Shepard's 1961 recovery seen from helicopter (Mercury-Redstone 3)

Ground control edit

 
Inside Control Center at Cape Canaveral (Mercury-Atlas 8)

The number of personnel supporting a Mercury mission was typically around 18,000, with about 15,000 people associated with recovery.[2][206][n 25] Most of the others followed the spacecraft from the World Wide Tracking Network, a chain of 18 stations placed around the equator, which was based on a network used for satellites and made ready in 1960.[209] It collected data from the spacecraft and provided two-way communication between the astronaut and the ground.[210] Each station had a range of 700 nautical miles (1,300 km) and a pass typically lasted 7 minutes.[211] Mercury astronauts on the ground would take the role of Capsule Communicator, or CAPCOM, who communicated with the astronaut in orbit.[212][213][n 26] Data from the spacecraft were sent to the ground, processed at the Goddard Space Center by a redundant pair of transistorized IBM 7090 computers[214] and relayed to the Mercury Control Center at Cape Canaveral.[215] In the Control Center, the data were displayed on boards on each side of a world map, which showed the position of the spacecraft, its ground track and the place it could land in an emergency within the next 30 minutes.[196]

Other computers associated with ground control for Mercury included a vacuum-tube-based IBM 709 system in Cape Canaveral which determined whether a mid-launch abort might be needed and where an aborting capsule would land, another IBM 709 in Bermuda which served as backup for the two IBM 7090 transistor-based machines at Goddard, and a Burroughs-GE system which provided radio guidance for the Atlas during launch.[214]

The World Wide Tracking Network went on to serve subsequent space programs, until it was replaced by a satellite relay system in the 1980s.[216] Mission Control Center was moved from Cape Canaveral to Houston in 1965.[217]

Tracking network
  •  
    Ground track and tracking stations for Mercury-Atlas 8. Spacecraft starts from Cape Canaveral in Florida and moves east; each new orbit-track is displaced to the left due to the rotation of the Earth. It moves between latitudes 32.5° north and 32.5° south.[218] Key: 1–6: orbit number. Yellow: launch. Black dot: tracking station. Red: range of station; Blue: landing.

Flights edit

 
Project Mercury landing sites
/
Cape Canaveral
Hawaii
 
Freedom 7
 
Liberty Bell 7
 
Friendship 7
 
Aurora 7
 
Sigma 7
 
Faith 7

On April 12, 1961, the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space on an orbital flight. He was not present in his spacecraft during landing thus technically his mission was not initially considered as the first complete human spaceflight by then World Air Sports Federation's definitions, although later it recognized that Gagarin was the first human to fly into space.[219][220][221] Alan Shepard became the first American in space on a suborbital flight three weeks later, on May 5, 1961.[138] John Glenn, the third Mercury astronaut to fly, became the first American to reach orbit on February 20, 1962, but only after the Soviets had launched a second cosmonaut, Gherman Titov, into a day-long flight in August 1961.[222] Three more Mercury orbital flights were made, ending on May 16, 1963, with a day-long, 22 orbit flight.[149] However, the Soviet Union ended its Vostok program the next month, with the human spaceflight endurance record set by the 82-orbit, almost 5-day Vostok 5 flight.[223]

Crewed edit

All of the six crewed Mercury flights were successful, though some planned flights were canceled during the project (see below).[149] The main medical problems encountered were simple personal hygiene, and post-flight symptoms of low blood pressure.[2] The launch vehicles had been tested through uncrewed flights, therefore the numbering of crewed missions did not start with 1.[224] Also, there were two separately numbered series: MR for "Mercury-Redstone" (suborbital flights), and MA for "Mercury-Atlas" (orbital flights). These names were not popularly used, since the astronauts followed a pilot tradition, each giving their spacecraft a name. They selected names ending with a "7" to commemorate the seven astronauts.[56][137] Spacecraft production numbers don't match the mission order, with some capsules being reserved as backup or used in tests.[225] Times given are Coordinated Universal Time, local time + 5 hours. MA = Mercury-Atlas, MR = Mercury-Redstone, LC = Launch Complex.[n 27]

Mission Spacecraft No. Call-sign Pilot Launch Duration Orbits Apogee
mi (km) 		Perigee
mi (km) 		Max. velocity
mph (km/h) 		Miss
mi (km)
time site
MR-3 7 Freedom 7 Shepard 14:34 on May 5, 1961 LC-5 15 m 22 s 0 117 (188) — 5,134 (8,262) 3.5 (5.6)
MR-4 11 Liberty Bell 7 Grissom 12:20 on Jul. 21, 1961 LC-5 15 m 37 s 0 118 (190) — 5,168 (8,317) 5.8 (9.3)
MA-6 13 Friendship 7 Glenn 14:47 on Feb. 20, 1962 LC-14 4 h 55 m 23 s 3 162 (261) 100 (161) 17,544 (28,234) 46 (74)
MA-7 18 Aurora 7 Carpenter 12:45 on May 24, 1962 LC-14 4 h 56 m 5 s 3 167 (269) 100 (161) 17,549 (28,242) 248 (400)
MA-8 16 Sigma 7 Schirra 12:15 on Oct. 3, 1962 LC-14 9 h 13 m 15 s 6 176 (283) 100 (161) 17,558 (28,257) 4.6 (7.4)
MA-9 20 Faith 7 Cooper 13:04 on May 15, 1963 LC-14 1 d 10 h 19 m 49 s 22 166 (267) 100 (161) 17,547 (28,239) 5.0 (8.1)
  •  
    Shepard's flight watched on TV in the White House. May 1961.
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    John Glenn honored by the President. February 1962
  •  
    USS Kearsarge with crew spelling Mercury-9. May 1963.

Uncrewed and chimpanzee flights edit

The 20 uncrewed flights used Little Joe, Redstone, and Atlas launch vehicles.[137] They were used to develop the launch vehicles, launch escape system, spacecraft and tracking network.[224] One flight of a Scout rocket attempted to launch a specialized satellite equipped with Mercury communications components for testing the ground tracking network, but the booster failed soon after liftoff. The Little Joe program used seven airframes for eight flights, of which three were successful. The second Little Joe flight was named Little Joe 6, because it was inserted into the program after the first 5 airframes had been allocated.[242][181] Production spacecraft and boilerplates were used for these test flights.[225]

Mission[n 33] Spacecraft No. Launch Duration Purpose Result
Little Joe 1 Boilerplate August 21, 1959 20 s Test of launch escape system during flight. Failure
Big Joe 1 Big Joe Boilerplate September 9, 1959 13 m 00 s Test of heat shield and Atlas/spacecraft interface. Partial success
Little Joe 6 Boilerplate October 4, 1959 5 m 10 s Test of spacecraft aerodynamics and integrity. Partial success
Little Joe 1A Boilerplate November 4, 1959 8 m 11 s Test of launch escape system during flight with boiler plate capsule. Partial success
Little Joe 2 Boilerplate December 4, 1959 11 m 6 s Escape system test with primate at high altitude. Success
Little Joe 1B Boilerplate January 21, 1960 8 m 35 s Maximum-q abort and escape test with primate with boiler plate capsule. Success
Beach Abort 1 May 9, 1960 1 m 31 s Test of the off-the-pad abort system. Success
Mercury-Atlas 1 4 July 29, 1960 3 m 18 s Test of spacecraft / Atlas combination. Failure
Little Joe 5 3 November 8, 1960 2 m 22 s First Little Joe escape system test with a production spacecraft, at max-q. Failure
Mercury-Redstone 1 2 November 21, 1960 2 s Qualification of spacecraft / Redstone combination. Failure
Mercury-Redstone 1A 2 December 19, 1960 15 m 45 s Qualification of spacecraft / Redstone combination. Success
Mercury-Redstone 2 5 January 31, 1961 16 m 39 s Qualification of spacecraft with chimpanzee named Ham. Success
Mercury-Atlas 2 6 February 21, 1961 17 m 56 s Qualified Mercury/Atlas interface. Success
Little Joe 5A 14 March 18, 1961 5 m 25 s Second test of escape system with a production Mercury spacecraft. Partial success
Mercury-Redstone BD Boilerplate March 24, 1961 8 m 23 s Final Redstone test flight. Success
Mercury-Atlas 3 8 April 25, 1961 7 m 19 s Orbital flight with robot astronaut.[243][244][n 34] Failure
Little Joe 5B 14 April 28, 1961 5 m 25 s Third test of escape system with a production spacecraft. Success
Mercury-Atlas 4 8 September 13, 1961 1 h 49 m 20 s Test of environmental control system with robot astronaut in orbit. Success
Mercury-Scout 1 - November 1, 1961 44 s Special satellite to test Mercury tracking network. Failure
Mercury-Atlas 5 9 November 29, 1961 3 h 20 m 59 s Test of environmental control system in orbit with chimpanzee named Enos. Success
  After suborbital crewed flights
  •  
    Little Joe 1B at launch with Miss Sam, 1960
  •  
    Mercury-Redstone 1: launch escape system lift-off after 4'' launch, 1960
  •  
    Mercury-Redstone 2: Ham, 1961
  •  
    Mercury-Atlas 5: Enos, 1961

Canceled edit

Nine of the planned flights were canceled. Suborbital flights were planned for four other astronauts but the number of flights was cut down gradually and finally all remaining were canceled after Titov's flight.[273][274][n 38] Mercury-Atlas 9 was intended to be followed by more one-day flights and even a three-day flight but with the coming of the Gemini Project it seemed unnecessary. The Jupiter booster was, as mentioned above, intended to be used for different purposes.

Mission Pilot Planned Launch Cancellation
Mercury-Jupiter 1 July 1, 1959[276]
Mercury-Jupiter 2 Chimpanzee First quarter, 1960 July 1, 1959[276][n 39]
Mercury-Redstone 5 Glenn (likely) March 1960[274] August 1961[278]
Mercury-Redstone 6 April 1960[274] July 1961[279]
Mercury-Redstone 7 May 1960[274]
Mercury-Redstone 8 June 1960[274]
Mercury-Atlas 10 Shepard October 1963 June 13, 1963[n 40]
Mercury-Atlas 11 Grissom Fourth quarter, 1963 October 1962[281]
Mercury-Atlas 12 Schirra Fourth quarter, 1963 October 1962[282]

Legacy edit

 
Ticker tape parade for Gordon Cooper in New York City, May 1963

Today the Mercury program is commemorated as the first American human space program.[283] It did not win the race against the Soviet Union, but gave back national prestige and was scientifically a successful precursor of later programs such as Gemini, Apollo and Skylab.[284][n 41]

During the 1950s, some experts doubted that human spaceflight was possible.[n 42] Still, when John F. Kennedy was elected president, many, including him, had doubts about the project.[287] As president he chose to support the programs a few months before the launch of Freedom 7,[288] which became a public success.[289][n 43] Afterwards, a majority of the American public supported human spaceflight, and, within a few weeks, Kennedy announced a plan for a crewed mission to land on the Moon and return safely to Earth before the end of the 1960s.[293]

The six astronauts who flew were awarded medals,[294] driven in parades and two of them were invited to address a joint session of the US Congress.[295] Seeing as no women previously met the qualifications for the astronaut program, the question was raised as to whether or not they could. This led to the development of a project named Mercury 13 by the media, in which thirteen American women successfully underwent the tests. The Mercury 13 program was not officially conducted by NASA. It was created by NASA physician William Randolph Lovelace, who developed the physical and psychological tests used to select NASA's first seven male astronauts for Project Mercury. The women completed physical and psychological tests, but were never required to complete the training as the privately funded program was quickly cancelled. No female candidates adequately met the qualifications for the astronaut program until 1978, when a few finally qualified for the Space Shuttle program.[296]

On February 25, 2011, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the world's largest technical professional society, awarded Boeing (the successor company to McDonnell Aircraft) a Milestone Award for important inventions which debuted on the Mercury spacecraft.[297][n 44]

Depictions on film edit

A short documentary, The John Glenn Story, was released in 1962.

On film the program was portrayed in The Right Stuff, a 1983 adaptation of Tom Wolfe's 1979 book of the same name,[298] in the 1998 HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, in the 2016 film Hidden Figures and the 2020 Disney+ series The Right Stuff which is also based on the Tom Wolfe book.

Commemorations edit

In 1964, a monument commemorating Project Mercury was unveiled near Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, featuring a metal logo combining the symbol of Mercury with the number 7.[299] In 1962, the United States Postal Service honored the Mercury-Atlas 6 flight with a Project Mercury commemorative stamp, the first US postal issue to depict a crewed spacecraft.[300][n 45]

Displays edit

The spacecraft that flew, together with some that did not, are on display in the United States. Friendship 7 (Spacecraft No. 13) went on a global tour, popularly known as its "fourth orbit".[302]

Patches edit

Commemorative patches were designed by entrepreneurs after the Mercury program to satisfy collectors.[303][n 47]

  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Videos edit

  • John Glenn documentary from 50th Anniversary of Friendship 7, 2012.

Space program comparison edit

  •  
    NASA illustration comparing boosters and spacecraft from Apollo (biggest), Gemini and Mercury (smallest).

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ Designed in 1964 from Mercury Seven astronaut memorial
  2. ^ The project was delayed by 22 months, counting from the beginning until the first orbital mission.[2] It had a dozen prime contractors, 75 major subcontractors, and about 7200 third-tier subcontractors.[2] The cost estimate made by NASA in 1969 was $392.6 million, broken down as follows: Spacecraft: $135.3 million, launch vehicles: $82.9 million, operations: $49.3 million, tracking operations and equipment: $71.9 million and facilities: $53.2 million.[3][4]
  3. ^ Man in Space Soonest was the first part of a four-phase Moon landing program estimated to finish in 1965, cost a total of $1.5 billion ($15.7 billion adjusted for inflation), and be launched by a "Super Titan" rocket.[9]
  4. ^ The name Little Joe was adopted by its designers from the throw of a double deuce in a craps game since this resembled the four-rocket arrangement in the blueprints for the vehicle.[34]
  5. ^ NASA's planning for recovery operations in the summer of 1960 was, according to the Navy, asking for the deployment of the whole Atlantic Fleet and might have cost more than the entire Mercury program.[45]
  6. ^ The decision to eliminate the use of any gas but oxygen was crystalized when a serious accident occurred on April 21, 1960, in which McDonnell Aircraft test pilot G.B. North passed out and was seriously injured when testing a Mercury cabin/spacesuit atmosphere system in a vacuum chamber. The problem was found to be nitrogen-rich (oxygen-poor) air leaking from the cabin into his spacesuit feed.[77]
  7. ^ Pilot and spacecraft data sent automatically to the ground is called telemetry.[81]
  8. ^ Moisture and urine was recycled into drinking water.[49]
  9. ^ The rocket plane approach to human space flight was pursued by the Air Force with their Dyna-Soar project, which was canceled in 1963.[101] Toward the end of the 1960s, NASA began the development of a reusable space plane, which was ultimately developed into the Space Shuttle program.[102] The first rocket plane to enter space was an X-15 in 1963.[103]
  10. ^ Test and rework of Mercury-Redstone 2 at the Hangar required 110 days.[109] Hangar S was also the place where the chimpanzees were trained.[110]
  11. ^ They received a letter designation after their number, e.g., 2B, 15B.[113] Some were modified twice: for example, spacecraft 15 became 15A and then 15B.[114]
  12. ^ At the time, the word "booster" was sometimes used for the first stage of the launch stack. Later, "booster" came to refer to additional single-stage rockets attached to the sides of the main launch vehicle, as on the Space Shuttle.
  13. ^ Armstrong left the Navy as a Lieutenant, Junior Grade in the US Naval Reserve, until resigning his commission 1960.[158]
  14. ^ At the beginning of the project both President Eisenhower and NASA's first administrator, T. K. Glennan, believed that the US would put the first man in space, and that this would be the end of the Space Race.[164]
  15. ^ With the exception of the 20 seconds of retrofire during which the pilot would experience g-force.
  16. ^ Inside the spacecraft the other astronauts had usually prepared a practical joke, such as a sign saying "No handball playing".[184]
  17. ^ Countdown was controlled from the blockhouse at the Launch Complex until 2 min. before launch then it was transferred to Mission Control Center. The countdown of the last 10 sec. before launch would be given to the astronaut by one of the others and included on TV transmissions which had already started.[185]
  18. ^ In the event of a launch abort before this point, the launch escape system would fire its main rocket for one second, pulling the spacecraft and astronaut away from the launch vehicle and a possible explosion.[70] At this point, the spacecraft could be separated from the launch vehicle and land using its parachute.[188]
  19. ^ The direction of insertion was east and slightly to the north, meaning that, on a three-orbit flight, the tracking network was used optimally and a landing could take place in the North Atlantic Ocean.[191]
  20. ^ The sustainer would disintegrate and fall down; after the launch of Friendship 7 a part of the sustainer was found in South Africa.[193]
  21. ^ The capsule's tendency to drift was countered automatically by the attitude control system (ASCS) which used small hydrogen peroxide thrusters. To save fuel, however, the spacecraft would be allowed to drift from time to time, especially on longer missions.[197]
  22. ^ Radar chaff and a SOFAR bomb which could be detected by the recovery ship's hydrophone were eliminated as unnecessary measures after the first orbital flight.[204]
  23. ^ The collar was not ready for suborbital missions.[205]
  24. ^ It was also possible to exit the capsule through the nose cylinder; only Carpenter did this.[30][67]
  25. ^ T. J. O'Malley pushed the button to launch Glenn[207] while the Site Manager and Launch Conductor at Complex 14, Calvin D. Fowler, pushed the button to launch Carpenter, Schirra, and Cooper.[208]
  26. ^ Occasionally this communication was broadcast on live TV while the spacecraft was passing over the United States.
  27. ^ Alexander & al., 1966, pp. 638–641.
  28. ^ It was recovered in 1999.[112]
  29. ^ Launch of Friendship 7 was postponed repeatedly during two months; a frustrated politician compared the spacecraft-Atlas combination to "a Rube Goldberg device on top of a plumber's nightmare".[230]
  30. ^ Carpenter's overshoot of the landing site was caused by a malfunction in the automatic stabilization, which meant that retrofire was out of line with the movement of the spacecraft[233]
  31. ^ During Carpenter's mission a seaplane from the US Air Force got to the landing site about 1½ hour ahead of the Navy ships and offered to pick him up. This, however, was declined by the admiral in charge of Mercury recovery operations, which led to a Senate hearing about the incident.[235]
  32. ^ Likely to be so according to Alexander & al.[240]
  33. ^ Source: Alexander & al., 1966, pp. 638–641 when nothing else is mentioned.
  34. ^ A machine that produced the same heat, vapor and CO2 as an astronaut.[245]
  35. ^ The clamp was subsequently tested by a rocket sled.[43]
  36. ^ Immediately after the Redstone's engine shut down, the capsule's escape rocket jettisoned itself, leaving the capsule attached to the booster. The escape rocket rose to an altitude of 4,000 ft (1,200 m) and landed about 400 yd (370 m) away. Three seconds after the escape rocket fired, the capsule deployed its drogue parachute; it then deployed the main and reserve parachutes.[257]
  37. ^ Was given a reward in the form a banana pellet or a punishment in the form of mild electrical shocks depending on whether or not he gave the right response to a given signal; by mistake he was sometimes given shocks on right answers.[270]
  38. ^ Within the Mercury Project organization the suborbital flights were from the start criticized as being of little value and even compared to a circus act.[275]
  39. ^ Proposed maximum dynamic pressure test for capsule.[277]
  40. ^ Mercury-Atlas 10 was intended to be a three-day mission in November 1962 with extra supplies attached to the heat shield. Call-sign Freedom 7-II. By January 1963, it was changed to a one-day back up mission for Mercury-Atlas 9. It was canceled after the success of the latter.[280]
  41. ^ International rules required that a pilot must land safely with the spacecraft; in reality, Gagarin landed separately by parachute; however, the Soviet Union did not admit this until 1971 when their claim was no longer in danger of being challenged.[285]
  42. ^ In May 1957, five months before Sputnik I, the president of McDonnell, later the prime contractor, predicted that human spaceflight would not take place before 1990.[286]
  43. ^ Along the roads in the US, drivers stopped to follow Freedom 7 on the radio. Later, 100 millions saw or listened to Friendship 7, the first orbital flight, on TV or radio.[290] The launch of Sigma 7 and Faith 7 were relayed live via communication satellite to television audiences in Western Europe.[291] Two of the three major US networks covered Sigma 7 minute-by-minute, while the third was showing the opening of the World Series.[292]
  44. ^ Boeing received the award in recognition of Project Mercury's pioneering "navigation and control instruments, autopilot, rate stabilization and control, and fly-by-wire systems."[297]
  45. ^ The stamp first went on sale in Cape Canaveral, Florida on February 20, 1962, the same day as the first crewed orbital flight.[300] On May 4, 2011, the Postal Service released a stamp commemorating the 50th anniversary of Freedom 7, the first flight of the project with people onboard.[301]
  46. ^ The stamp was issued February 20, 1962, the day of John Glenn's flight in Friendship 7. This one has a First day of issue postmark from Cape Canaveral post office.
  47. ^ The only patches the Mercury astronauts wore were the NASA logo and a name tag.[303] Each crewed Mercury spacecraft was painted black and decorated with a flight insignia, its call-sign, an American flag and the words United States.[56]

References edit

  1. ^ a b Lafleur, Claude (March 8, 2010). "Costs of US piloted programs". The Space Review. Retrieved February 18, 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d Alexander & al. 1966, p. 508.
  3. ^ Wilford 1969, p. 67.
  4. ^ Alexander & al. 1966, p. 643.
  5. ^ Grimwood 1963, p. 12.
  6. ^ a b Alexander & al. 1966, p. 132.
  7. ^ a b c Catchpole 2001, p. 92.
  8. ^ Alexander & al. 1966, p. 102.
  9. ^ Alexander & al. 1966, p. 91.
  10. ^ Catchpole 2001, pp. 12–14.
  11. ^ a b Catchpole 2001, p. 81.
  12. ^ Alexander & al. 1966, pp. 28, 52.
  13. ^ Catchpole 2001, p. 55.
  14. ^ Alexander & al. 1966, p. 113.
  15. ^ Catchpole 2001, pp. 57, 82.
  16. ^ Catchpole 2001, p. 70.
  17. ^ Alexander & al. 1966, p. 13.
  18. ^ Alexander & al. 1966, p. 44.
  19. ^ Alexander & al. 1966, p. 59.
  20. ^ Catchpole 2001, p. 466.
  21. ^ a b Alexander & al. 1966, p. 357.
  22. ^ Alexander & al. 1966, pp. 35, 39–40.
  23. ^ Alexander & al. 1966, p. 49.
  24. ^ Alexander & al. 1966, pp. 37–38.
  25. ^ a b Alexander & al. 1966, p. 61.
  26. ^ Alexander & al. 1966, pp. 98–99.
  27. ^ Catchpole 2001, p. 82.
  28. ^ Alexander & al. 1966, pp. xiii, 134.
  29. ^ a b Alexander & al. 1966, p. 134.
  30. ^ a b Alexander & al. 1966, p. 143.
  31. ^ Catchpole 2001, p. 157.
  32. ^ Alexander & al. 1966, pp. 121, 191.
  33. ^ a b c Alexander & al. 1966, p. 137.
  34. ^ a b Alexander & al. 1966, p. 124.
  35. ^ Alexander & al. 1966, p. 216.
  36. ^ a b c Alexander & al. 1966, p. 21.
  37. ^ Catchpole 2001, p. 158.
  38. ^ Catchpole 2001, p. 89–90.
  39. ^ Catchpole 2001, p. 86.
  40. ^ Alexander & al. 1966, p. 141.
  41. ^ a b Catchpole 2001, pp. 103–110.
  42. ^ a b Alexander & al. 1966, p. 88.
  43. ^ a b c Catchpole 2001, p. 248.
  44. ^ a b Catchpole 2001, pp. 172–173.
  45. ^ Alexander & al. 1966, p. 265.
  46. ^ a b . City of Cocoa Beach. Archived from the original on January 4, 2013. Retrieved June 24, 2013.
  47. ^ Catchpole 2001, p. 150.
  48. ^ a b Catchpole 2001, p. 131.
  49. ^ a b Alexander & al. 1966, p. 47.
  50. ^ Alexander & al. 1966, p. 245.
  51. ^ Alexander & al. 1966, p. 490.
  52. ^ Catchpole 2001, p. 136.
  53. ^ Catchpole 2001, pp. 134–136.
  54. ^ Alexander & al. 1966, pp. 140, 143.
  55. ^ Catchpole 2001, pp. 132–134.
  56. ^ a b c d Catchpole 2001, p. 132.
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Bibliography edit

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External links edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mercury program.
  • NASA Project Mercury images and videos November 28, 2020, at the Wayback Machine
  • Space Medicine In Project Mercury
  • PDFs of historical Mercury documents including familiarization manuals.
  • Project Mercury Drawings and Technical Diagrams July 12, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  • The Astronauts: United States Project Mercury is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive

January 01, 1970
project, mercury, this, article, about, nasa, crewed, spaceflight, program, other, uses, mercury, project, disambiguation, first, human, spaceflight, program, united, states, running, from, 1958, through, 1963, early, highlight, space, race, goal, into, earth,. This article is about the NASA crewed spaceflight program For other uses see Mercury project disambiguation Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States running from 1958 through 1963 An early highlight of the Space Race its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely ideally before the Soviet Union Taken over from the US Air Force by the newly created civilian space agency NASA it conducted 20 uncrewed developmental flights some using animals and six successful flights by astronauts The program which took its name from Roman mythology cost 2 68 billion adjusted for inflation 1 n 2 The astronauts were collectively known as the Mercury Seven and each spacecraft was given a name ending with a 7 by its pilot Project MercuryRetroactive logo n 1 Program overviewCountryUnited StatesOrganizationNASAPurposeCrewed orbital flightStatusCompletedProgram historyCost 277 million 1965 1 2 68 billion adjusted for inflation Duration1958 1963First flightBig Joe 1September 9 1959 1959 09 09 First crewed flightMercury Redstone 3May 5 1961 1961 05 05 Last flightMercury Atlas 9May 15 1963 1963 05 15 Successes11Failures3 MA 1 MA 3 and MR 1 Partial failures1 Big Joe 1 Launch site s Cape CanaveralWallopsVehicle informationCrewed vehicle s Mercury capsuleLaunch vehicle s Atlas LV 3BBig JoeBlue Scout IILittle JoeMercury Redstone The Space Race began with the 1957 launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1 This came as a shock to the American public and led to the creation of NASA to expedite existing US space exploration efforts and place most of them under civilian control After the successful launch of the Explorer 1 satellite in 1958 crewed spaceflight became the next goal The Soviet Union put the first human cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into a single orbit aboard Vostok 1 on April 12 1961 Shortly after this on May 5 the US launched its first astronaut Alan Shepard on a suborbital flight Soviet Gherman Titov followed with a day long orbital flight in August 1961 The US reached its orbital goal on February 20 1962 when John Glenn made three orbits around the Earth When Mercury ended in May 1963 both nations had sent six people into space but the Soviets led the US in total time spent in space The Mercury space capsule was produced by McDonnell Aircraft and carried supplies of water food and oxygen for about one day in a pressurized cabin Mercury flights were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on launch vehicles modified from the Redstone and Atlas D missiles The capsule was fitted with a launch escape rocket to carry it safely away from the launch vehicle in case of a failure The flight was designed to be controlled from the ground via the Manned Space Flight Network a system of tracking and communications stations back up controls were outfitted on board Small retrorockets were used to bring the spacecraft out of its orbit after which an ablative heat shield protected it from the heat of atmospheric reentry Finally a parachute slowed the craft for a water landing Both astronaut and capsule were recovered by helicopters deployed from a US Navy ship The Mercury project gained popularity and its missions were followed by millions on radio and TV around the world Its success laid the groundwork for Project Gemini which carried two astronauts in each capsule and perfected space docking maneuvers essential for crewed lunar landings in the subsequent Apollo program announced a few weeks after the first crewed Mercury flight Contents 1 Creation 1 1 Background 1 2 Organization 1 3 Contractors and facilities 2 Spacecraft 2 1 Pilot accommodations 2 2 Development and production 3 Launch vehicles 3 1 Launch escape system testing 3 2 Suborbital flight 3 3 Orbital flight 3 4 Gallery 4 Astronauts 4 1 Selection and training 5 Mission profile 5 1 Suborbital missions 5 2 Orbital missions 6 Ground control 7 Flights 7 1 Crewed 7 2 Uncrewed and chimpanzee flights 7 3 Canceled 8 Legacy 8 1 Depictions on film 8 2 Commemorations 8 3 Displays 8 4 Patches 9 Videos 10 Space program comparison 11 See also 12 Notes 13 References 14 Bibliography 15 External linksCreation editProject Mercury was officially approved on October 7 1958 and publicly announced on December 17 5 6 Originally called Project Astronaut President Dwight Eisenhower felt that gave too much attention to the pilot 7 Instead the name Mercury was chosen from classical mythology which had already lent names to rockets like the Greek Atlas and Roman Jupiter for the SM 65 and PGM 19 missiles 6 It absorbed military projects with the same aim such as the Air Force Man in Space Soonest 8 n 3 Background edit Following the end of World War II a nuclear arms race evolved between the US and the Soviet Union USSR Since the USSR did not have bases in the western hemisphere from which to deploy bomber planes Joseph Stalin decided to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles which drove a missile race 10 The rocket technology in turn enabled both sides to develop Earth orbiting satellites for communications and gathering weather data and intelligence 11 Americans were shocked when the Soviet Union placed the first satellite into orbit in October 1957 leading to a growing fear that the US was falling into a missile gap 12 11 A month later the Soviets launched Sputnik 2 carrying a dog into orbit Though the animal was not recovered alive it was obvious their goal was human spaceflight 13 Unable to disclose details of military space projects President Eisenhower ordered the creation of a civilian space agency in charge of civilian and scientific space exploration Based on the federal research agency National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics NACA it was named the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA 14 The agency achieved its first goal of launching a satellite into space the Pioneer 1 in 1958 The next goal was to put a man there 15 The limit of space also known as the Karman line was defined at the time as a minimum altitude of 62 mi 100 km and the only way to reach it was by using rocket powered boosters 16 17 This created risks for the pilot including explosion high g forces and vibrations during lift off through a dense atmosphere 18 and temperatures of more than 10 000 F 5 500 C from air compression during reentry 19 In space pilots would require pressurized chambers or space suits to supply fresh air 20 While there they would experience weightlessness which could potentially cause disorientation 21 Further potential risks included radiation and micrometeoroid strikes both of which would normally be absorbed in the atmosphere 22 All seemed possible to overcome experience from satellites suggested micrometeoroid risk was negligible 23 and experiments in the early 1950s with simulated weightlessness high g forces on humans and sending animals to the limit of space all suggested potential problems could be overcome by known technologies 24 Finally reentry was studied using the nuclear warheads of ballistic missiles 25 which demonstrated a blunt forward facing heat shield could solve the problem of heating 25 Organization edit T Keith Glennan had been appointed the first Administrator of NASA with Hugh L Dryden last Director of NACA as his Deputy at the creation of the agency on October 1 1958 26 Glennan would report to the president through the National Aeronautics and Space Council 27 The group responsible for Project Mercury was NASA s Space Task Group and the goals of the program were to orbit a crewed spacecraft around Earth investigate the pilot s ability to function in space and to recover both pilot and spacecraft safely 28 Existing technology and off the shelf equipment would be used wherever practical the simplest and most reliable approach to system design would be followed and an existing launch vehicle would be employed together with a progressive test program 29 Spacecraft requirements included a launch escape system to separate the spacecraft and its occupant from the launch vehicle in case of impending failure attitude control for orientation of the spacecraft in orbit a retrorocket system to bring the spacecraft out of orbit drag braking blunt body for atmospheric reentry and landing on water 29 To communicate with the spacecraft during an orbital mission an extensive communications network had to be built 30 In keeping with his desire to keep from giving the US space program an overtly military flavor President Eisenhower at first hesitated to give the project top national priority DX rating under the Defense Production Act which meant that Mercury had to wait in line behind military projects for materials however this rating was granted in May 1959 a little more than a year and a half after Sputnik was launched 31 Contractors and facilities edit Twelve companies bid to build the Mercury spacecraft on a 20 million 209 million adjusted for inflation contract 32 In January 1959 McDonnell Aircraft Corporation was chosen to be prime contractor for the spacecraft 33 Two weeks earlier North American Aviation based in Los Angeles was awarded a contract for Little Joe a small rocket to be used for development of the launch escape system 34 n 4 The World Wide Tracking Network for communication between the ground and spacecraft during a flight was awarded to the Western Electric Company 35 Redstone rockets for suborbital launches were manufactured in Huntsville Alabama by the Chrysler Corporation 36 and Atlas rockets by Convair in San Diego California 37 For crewed launches the Atlantic Missile Range at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida was made available by the USAF 38 This was also the site of the Mercury Control Center while the computing center of the communication network was in Goddard Space Center Maryland 39 Little Joe rockets were launched from Wallops Island Virginia 40 Astronaut training took place at Langley Research Center in Virginia Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Cleveland Ohio and Naval Air Development Center Johnsville in Warminster PA 41 Langley wind tunnels 42 together with a rocket sled track at Holloman Air Force Base at Alamogordo New Mexico were used for aerodynamic studies 43 Both Navy and Air Force aircraft were made available for the development of the spacecraft s landing system 44 and Navy ships and Navy and Marine Corps helicopters were made available for recovery n 5 South of Cape Canaveral the town of Cocoa Beach boomed 46 From here 75 000 people watched the first American orbital flight being launched in 1962 46 nbsp Wallops Island test facility 1961 nbsp Mercury Control Center Cape Canaveral 1963 nbsp Location of production and operational facilities of Project MercurySpacecraft editThe Mercury spacecraft s principal designer was Maxime Faget who started research for human spaceflight during the time of the NACA 47 It was 10 8 feet 3 3 m long and 6 0 feet 1 8 m wide with the launch escape system added the overall length was 25 9 feet 7 9 m 48 With 100 cubic feet 2 8 m3 of habitable volume the capsule was just large enough for a single crew member 49 Inside were 120 controls 55 electrical switches 30 fuses and 35 mechanical levers 50 The heaviest spacecraft Mercury Atlas 9 weighed 3 000 pounds 1 400 kg fully loaded 51 Its outer skin was made of Rene 41 a nickel alloy able to withstand high temperatures 52 The spacecraft was cone shaped with a neck at the narrow end 48 It had a convex base which carried a heat shield Item 2 in the diagram below 53 consisting of an aluminum honeycomb covered with multiple layers of fiberglass 54 Strapped to it was a retropack 1 55 consisting of three rockets deployed to brake the spacecraft during reentry 56 Between these were three minor rockets for separating the spacecraft from the launch vehicle at orbital insertion 57 The straps that held the package could be severed when it was no longer needed 58 Next to the heat shield was the pressurized crew compartment 3 59 Inside an astronaut would be strapped to a form fitting seat with instruments in front of him and with his back to the heat shield 60 Underneath the seat was the environmental control system supplying oxygen and heat 61 scrubbing the air of CO2 vapor and odors and on orbital flights collecting urine 62 The recovery compartment 4 63 at the narrow end of the spacecraft contained three parachutes a drogue to stabilize free fall and two main chutes a primary and reserve 64 Between the heat shield and inner wall of the crew compartment was a landing skirt deployed by letting down the heat shield before landing 65 On top of the recovery compartment was the antenna section 5 66 containing both antennas for communication and scanners for guiding spacecraft orientation 67 Attached was a flap used to ensure the spacecraft was faced heat shield first during reentry 68 A launch escape system 6 was mounted to the narrow end of the spacecraft 69 containing three small solid fueled rockets which could be fired briefly in a launch failure to separate the capsule safely from its booster It would deploy the capsule s parachute for a landing nearby at sea 70 See also Mission profile for details The Mercury spacecraft did not have an on board computer instead relying on all computation for reentry to be calculated by computers on the ground with their results retrofire times and firing attitude then transmitted to the spacecraft by radio while in flight 71 72 All computer systems used in the Mercury space program were housed in NASA facilities on Earth 71 See Ground control for details nbsp 1 Retropack 2 Heatshield 3 Crew compartment 4 Recovery compartment 5 Antenna section 6 Launch escape system nbsp Retropack Retrorockets with red posigrade rockets nbsp Landing skirt or bag deployment skirt is inflated on impact the air is pressed out like an airbag Pilot accommodations edit nbsp John Glenn wearing his Mercury space suit The astronaut lay in a sitting position with his back to the heat shield which was found to be the position that best enabled a human to withstand the high g forces of launch and reentry A fiberglass seat was custom molded from each astronaut s space suited body for maximum support Near his left hand was a manual abort handle to activate the launch escape system if necessary prior to or during liftoff in case the automatic trigger failed 73 To supplement the onboard environmental control system he wore a pressure suit with its own oxygen supply which would also cool him 74 A cabin atmosphere of pure oxygen at a low pressure of 5 5 psi or 38 kPa equivalent to an altitude of 24 800 feet or 7 600 metres was chosen rather than one with the same composition as air nitrogen oxygen at sea level 75 This was easier to control 76 avoided the risk of decompression sickness the bends 77 n 6 and also saved on spacecraft weight Fires which never occurred during the course of Project Mercury would have to be extinguished by emptying the cabin of oxygen 62 In such case or failure of the cabin pressure for any reason the astronaut could make an emergency return to Earth relying on his suit for survival 78 62 The astronauts normally flew with their visor up which meant that the suit was not inflated 62 With the visor down and the suit inflated the astronaut could only reach the side and bottom panels where vital buttons and handles were placed 79 The astronaut also wore electrodes on his chest to record his heart rhythm a cuff that could take his blood pressure and a rectal thermometer to record his temperature this was replaced by an oral thermometer on the last flight 80 Data from these was sent to the ground during the flight 74 n 7 The astronaut normally drank water and ate food pellets 82 n 8 Despite the lessons learnt from the U2 program which also utilized a pressure suit initially no urine collection device was included for the Mercury astronauts An inquiry on the subject was made in February 1961 by a student but NASA responded by stating that the first space man is not expected to have to go 83 The expected short flight times meant that this was overlooked although after Alan Shepard had a launch delay of four hours he was forced to urinate in his suit short circuiting some of the electrodes monitoring his vital signs Gus Grissom wore two rubber pants on the second Mercury flight as a crude workaround It would take until the third flight in February 1962 before a dedicated urine collection device was installed 84 Once in orbit the spacecraft could be rotated in yaw pitch and roll along its longitudinal axis roll left to right from the astronaut s point of view yaw and up or down pitch 85 Movement was created by rocket propelled thrusters which used hydrogen peroxide as a fuel 86 87 For orientation the pilot could look through the window in front of him or he could look at a screen connected to a periscope with a camera which could be turned 360 88 The Mercury astronauts had taken part in the development of their spacecraft and insisted that manual control and a window be elements of its design 89 As a result spacecraft movement and other functions could be controlled three ways remotely from the ground when passing over a ground station automatically guided by onboard instruments or manually by the astronaut who could replace or override the two other methods Experience validated the astronauts insistence on manual controls Without them Gordon Cooper s manual reentry during the last flight would not have been possible 90 Cutaways and interior of spacecraftSpacecraft cutaway nbsp Interior of spacecraft nbsp The three axes of rotation for the spacecraft yaw pitch and roll nbsp Temperature profile for spacecraft in Fahrenheit Control panels and handle nbsp The control panels of Friendship 7 91 The panels changed between flights among others the periscope screen that dominates the center of these panels was dropped for the final flight together with the periscope itself nbsp 3 axis handle for attitude control Development and production edit nbsp Spacecraft production in clean room at McDonnell Aircraft St Louis 1960 The Mercury spacecraft design was modified three times by NASA between 1958 and 1959 92 After bidding by potential contractors had been completed NASA selected the design submitted as C in November 1958 93 After it failed a test flight in July 1959 a final configuration D emerged 94 The heat shield shape had been developed earlier in the 1950s through experiments with ballistic missiles which had shown a blunt profile would create a shock wave that would lead most of the heat around the spacecraft 95 To further protect against heat either a heat sink or an ablative material could be added to the shield 96 The heat sink would remove heat by the flow of the air inside the shock wave whereas the ablative heat shield would remove heat by a controlled evaporation of the ablative material 97 After uncrewed tests the latter was chosen for crewed flights 98 Apart from the capsule design a rocket plane similar to the existing X 15 was considered 99 This approach was still too far from being able to make a spaceflight and was consequently dropped 100 n 9 The heat shield and the stability of the spacecraft were tested in wind tunnels 42 and later in flight 104 The launch escape system was developed through uncrewed flights 105 During a period of problems with development of the landing parachutes alternative landing systems such as the Rogallo glider wing were considered but ultimately scrapped 106 The spacecraft were produced at McDonnell Aircraft St Louis Missouri in clean rooms and tested in vacuum chambers at the McDonnell plant 107 The spacecraft had close to 600 subcontractors such as Garrett AiResearch which built the spacecraft s environmental control system 33 61 Final quality control and preparations of the spacecraft were made at Hangar S at Cape Canaveral 108 n 10 NASA ordered 20 production spacecraft numbered 1 through 20 33 Five of the 20 Nos 10 12 15 17 and 19 were not flown 111 Spacecraft No 3 and No 4 were destroyed during uncrewed test flights 111 Spacecraft No 11 sank and was recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after 38 years 111 112 Some spacecraft were modified after initial production refurbished after launch abort modified for longer missions etc n 11 A number of Mercury boilerplate spacecraft made from non flight materials or lacking production spacecraft systems were also made by NASA and McDonnell 115 They were designed and used to test spacecraft recovery systems and the escape tower 116 McDonnell also built the spacecraft simulators used by the astronauts during training 117 and adopted the motto First Free Man in Space 118 nbsp Shadowgraph of the reentry shock wave simulated in a wind tunnel 1957 nbsp Evolution of capsule design 1958 59 nbsp Experiment with boilerplate spacecraft 1959 Development of Earth landing system nbsp Drop of boilerplate spacecraft in training of landing and recovery 56 such qualification tests were made together with tests of individual steps of the system 44 Launch vehicles edit nbsp Launch vehicles 1 Mercury Atlas orbital flights 2 Mercury Redstone suborbital flights 3 Little Joe uncrewed tests Launch escape system testing edit A 55 foot long 17 m launch vehicle called Little Joe was used for uncrewed tests of the launch escape system using a Mercury capsule with an escape tower mounted on it 119 120 Its main purpose was to test the system at max q when aerodynamic forces against the spacecraft peaked making separation of the launch vehicle and spacecraft most difficult 121 It was also the point at which the astronaut was subjected to the heaviest vibrations 122 The Little Joe rocket used solid fuel propellant and was originally designed in 1958 by NACA for suborbital crewed flights but was redesigned for Project Mercury to simulate an Atlas D launch 105 It was produced by North American Aviation 119 It was not able to change direction instead its flight depended on the angle from which it was launched 123 Its maximum altitude was 100 mi 160 km fully loaded 124 A Scout launch vehicle was used for a single flight intended to evaluate the tracking network however it failed and was destroyed from the ground shortly after launch 125 Suborbital flight edit nbsp nbsp Space pioneers Ham left who became the first great ape in space during his January 31 1961 mission and Enos the only chimpanzee and third primate to orbit the Earth November 29 1961 were research subjects in the Project Mercury program The Mercury Redstone Launch Vehicle was an 83 foot tall 25 m with capsule and escape system single stage launch vehicle used for suborbital ballistic flights 126 It had a liquid fueled engine that burned alcohol and liquid oxygen producing about 75 000 pounds force 330 kN of thrust which was not enough for orbital missions 126 It was a descendant of the German V 2 36 and developed for the U S Army during the early 1950s It was modified for Project Mercury by removing the warhead and adding a collar for supporting the spacecraft together with material for damping vibrations during launch 127 Its rocket motor was produced by North American Aviation and its direction could be altered during flight by its fins They worked in two ways by directing the air around them or by directing the thrust by their inner parts or both at the same time 36 Both the Atlas D and Redstone launch vehicles contained an automatic abort sensing system which allowed them to abort a launch by firing the launch escape system if something went wrong 128 The Jupiter rocket also developed by Von Braun s team at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville was considered as well for intermediate Mercury suborbital flights at a higher speed and altitude than Redstone but this plan was dropped when it turned out that man rating Jupiter for the Mercury program would actually cost more than flying an Atlas due to economics of scale 129 130 Jupiter s only use other than as a missile system was for the short lived Juno II launch vehicle and keeping a full staff of technical personnel around solely to fly a few Mercury capsules would result in excessively high costs citation needed Orbital flight edit Orbital missions required use of the Atlas LV 3B a man rated version of the Atlas D which was originally developed as the United States first operational intercontinental ballistic missile ICBM 131 by Convair for the Air Force during the mid 1950s 132 The Atlas was a one and one half stage rocket fueled by kerosene and liquid oxygen LOX 131 The rocket by itself stood 67 feet 20 m high total height of the Atlas Mercury space vehicle at launch was 95 feet 29 m 133 The Atlas first stage was a booster skirt with two engines burning liquid fuel 134 n 12 This together with the larger sustainer second stage gave it sufficient power to launch a Mercury spacecraft into orbit 131 Both stages fired from lift off with the thrust from the second stage sustainer engine passing through an opening in the first stage After separation from the first stage the sustainer stage continued alone The sustainer also steered the rocket by thrusters guided by gyroscopes 135 Smaller vernier rockets were added on its sides for precise control of maneuvers 131 Gallery edit nbsp Little Joe assembling at Wallops Island nbsp Erection of Redstone at Launch Complex 5 nbsp Unloading Atlas at Cape Canaveral nbsp Atlas with spacecraft mounted on launch pad at Launch Complex 14Astronauts edit nbsp Left to right Grissom Shepard Carpenter Schirra Slayton Glenn and Cooper 1962 NASA announced the following seven astronauts known as the Mercury Seven on April 9 1959 136 137 Name Launch Rank Unit Born Died M Scott Carpenter 1962 5 24 Lieutenant USN 1925 2013 L Gordon Cooper 1963 5 15 Captain USAF 1927 2004 John H Glenn Jr 1962 2 20 Major USMC 1921 2016 Virgil I Grissom 1961 7 21 Captain USAF 1926 1967 Walter M Schirra Jr 1962 10 3 Lt Commander USN 1923 2007 Alan B Shepard Jr 1961 5 5 Lt Commander USN 1923 1998 Donald K Slayton Major USAF 1924 1993 Alan Shepard became the first American in space by making a suborbital flight on May 5 1961 138 Mercury Redstone 3 Shepard s 15 minute and 28 second flight of the Freedom 7 capsule demonstrated the ability to withstand the high g forces of launch and atmospheric re entry Shepard later went on to fly in the Apollo program and became the only Mercury astronaut to walk on the Moon on Apollo 14 139 140 Gus Grissom became the second American in space on Mercury Redstone 4 on July 21 1961 After the splashdown of Liberty Bell 7 the side hatch opened and caused the capsule to sink although Grissom was able to be safely recovered His flight also gave NASA the confidence to move on to orbital flights Grissom went on to participate in the Gemini and Apollo programs but died in January 1967 during a pre launch test for Apollo 1 141 142 John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth on Mercury Atlas 6 February 20 1962 During the flight the spacecraft Friendship 7 experienced issues with its automatic control system but Glenn was able to manually control the spacecraft s attitude He quit NASA in 1964 when he came to the conclusion that he likely would not be selected for any Apollo missions and was later elected to the US Senate serving from 1974 to 1999 During his tenure he returned to space in 1998 as a Payload Specialist aboard STS 95 143 144 Scott Carpenter was the second astronaut in orbit and flew on Mercury Atlas 7 on May 24 1962 The spaceflight was essentially a repeat of Mercury Atlas 6 but a targeting error during re entry took Aurora 7 250 miles 400 km off course delaying recovery Afterwards he joined the Navy s Man in the Sea program and is the only American to be both an astronaut and an aquanaut 145 146 Carpenter s Mercury flight was his only trip into space Wally Schirra flew aboard Sigma 7 on Mercury Atlas 8 on October 3 1962 The mission s main goal was to show development of environmental controls or life support systems that would allow for safety in space thus being a flight mainly focused on technical evaluation rather than scientific experimentation The mission lasted 9 hours and 13 minutes setting a new U S flight duration record 147 In December 1965 Schirra flew on Gemini 6A achieving the first ever space rendezvous with sister spacecraft Gemini 7 Three years later he commanded the first crewed Apollo mission Apollo 7 becoming the first astronaut to fly three times and the only person to fly in the Mercury Gemini and Apollo programs Gordon Cooper made the last flight of Project Mercury with Mercury Atlas 9 on May 15 1963 His flight onboard Faith 7 set another U S endurance record with a 34 hour and 19 minute flight duration and 22 completed orbits This mission marks the last time an American was launched alone to conduct an entirely solo orbital mission Cooper later went on to participate in Project Gemini where he once again beat the endurance record during Gemini 5 148 149 Deke Slayton was grounded in 1962 due to a heart condition but remained with NASA and was appointed senior manager of the Astronaut Office and later additionally assistant director of Flight Crew Operations at the beginning of Project Gemini On March 13 1972 after doctors confirmed he no longer had a coronary condition Slayton returned to flight status and the next year was assigned to the Apollo Soyuz Test Project which successfully flew in 1975 with Slayton as the docking module pilot After the ASTP he managed the Space Shuttle Program s Approach and Landing Tests ALT and Orbital Flight Tests OFT before retiring from NASA in 1982 One of the astronauts tasks was publicity they gave interviews to the press and visited project manufacturing facilities to speak with those who worked on Project Mercury 150 The press was especially fond of John Glenn who was considered the best speaker of the seven 151 They sold their personal stories to Life magazine which portrayed them as patriotic God fearing family men 152 Life was also allowed to be at home with the families while the astronauts were in space 152 During the project Grissom Carpenter Cooper Schirra and Slayton stayed with their families at or near Langley Air Force Base Glenn lived at the base and visited his family in Washington DC on weekends Shepard lived with his family at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Other than Grissom who was killed in the 1967 Apollo 1 fire the other six survived past retirement and died between 1993 and 2016 153 Astronauts assignments nbsp Mercury 7 astronaut assignments Schirra had the most flights with three Glenn though being the first to leave NASA had the last with a Space Shuttle mission in 1998 154 Shepard was the only one to walk on the Moon Selection and training edit Prior to Project Mercury there was no protocol for selecting astronauts so NASA would set a far reaching precedent with both their selection process and initial choices for astronauts At the end of 1958 various ideas for the selection pool were discussed privately within the national government and the civilian space program and also among the public at large Initially there was the idea to issue a widespread public call to volunteers Thrill seekers such as rock climbers and acrobats would have been allowed to apply but this idea was quickly shot down by NASA officials who understood that an undertaking such as space flight required individuals with professional training and education in flight engineering By late 1958 NASA officials decided to move forward with test pilots being the heart of their selection pool 155 On President Eisenhower s insistence the group was further narrowed down to active duty military test pilots which set the number of candidates at 508 156 These candidates were USN or USMC naval aviation pilots NAPs or USAF pilots of Senior or Command rating These aviators had long military records which would give NASA officials more background information on which to base their decisions Furthermore these aviators were skilled in flying the most advanced aircraft to date giving them the best qualifications for the new position of astronaut 155 During this time women were banned from flying in the military and so could not successfully qualify as test pilots This meant that no female candidates could earn consideration for the title of astronaut Civilian NASA X 15 pilot Neil Armstrong was also disqualified though he had been selected by the US Air Force in 1958 for its Man in Space Soonest program which was replaced by Mercury 157 Although Armstrong had been a combat experienced NAP during the Korean War he left active duty in 1952 7 n 13 Armstrong became NASA s first civilian astronaut in 1962 when he was selected for NASA s second group 159 and became the first man on the Moon in 1969 160 It was further stipulated that candidates should be between 25 and 40 years old no taller than 5 ft 11 in 1 80 m and hold a college degree in a STEM subject 7 The college degree requirement excluded the USAF s X 1 pilot then Lt Col later Brig Gen Chuck Yeager the first person to exceed the speed of sound 161 He later became a critic of the project ridiculing the civilian space program labeling astronauts as spam in a can 162 John Glenn did not have a college degree either but used influential friends to make the selection committee accept him 163 USAF Capt later Col Joseph Kittinger a USAF fighter pilot and stratosphere balloonist met all the requirements but preferred to stay in his contemporary project 161 Other potential candidates declined because they did not believe that human spaceflight had a future beyond Project Mercury 161 n 14 From the original 508 110 candidates were selected for an interview and from the interviews 32 were selected for further physical and mental testing 165 Their health vision and hearing were examined together with their tolerance to noise vibrations g forces personal isolation and heat 166 167 In a special chamber they were tested to see if they could perform their tasks under confusing conditions 166 The candidates had to answer more than 500 questions about themselves and describe what they saw in different images 166 Navy Lt later Capt Jim Lovell who was later an astronaut in the Gemini and Apollo programs did not pass the physical tests 161 After these tests it was intended to narrow the group down to six astronauts but in the end it was decided to keep seven 168 The astronauts went through a training program covering some of the same exercises that were used in their selection 41 They simulated the g force profiles of launch and reentry in a centrifuge at the Naval Air Development Center and were taught special breathing techniques necessary when subjected to more than 6 g 169 Weightlessness training took place in aircraft first on the rear seat of a two seater fighter and later inside converted and padded cargo aircraft 170 They practiced gaining control of a spinning spacecraft in a machine at the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory called the Multi Axis Spin Test Inertia Facility MASTIF by using an attitude controller handle simulating the one in the spacecraft 171 172 A further measure for finding the right attitude in orbit was star and Earth recognition training in planetaria and simulators 173 Communication and flight procedures were practiced in flight simulators first together with a single person assisting them and later with the Mission Control Center 174 Recovery was practiced in pools at Langley and later at sea with frogmen and helicopter crews 175 nbsp G force training Johnsville 1960 nbsp Weightlessness simulation in a C 131 nbsp MASTIF at Lewis Research Center nbsp Flight trainer at Cape Canaveral nbsp Egress training at LangleyMission profile editSuborbital missions edit nbsp Profile See timetable for explanation Dashed line region of weightlessness A Redstone rocket was used to boost the capsule for 2 minutes and 30 seconds to an altitude of 32 nautical miles 59 km the capsule continued ascending on a ballistic curve after booster separation 176 177 The launch escape system was jettisoned at the same time At the top of the curve the spacecraft s retrorockets were fired for testing purposes they were not necessary for reentry because orbital speed had not been attained The spacecraft landed in the Atlantic Ocean 178 The suborbital mission took about 15 minutes had an apogee altitude of 102 103 nautical miles 189 191 km and a downrange distance of 262 nautical miles 485 km 149 179 From the time of booster spacecraft separation until reentry where air started to slow down the spacecraft the pilot would experience weightlessness as shown on the image n 15 The recovery procedure would be the same as an orbital mission AS Timetable mm ss 0 00 Launch 2 22 Launch vehicle cut off and tower separation 2 32 Spacecraft separation 2 37 Turnaround 5 14 Retrofire 6 14 Retropack jettisoned 7 48 Reentry 9 38 Drogue deployed 10 15 Main chute deployed 15 22 Landing Orbital missions edit nbsp Launch Complex 14 just before launch service tower rolled aside Preparations for launch were made in the blockhouse Preparations for a mission started a month in advance with the selection of the primary and back up astronaut they would practice together for the mission 180 For three days prior to launch the astronaut went through a special diet to minimize his need for defecating during the flight 181 On the morning of the trip he typically ate a steak breakfast 181 After having sensors applied to his body and being dressed in the pressure suit he started breathing pure oxygen to prepare him for the atmosphere of the spacecraft 182 He arrived at the launch pad took the elevator up the launch tower and entered the spacecraft two hours before launch 183 n 16 Once the astronaut was secured inside the hatch was bolted the launch area evacuated and the mobile tower rolled back 184 After this the launch vehicle was filled with liquid oxygen 184 The entire procedure of preparing for launch and launching the spacecraft followed a time table called the countdown It started a day in advance with a pre count in which all systems of the launch vehicle and spacecraft were checked After that followed a 15 hour hold during which pyrotechnics were installed Then came the main countdown which for orbital flights started 6 hours before launch T 390 min counted backwards to launch T 0 and then forward until orbital insertion T 5 min 183 n 17 nbsp Launch and reentry profiles A C launch D orbital insertion E K reentry and landing On an orbital mission the Atlas rocket engines were ignited four seconds before lift off The launch vehicle was held to the ground by clamps and then released when sufficient thrust was built up at lift off A 186 After 30 seconds of flight the point of maximum dynamic pressure against the vehicle was reached at which the astronaut felt heavy vibrations 187 After 2 minutes and 10 seconds the two outboard booster engines shut down and were released with the aft skirt leaving the center sustainer engine running B 183 At this point the launch escape system was no longer needed and was separated from the spacecraft by its jettison rocket C 56 n 18 The space vehicle moved gradually to a horizontal attitude until at an altitude of 87 nautical miles 161 km the sustainer engine shut down and the spacecraft was inserted into orbit D 189 This happened after 5 minutes and 10 seconds in a direction pointing east whereby the spacecraft would gain speed from the rotation of the Earth 190 n 19 Here the spacecraft fired the three posigrade rockets for a second to separate it from the launch vehicle 192 n 20 Just before orbital insertion and sustainer engine cutoff g loads peaked at 8 g 6 g for a suborbital flight 187 194 In orbit the spacecraft automatically turned 180 pointed the retropackage forward and its nose 14 5 downward and kept this attitude for the rest of the orbital phase to facilitate communication with the ground 195 196 n 21 Once in orbit it was not possible for the spacecraft to change its trajectory except by initiating reentry 198 Each orbit would typically take 88 minutes to complete 199 The lowest point of the orbit called perigee was at about 87 nautical miles 161 km altitude and the highest point called apogee was about 150 nautical miles 280 km altitude 179 When leaving orbit E the angle of retrofire was 34 downward from the flight path angle 195 Retrorockets fired for 10 seconds each F in a sequence where one started 5 seconds after the other 192 200 During reentry G the astronaut would experience about 8 g 11 12 g on a suborbital mission 201 The temperature around the heat shield rose to 3 000 F 1 600 C and at the same time there was a two minute radio blackout due to ionization of the air around the spacecraft 202 58 After reentry a small drogue parachute H was deployed at 21 000 ft 6 400 m for stabilizing the spacecraft s descent 67 The main parachute I was deployed at 10 000 ft 3 000 m starting with a narrow opening that opened fully in a few seconds to lessen the strain on the lines 203 Just before hitting the water the landing bag inflated from behind the heat shield to reduce the force of impact J 203 Upon landing the parachutes were released 64 An antenna K was raised and sent out signals that could be traced by ships and helicopters 64 Further a green marker dye was spread around the spacecraft to make its location more visible from the air 64 n 22 Frogmen brought in by helicopters inflated a collar around the craft to keep it upright in the water 205 n 23 The recovery helicopter hooked onto the spacecraft and the astronaut blew the escape hatch to exit the capsule 63 He was then hoisted aboard the helicopter that finally brought both him and the spacecraft to the ship n 24 nbsp Mercury crewed launches nbsp John Glenn in orbit 1962 Mercury Atlas 6 nbsp Alan Shepard s 1961 recovery seen from helicopter Mercury Redstone 3 Ground control edit nbsp Inside Control Center at Cape Canaveral Mercury Atlas 8 The number of personnel supporting a Mercury mission was typically around 18 000 with about 15 000 people associated with recovery 2 206 n 25 Most of the others followed the spacecraft from the World Wide Tracking Network a chain of 18 stations placed around the equator which was based on a network used for satellites and made ready in 1960 209 It collected data from the spacecraft and provided two way communication between the astronaut and the ground 210 Each station had a range of 700 nautical miles 1 300 km and a pass typically lasted 7 minutes 211 Mercury astronauts on the ground would take the role of Capsule Communicator or CAPCOM who communicated with the astronaut in orbit 212 213 n 26 Data from the spacecraft were sent to the ground processed at the Goddard Space Center by a redundant pair of transistorized IBM 7090 computers 214 and relayed to the Mercury Control Center at Cape Canaveral 215 In the Control Center the data were displayed on boards on each side of a world map which showed the position of the spacecraft its ground track and the place it could land in an emergency within the next 30 minutes 196 Other computers associated with ground control for Mercury included a vacuum tube based IBM 709 system in Cape Canaveral which determined whether a mid launch abort might be needed and where an aborting capsule would land another IBM 709 in Bermuda which served as backup for the two IBM 7090 transistor based machines at Goddard and a Burroughs GE system which provided radio guidance for the Atlas during launch 214 The World Wide Tracking Network went on to serve subsequent space programs until it was replaced by a satellite relay system in the 1980s 216 Mission Control Center was moved from Cape Canaveral to Houston in 1965 217 Tracking network nbsp Ground track and tracking stations for Mercury Atlas 8 Spacecraft starts from Cape Canaveral in Florida and moves east each new orbit track is displaced to the left due to the rotation of the Earth It moves between latitudes 32 5 north and 32 5 south 218 Key 1 6 orbit number Yellow launch Black dot tracking station Red range of station Blue landing Flights edit nbsp Project Mercury landing sites Cape Canaveral Hawaii nbsp Freedom 7 nbsp Liberty Bell 7 nbsp Friendship 7 nbsp Aurora 7 nbsp Sigma 7 nbsp Faith 7 On April 12 1961 the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space on an orbital flight He was not present in his spacecraft during landing thus technically his mission was not initially considered as the first complete human spaceflight by then World Air Sports Federation s definitions although later it recognized that Gagarin was the first human to fly into space 219 220 221 Alan Shepard became the first American in space on a suborbital flight three weeks later on May 5 1961 138 John Glenn the third Mercury astronaut to fly became the first American to reach orbit on February 20 1962 but only after the Soviets had launched a second cosmonaut Gherman Titov into a day long flight in August 1961 222 Three more Mercury orbital flights were made ending on May 16 1963 with a day long 22 orbit flight 149 However the Soviet Union ended its Vostok program the next month with the human spaceflight endurance record set by the 82 orbit almost 5 day Vostok 5 flight 223 Crewed edit All of the six crewed Mercury flights were successful though some planned flights were canceled during the project see below 149 The main medical problems encountered were simple personal hygiene and post flight symptoms of low blood pressure 2 The launch vehicles had been tested through uncrewed flights therefore the numbering of crewed missions did not start with 1 224 Also there were two separately numbered series MR for Mercury Redstone suborbital flights and MA for Mercury Atlas orbital flights These names were not popularly used since the astronauts followed a pilot tradition each giving their spacecraft a name They selected names ending with a 7 to commemorate the seven astronauts 56 137 Spacecraft production numbers don t match the mission order with some capsules being reserved as backup or used in tests 225 Times given are Coordinated Universal Time local time 5 hours MA Mercury Atlas MR Mercury Redstone LC Launch Complex n 27 Mission Spacecraft No Call sign Pilot Launch Duration Orbits Apogeemi km Perigeemi km Max velocity mph km h Missmi km time site MR 3 7 Freedom 7 Shepard 14 34 on May 5 1961 LC 5 15 m 22 s 0 117 188 5 134 8 262 3 5 5 6 MR 4 11 Liberty Bell 7 Grissom 12 20 on Jul 21 1961 LC 5 15 m 37 s 0 118 190 5 168 8 317 5 8 9 3 MA 6 13 Friendship 7 Glenn 14 47 on Feb 20 1962 LC 14 4 h 55 m 23 s 3 162 261 100 161 17 544 28 234 46 74 MA 7 18 Aurora 7 Carpenter 12 45 on May 24 1962 LC 14 4 h 56 m 5 s 3 167 269 100 161 17 549 28 242 248 400 MA 8 16 Sigma 7 Schirra 12 15 on Oct 3 1962 LC 14 9 h 13 m 15 s 6 176 283 100 161 17 558 28 257 4 6 7 4 MA 9 20 Faith 7 Cooper 13 04 on May 15 1963 LC 14 1 d 10 h 19 m 49 s 22 166 267 100 161 17 547 28 239 5 0 8 1 Remarks Mercury Redstone 3 First American in space 138 Recovered by carrier USS Lake Champlain 21 Mercury Redstone 4 Spacecraft sank during recovery when hatch unexpectedly blew off 226 n 28 Astronaut recovered by carrier USS Randolph 227 Mercury Atlas 6 First American in orbit 228 Retropack retained during reentry 229 n 29 Recovered by destroyer USS Noa 231 Mercury Atlas 7 Carpenter replaced Deke Slayton 232 n 30 Recovered by destroyer USS Farragut 234 Biggest miss n 31 Mercury Atlas 8 The flight closest to plan 236 Carried out maneuvering tests 237 Recovered by carrier USS Kearsarge 238 Mercury Atlas 9 First American in space for over a day 239 Last American solo mission n 32 Recovered by USS Kearsarge 90 Recovery variations MA6 spacecraft and astronaut hoist onboard directly MA8 spacecraft and astronaut towed by boat to ship MA9 spacecraft with astronaut inside flown to ship 241 nbsp Shepard s flight watched on TV in the White House May 1961 nbsp John Glenn honored by the President February 1962 nbsp USS Kearsarge with crew spelling Mercury 9 May 1963 Uncrewed and chimpanzee flights edit The 20 uncrewed flights used Little Joe Redstone and Atlas launch vehicles 137 They were used to develop the launch vehicles launch escape system spacecraft and tracking network 224 One flight of a Scout rocket attempted to launch a specialized satellite equipped with Mercury communications components for testing the ground tracking network but the booster failed soon after liftoff The Little Joe program used seven airframes for eight flights of which three were successful The second Little Joe flight was named Little Joe 6 because it was inserted into the program after the first 5 airframes had been allocated 242 181 Production spacecraft and boilerplates were used for these test flights 225 Mission n 33 Spacecraft No Launch Duration Purpose Result Little Joe 1 Boilerplate August 21 1959 20 s Test of launch escape system during flight Failure Big Joe 1 Big Joe Boilerplate September 9 1959 13 m 00 s Test of heat shield and Atlas spacecraft interface Partial success Little Joe 6 Boilerplate October 4 1959 5 m 10 s Test of spacecraft aerodynamics and integrity Partial success Little Joe 1A Boilerplate November 4 1959 8 m 11 s Test of launch escape system during flight with boiler plate capsule Partial success Little Joe 2 Boilerplate December 4 1959 11 m 6 s Escape system test with primate at high altitude Success Little Joe 1B Boilerplate January 21 1960 8 m 35 s Maximum q abort and escape test with primate with boiler plate capsule Success Beach Abort 1 May 9 1960 1 m 31 s Test of the off the pad abort system Success Mercury Atlas 1 4 July 29 1960 3 m 18 s Test of spacecraft Atlas combination Failure Little Joe 5 3 November 8 1960 2 m 22 s First Little Joe escape system test with a production spacecraft at max q Failure Mercury Redstone 1 2 November 21 1960 2 s Qualification of spacecraft Redstone combination Failure Mercury Redstone 1A 2 December 19 1960 15 m 45 s Qualification of spacecraft Redstone combination Success Mercury Redstone 2 5 January 31 1961 16 m 39 s Qualification of spacecraft with chimpanzee named Ham Success Mercury Atlas 2 6 February 21 1961 17 m 56 s Qualified Mercury Atlas interface Success Little Joe 5A 14 March 18 1961 5 m 25 s Second test of escape system with a production Mercury spacecraft Partial success Mercury Redstone BD Boilerplate March 24 1961 8 m 23 s Final Redstone test flight Success Mercury Atlas 3 8 April 25 1961 7 m 19 s Orbital flight with robot astronaut 243 244 n 34 Failure Little Joe 5B 14 April 28 1961 5 m 25 s Third test of escape system with a production spacecraft Success Mercury Atlas 4 8 September 13 1961 1 h 49 m 20 s Test of environmental control system with robot astronaut in orbit Success Mercury Scout 1 November 1 1961 44 s Special satellite to test Mercury tracking network Failure Mercury Atlas 5 9 November 29 1961 3 h 20 m 59 s Test of environmental control system in orbit with chimpanzee named Enos Success After suborbital crewed flights Remarks Little Joe 1 Due to an electrical malfunction the escape tower ignited hour before launch and took the spacecraft with it leaving the rocket on the ground 246 Big Joe 1 Actually the first Mercury Atlas flight 137 Recovered by USS Strong 2 407 km SE of Cape Canaveral 247 Altitude 65 mi 105 km Qualified ablative heatshield 104 Little Joe 6 No additional tests 248 Little Joe 1A The rescue tower rocket ignited 10 seconds too late 249 Recovered by USS Opportune 11 5 mi 18 5 km SE of Wallops Island 250 Little Joe 2 Carried Sam a rhesus macaque 249 Recovered by USS Borie 194 mi 312 km SE of Wallops Island Virginia altitude 53 mi 85 km 251 Little Joe 1B Carried a female rhesus monkey named Miss Sam 252 Beach Abort A production spacecraft with minimal equipment was lifted from the ground by the launch escape system alone at Wallops Island It reached an apogee of 0 751 kilometres 2 465 ft and was recovered after landing Top velocity 436 metres per second 976 mph Total payload 1 154 kg Mercury Atlas 1 Exploded while passing through max q 253 To save weight the airframe had been made thinner since Big Joe which led to a collapse The next Atlas was strengthened by a temporary solution while the rest were made from the same specifications as Big Joe 254 Little Joe 5 The clamp holding the spacecraft was deflected by air pressure due to this and incorrect wiring the escape tower ignited too early and further failed to separate spacecraft from launch vehicle 43 n 35 Altitude 10 mi 16 km 255 Mercury Redstone 1 Engine shutdown caused by improper separation of electrical cables 256 vehicle rose 4 in 10 cm and settled back on the pad 257 n 36 Mercury Redstone 1A First flight of Mercury Redstone Recovered by USS Valley Forge 258 Altitude 130 mi 210 km 109 Mercury Redstone 2 Carried the chimpanzee Ham on suborbital flight Recovered by USS Donner 259 422 mi 679 km SE of Cape Canaveral altitude 157 mi 253 km 260 Mercury Atlas 2 Recovered by USS Donner 261 1 432 mi 2 305 km SE of Cape Canaveral Little Joe 5A Tower fired 14 seconds too soon it failed to separate the spacecraft from the rocket 262 Mercury Redstone BD BD Booster Development 263 Mercury Atlas 3 Upgraded from suborbital flight Was aborted when the Atlas continued to vertically climb instead of tilting toward orbit escaping capsule was recovered and reused in Mercury Atlas 4 264 Little Joe 5B Concluded Little Joe program Mercury Atlas 4 Completed one orbit and sent data to the ground first orbital flight of the project 265 Recovery by USS Decatur 176 mi 283 km east of Bermuda 266 Mercury Scout 1 Was aborted after malfunction of booster s guidance system 267 results of Mercury Atlas 4 and Mercury Atlas 5 were used instead 268 Mercury Atlas 5 Chimpanzee Enos completed a two orbit flight performing tasks to prove it possible for a person to function during a flight 269 n 37 Last Mercury Atlas test flight Recovery by USS Stormes 271 255 mi 410 km SE of Bermuda 272 nbsp Little Joe 1B at launch with Miss Sam 1960 nbsp Mercury Redstone 1 launch escape system lift off after 4 launch 1960 nbsp Mercury Redstone 2 Ham 1961 nbsp Mercury Atlas 5 Enos 1961 Canceled edit Nine of the planned flights were canceled Suborbital flights were planned for four other astronauts but the number of flights was cut down gradually and finally all remaining were canceled after Titov s flight 273 274 n 38 Mercury Atlas 9 was intended to be followed by more one day flights and even a three day flight but with the coming of the Gemini Project it seemed unnecessary The Jupiter booster was as mentioned above intended to be used for different purposes Mission Pilot Planned Launch Cancellation Mercury Jupiter 1 July 1 1959 276 Mercury Jupiter 2 Chimpanzee First quarter 1960 July 1 1959 276 n 39 Mercury Redstone 5 Glenn likely March 1960 274 August 1961 278 Mercury Redstone 6 April 1960 274 July 1961 279 Mercury Redstone 7 May 1960 274 Mercury Redstone 8 June 1960 274 Mercury Atlas 10 Shepard October 1963 June 13 1963 n 40 Mercury Atlas 11 Grissom Fourth quarter 1963 October 1962 281 Mercury Atlas 12 Schirra Fourth quarter 1963 October 1962 282 Legacy edit nbsp Ticker tape parade for Gordon Cooper in New York City May 1963 Today the Mercury program is commemorated as the first American human space program 283 It did not win the race against the Soviet Union but gave back national prestige and was scientifically a successful precursor of later programs such as Gemini Apollo and Skylab 284 n 41 During the 1950s some experts doubted that human spaceflight was possible n 42 Still when John F Kennedy was elected president many including him had doubts about the project 287 As president he chose to support the programs a few months before the launch of Freedom 7 288 which became a public success 289 n 43 Afterwards a majority of the American public supported human spaceflight and within a few weeks Kennedy announced a plan for a crewed mission to land on the Moon and return safely to Earth before the end of the 1960s 293 The six astronauts who flew were awarded medals 294 driven in parades and two of them were invited to address a joint session of the US Congress 295 Seeing as no women previously met the qualifications for the astronaut program the question was raised as to whether or not they could This led to the development of a project named Mercury 13 by the media in which thirteen American women successfully underwent the tests The Mercury 13 program was not officially conducted by NASA It was created by NASA physician William Randolph Lovelace who developed the physical and psychological tests used to select NASA s first seven male astronauts for Project Mercury The women completed physical and psychological tests but were never required to complete the training as the privately funded program was quickly cancelled No female candidates adequately met the qualifications for the astronaut program until 1978 when a few finally qualified for the Space Shuttle program 296 On February 25 2011 the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers the world s largest technical professional society awarded Boeing the successor company to McDonnell Aircraft a Milestone Award for important inventions which debuted on the Mercury spacecraft 297 n 44 Depictions on film edit A short documentary The John Glenn Story was released in 1962 On film the program was portrayed in The Right Stuff a 1983 adaptation of Tom Wolfe s 1979 book of the same name 298 in the 1998 HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon in the 2016 film Hidden Figures and the 2020 Disney series The Right Stuff which is also based on the Tom Wolfe book Commemorations edit In 1964 a monument commemorating Project Mercury was unveiled near Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral featuring a metal logo combining the symbol of Mercury with the number 7 299 In 1962 the United States Postal Service honored the Mercury Atlas 6 flight with a Project Mercury commemorative stamp the first US postal issue to depict a crewed spacecraft 300 n 45 nbsp Mercury monument at Launch Complex 14 1964 nbsp Commemorative Project Mercury 4 US Postage stamp n 46 Displays edit The spacecraft that flew together with some that did not are on display in the United States Friendship 7 Spacecraft No 13 went on a global tour popularly known as its fourth orbit 302 nbsp Little Joe 5B Spacecraft No 14 Virginia Air and Space Center nbsp Big Joe Boilerplate Steven F Udvar Hazy Center nbsp MR 1 amp MR 1A Spacecraft No 2 Kennedy Space Center nbsp Mercury Redstone 2 Spacecraft No 5 California Science Center nbsp Freedom 7 Spacecraft No 7 at the United States Naval Academy 2010 nbsp Liberty Bell 7 Spacecraft No 11 at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center 2010 nbsp Friendship 7 Spacecraft No 13 at the National Air and Space Museum 2009 nbsp Aurora 7 Spacecraft No 18 at the Museum of Science and Industry 2009 nbsp Sigma 7 Spacecraft No 16 at the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame 2011 nbsp Faith 7 Spacecraft No 20 at Space Center Houston 2011 nbsp Unflown Freedom 7 II Spacecraft No 15B at Steven F Udvar Hazy Center nbsp Unflown Spacecraft No 10 Evergreen Aviation amp Space Museum nbsp Mercury Procedures Trainer at the U S Space and Rocket Center 2011 Patches edit Commemorative patches were designed by entrepreneurs after the Mercury program to satisfy collectors 303 n 47 nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp Videos edit source source source source source source source John Glenn documentary from 50th Anniversary of Friendship 7 2012 Space program comparison edit nbsp NASA illustration comparing boosters and spacecraft from Apollo biggest Gemini and Mercury smallest See also editList of crewed spacecraft Julian Elvis Ward Jr Notes edit Designed in 1964 from Mercury Seven astronaut memorial The project was delayed by 22 months counting from the beginning until the first orbital mission 2 It had a dozen prime contractors 75 major subcontractors and about 7200 third tier subcontractors 2 The cost estimate made by NASA in 1969 was 392 6 million broken down as follows Spacecraft 135 3 million launch vehicles 82 9 million operations 49 3 million tracking operations and equipment 71 9 million and facilities 53 2 million 3 4 Man in Space Soonest was the first part of a four phase Moon landing program estimated to finish in 1965 cost a total of 1 5 billion 15 7 billion adjusted for inflation and be launched by a Super Titan rocket 9 The name Little Joe was adopted by its designers from the throw of a double deuce in a craps game since this resembled the four rocket arrangement in the blueprints for the vehicle 34 NASA s planning for recovery operations in the summer of 1960 was according to the Navy asking for the deployment of the whole Atlantic Fleet and might have cost more than the entire Mercury program 45 The decision to eliminate the use of any gas but oxygen was crystalized when a serious accident occurred on April 21 1960 in which McDonnell Aircraft test pilot G B North passed out and was seriously injured when testing a Mercury cabin spacesuit atmosphere system in a vacuum chamber The problem was found to be nitrogen rich oxygen poor air leaking from the cabin into his spacesuit feed 77 Pilot and spacecraft data sent automatically to the ground is called telemetry 81 Moisture and urine was recycled into drinking water 49 The rocket plane approach to human space flight was pursued by the Air Force with their Dyna Soar project which was canceled in 1963 101 Toward the end of the 1960s NASA began the development of a reusable space plane which was ultimately developed into the Space Shuttle program 102 The first rocket plane to enter space was an X 15 in 1963 103 Test and rework of Mercury Redstone 2 at the Hangar required 110 days 109 Hangar S was also the place where the chimpanzees were trained 110 They received a letter designation after their number e g 2B 15B 113 Some were modified twice for example spacecraft 15 became 15A and then 15B 114 At the time the word booster was sometimes used for the first stage of the launch stack Later booster came to refer to additional single stage rockets attached to the sides of the main launch vehicle as on the Space Shuttle Armstrong left the Navy as a Lieutenant Junior Grade in the US Naval Reserve until resigning his commission 1960 158 At the beginning of the project both President Eisenhower and NASA s first administrator T K Glennan believed that the US would put the first man in space and that this would be the end of the Space Race 164 With the exception of the 20 seconds of retrofire during which the pilot would experience g force Inside the spacecraft the other astronauts had usually prepared a practical joke such as a sign saying No handball playing 184 Countdown was controlled from the blockhouse at the Launch Complex until 2 min before launch then it was transferred to Mission Control Center The countdown of the last 10 sec before launch would be given to the astronaut by one of the others and included on TV transmissions which had already started 185 In the event of a launch abort before this point the launch escape system would fire its main rocket for one second pulling the spacecraft and astronaut away from the launch vehicle and a possible explosion 70 At this point the spacecraft could be separated from the launch vehicle and land using its parachute 188 The direction of insertion was east and slightly to the north meaning that on a three orbit flight the tracking network was used optimally and a landing could take place in the North Atlantic Ocean 191 The sustainer would disintegrate and fall down after the launch of Friendship 7 a part of the sustainer was found in South Africa 193 The capsule s tendency to drift was countered automatically by the attitude control system ASCS which used small hydrogen peroxide thrusters To save fuel however the spacecraft would be allowed to drift from time to time especially on longer missions 197 Radar chaff and a SOFAR bomb which could be detected by the recovery ship s hydrophone were eliminated as unnecessary measures after the first orbital flight 204 The collar was not ready for suborbital missions 205 It was also possible to exit the capsule through the nose cylinder only Carpenter did this 30 67 T J O Malley pushed the button to launch Glenn 207 while the Site Manager and Launch Conductor at Complex 14 Calvin D Fowler pushed the button to launch Carpenter Schirra and Cooper 208 Occasionally this communication was broadcast on live TV while the spacecraft was passing over the United States Alexander amp al 1966 pp 638 641 It was recovered in 1999 112 Launch of Friendship 7 was postponed repeatedly during two months a frustrated politician compared the spacecraft Atlas combination to a Rube Goldberg device on top of a plumber s nightmare 230 Carpenter s overshoot of the landing site was caused by a malfunction in the automatic stabilization which meant that retrofire was out of line with the movement of the spacecraft 233 During Carpenter s mission a seaplane from the US Air Force got to the landing site about 1 hour ahead of the Navy ships and offered to pick him up This however was declined by the admiral in charge of Mercury recovery operations which led to a Senate hearing about the incident 235 Likely to be so according to Alexander amp al 240 Source Alexander amp al 1966 pp 638 641 when nothing else is mentioned A machine that produced the same heat vapor and CO2 as an astronaut 245 The clamp was subsequently tested by a rocket sled 43 Immediately after the Redstone s engine shut down the capsule s escape rocket jettisoned itself leaving the capsule attached to the booster The escape rocket rose to an altitude of 4 000 ft 1 200 m and landed about 400 yd 370 m away Three seconds after the escape rocket fired the capsule deployed its drogue parachute it then deployed the main and reserve parachutes 257 Was given a reward in the form a banana pellet or a punishment in the form of mild electrical shocks depending on whether or not he gave the right response to a given signal by mistake he was sometimes given shocks on right answers 270 Within the Mercury Project organization the suborbital flights were from the start criticized as being of little value and even compared to a circus act 275 Proposed maximum dynamic pressure test for capsule 277 Mercury Atlas 10 was intended to be a three day mission in November 1962 with extra supplies attached to the heat shield Call sign Freedom 7 II By January 1963 it was changed to a one day back up mission for Mercury Atlas 9 It was canceled after the success of the latter 280 International rules required that a pilot must land safely with the spacecraft in reality Gagarin landed separately by parachute however the Soviet Union did not admit this until 1971 when their claim was no longer in danger of being challenged 285 In May 1957 five months before Sputnik I the president of McDonnell later the prime contractor predicted that human spaceflight would not take place before 1990 286 Along the roads in the US drivers stopped to follow Freedom 7 on the radio Later 100 millions saw or listened to Friendship 7 the first orbital flight on TV or radio 290 The launch of Sigma 7 and Faith 7 were relayed live via communication satellite to television audiences in Western Europe 291 Two of the three major US networks covered Sigma 7 minute by minute while the third was showing the opening of the World Series 292 Boeing received the award in recognition of Project Mercury s pioneering navigation and control instruments autopilot rate stabilization and control and fly by wire systems 297 The stamp first went on sale in Cape Canaveral Florida on February 20 1962 the same day as the first crewed orbital flight 300 On May 4 2011 the Postal Service released a stamp commemorating the 50th anniversary of Freedom 7 the first flight of the project with people onboard 301 The stamp was issued February 20 1962 the day of John Glenn s flight in Friendship 7 This one has a First day of issue postmark from Cape Canaveral post office The only patches the Mercury astronauts wore were the NASA logo and a name tag 303 Each crewed Mercury spacecraft was painted black and decorated with a flight insignia its call sign an American flag and the words United States 56 References edit a b Lafleur Claude March 8 2010 Costs of US piloted programs The Space Review Retrieved February 18 2012 a b c d Alexander amp al 1966 p 508 Wilford 1969 p 67 Alexander amp al 1966 p 643 Grimwood 1963 p 12 a b Alexander amp al 1966 p 132 a b c Catchpole 2001 p 92 Alexander amp al 1966 p 102 Alexander amp al 1966 p 91 Catchpole 2001 pp 12 14 a b Catchpole 2001 p 81 Alexander amp al 1966 pp 28 52 Catchpole 2001 p 55 Alexander amp al 1966 p 113 Catchpole 2001 pp 57 82 Catchpole 2001 p 70 Alexander amp al 1966 p 13 Alexander amp al 1966 p 44 Alexander amp al 1966 p 59 Catchpole 2001 p 466 a b Alexander amp al 1966 p 357 Alexander amp al 1966 pp 35 39 40 Alexander amp al 1966 p 49 Alexander amp al 1966 pp 37 38 a b Alexander amp al 1966 p 61 Alexander amp al 1966 pp 98 99 Catchpole 2001 p 82 Alexander amp al 1966 pp xiii 134 a b Alexander amp al 1966 p 134 a b Alexander amp al 1966 p 143 Catchpole 2001 p 157 Alexander amp al 1966 pp 121 191 a b c Alexander amp al 1966 p 137 a b Alexander amp al 1966 p 124 Alexander amp al 1966 p 216 a b c Alexander amp al 1966 p 21 Catchpole 2001 p 158 Catchpole 2001 p 89 90 Catchpole 2001 p 86 Alexander amp al 1966 p 141 a b Catchpole 2001 pp 103 110 a b Alexander amp al 1966 p 88 a b c Catchpole 2001 p 248 a b Catchpole 2001 pp 172 173 Alexander amp al 1966 p 265 a b History At A Glance City of Cocoa Beach Archived from the original on January 4 2013 Retrieved June 24 2013 Catchpole 2001 p 150 a b Catchpole 2001 p 131 a b Alexander amp al 1966 p 47 Alexander amp al 1966 p 245 Alexander amp al 1966 p 490 Catchpole 2001 p 136 Catchpole 2001 pp 134 136 Alexander amp al 1966 pp 140 143 Catchpole 2001 pp 132 134 a b c d Catchpole 2001 p 132 Alexander amp al 1966 p 188 a b Catchpole 2001 p 134 Catchpole 2001 pp 136 144 Catchpole 2001 pp 136 137 a b Catchpole 2001 p 138 a b c d Catchpole 2001 p 139 a b Catchpole 2001 pp 144 145 a b c d Catchpole 2001 p 144 Catchpole 2001 p 135 Catchpole 2001 pp 145 148 a b c Catchpole 2001 p 147 Alexander amp al 1966 p 199 Catchpole 2001 pp 179 181 a b Catchpole 2001 p 179 a b NASA March 1988 Computers in Spaceflight The NASA Experience Chapter One The Gemini Digital Computer First Machine in Orbit NASA History NASA Retrieved September 15 2016 Rutter Daniel October 28 2004 Computers in space Dan s Data Retrieved September 15 2016 Catchpole 2001 p 142 a b Catchpole 2001 p 191 Gatland 1976 p 264 Catchpole 2001 p 410 a b Giblin 1998 Alexander amp al 1966 pp 48 49 Alexander amp al 1966 p 246 Catchpole 2001 pp 191 194 Alexander amp al 1966 p 313 Catchpole 2001 pp 343 344 Hollins 2013 The History of Urinating in Space ABC Retrieved December 27 2023 Alexander amp al 1966 p 98 Alexander amp al 1966 p 499 Catchpole 2001 p 143 Catchpole 2001 p 141 Catchpole 2001 pp 98 99 a b Alexander amp al 1966 p 501 Unknown 1962 p 8 Catchpole 2001 p 152 Catchpole 2001 p 153 Catchpole 2001 p 159 Catchpole 2001 p 149 Alexander amp al 1966 p 63 Alexander amp al 1966 p 64 Alexander amp al 1966 p 206 Alexander amp al 1966 pp 78 80 Alexander amp al 1966 p 72 Catchpole 2001 pp 425 428 Introduction to future launch vehicle plans 1963 2001 3 The Space Shuttle 1968 72 Retrieved February 3 2014 Garber Steve X 15 Hypersonic Research at the Edge of Space NASA History Homepage NASA Retrieved July 18 2015 a b Catchpole 2001 p 229 a b Catchpole 2001 p 196 Alexander amp al 1966 p 198 Catchpole 2001 pp 132 159 Catchpole 2001 pp 184 188 a b Alexander amp al 1966 p 310 Alexander amp al 1966 p 312 a b c Grimwood 1963 pp 235 238 a b Catchpole 2001 pp 402 405 Grimwood 1963 pp 216 218 Grimwood 1963 p 149 Alexander amp al 1966 pp 126 amp 138 Alexander amp al 1966 pp 96 105 Catchpole 2001 p 107 McDonnell Douglas Logo History McDonnell Douglas archived from the original on June 5 1997 retrieved November 29 2020 a b Catchpole 2001 p 197 Alexander amp al 1966 p 638 Catchpole 2001 p 223 Catchpole 2001 p 284 Catchpole 2001 p 198 Alexander amp al 1966 p 125 Alexander amp al 1966 pp 392 397 a b Catchpole 2001 p 206 Catchpole 2001 p 207 Catchpole 2001 pp 209 214 Alexander amp al 1966 p 151 Grimwood 1963 p 69 a b c d Catchpole 2001 p 211 Alexander amp al 1966 p 22 Catchpole 2001 p 212 Catchpole 2001 pp 225 250 Catchpole 2001 pp 458 459 Alexander amp al 1966 p 164 a b c d Alexander amp al 1966 p 640 a b c Alexander amp al 1966 p 341 Catchpole 2001 p 445 Dunbar B 2015 May 12 Who was Alan shepherd Retrieved April 22 2021 from https www nasa gov audience 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Grimwood 1963 p 81 Mercury Jupiter 2 MJ 2 Astronautix com Archived from the original on June 17 2012 Retrieved May 24 2012 Cassutt amp Slayton 1994 p 104 Cassutt amp Slayton 1994 p 101 Catchpole 2001 pp 385 386 Mercury MA 11 Encyclopedia Astronauticax Archived from the original on August 23 2013 Retrieved June 22 2013 Mercury MA 12 Encyclopedia Astronautica Archived from the original on August 23 2013 Retrieved June 22 2013 Catchpole 2001 p cover Catchpole 2001 p 417 Siddiqi 2000 p 283 Alexander amp al 1966 p 119 Alexander amp al 1966 p 272 Alexander amp al 1966 p 306 Alexander amp al 1966 p 434 Alexander amp al 1966 p 423 Mercury Atlas 8 NASA Retrieved June 22 2013 Alexander amp al 1966 p 472 Alexander amp al 1966 p 363 Alexander amp al 1966 pp 362 435 459 486 502 584 Alexander amp al 1966 pp 435 501 Catchpole 2001 p 448 a b Boeing Press Release Retrieved February 25 2011 The Right Stuff IMdB Retrieved October 4 2011 Mercury Monument Dedication at Launch Complex 14 Kennedy Space Center Archived from the original on January 17 2005 Retrieved June 29 2013 a b Mystic stamp company Archived from the original on March 26 2014 Retrieved April 1 2012 Stamps Mark Shepard s 1961 Flight US Postal Service Archived from the original on April 6 2012 Retrieved May 5 2011 Alexander amp al 1966 p 436 a b Dorr Eugene History of Patches Retrieved June 20 2013 Bibliography editAlexander C C Grimwood J M Swenson L S 1966 This New Ocean a History of Project Mercury PDF US NASA ISBN 1934941875 Cassutt Michael Slayton Donald K Deke 1994 Deke U S Manned Space From Mercury to the Shuttle 1st ed New York US Forge St Martin s Press ISBN 0 312 85503 6 Catchpole John 2001 Project Mercury NASA s First Manned Space Programme Chichester UK Springer Praxis ISBN 1 85233 406 1 Gatland Kenneth 1976 Manned Spacecraft Second ed New York Macmillan p 304 Giblin Kelly A Spring 1998 Fire in the Cockpit American Heritage of Invention amp Technology 13 4 American Heritage Publishing Archived from the original on November 20 2008 Retrieved March 23 2011 Grimwood James M 1963 Project Mercury A Chronology NASA SP 4001 Washington DC US NASA Retrieved November 8 2015 Hansen James R 2005 First Man The Life of Neil A Armstrong Simon amp Schuster ISBN 0 7432 5631 X Hollins Hunter March 11 2013 Forgotten hardware how to urinate in a spacesuit Advances in Physiology Education 37 1 American Physilogy Society 123 128 doi 10 1152 advan 00175 2012 PMID 23728129 Retrieved December 27 2023 Kranz Gene 2000 Failure Is Not an Option Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond New York Berkley Books ISBN 0 425 17987 7 Nelson Craig 2009 Rocket Men The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon New York New York Viking Penguin ISBN 978 0 670 02103 1 Shesol Jeff 2021 Mercury Rising John Glenn John Kennedy and the New Battleground of the Cold War New York W W Norton ISBN 978 1 324 00324 3 Siddiqi Asif A 2000 Challenge To Apollo The Soviet Union and the Space Race 1945 1974 PDF US NASA ISBN 1780393016 Archived from the original PDF on September 16 2008 Unknown 1961 Results of the first U S manned suborbital space flight PDF US NASA Archived from the original PDF on January 31 2014 Retrieved July 9 2013 Unknown 1961a Results of the second U S manned suborbital space flight PDF US NASA Unknown 1962 Results of the first United States manned orbital space flight 20 February 1962 PDF US NASA Archived from the original PDF on November 2 2021 Retrieved July 9 2013 Wilford John Noble July 1969 We Reach the Moon New York US Bantam Books NASA March 1988 Computers in Spaceflight The NASA Experience Chapter One The Gemini Digital Computer First Machine in Orbit NASA History NASA Retrieved September 15 2016 Rutter Daniel October 28 2004 Computers in space Dan s Data Retrieved September 15 2016 Space flight chronology IBM Archives IBM January 23 2003 Retrieved September 15 2016 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mercury program NASA Project Mercury images and videos Archived November 28 2020 at the Wayback Machine Space Medicine In Project Mercury PDFs of historical Mercury documents including familiarization manuals Project Mercury Drawings and Technical Diagrams Archived July 12 2010 at the Wayback Machine The Astronauts United States Project Mercury is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive Portal nbsp Spaceflight Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Project Mercury amp oldid 1223397111 Spacecraft, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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