Project Mercury

First NASA Human Spaceflight Program

The Mercury project was the first US program to launch humans into space, with the goal of putting a human in orbit before the Soviet Union. Orbit was achieved on February 20, 1962, 10 months and 8 days behind the USSR.

The first flights started with the Little Joe rockets testing the Launch Escape System (LES) with two flights launching rhesus monkeys.

The Redstone rocket was used to fly the first Americans into space. Chimpanzee Ham flew the first suborbital flight, followed by Alan Shepard in his Freedom 7 capsule in 1961.

An attempt was made to test the Mercury Tracking Network with the Mercury-Scout-1 satellite (MS-1) launched on a Blue Scout-II rocket, but the launch failed.

Atlas flights started with the Big Joe 1 launch, with the first American orbital flight achieved in 1962 by John Glenn in his Friendship 7 capsule. The last Mercury capsule flew in May 1963 with all remaining flights cancelled with Project Gemini ramping up.

Atlas Rocket Family
The Atlas rockets were a Convair development of the SM-65 Atlas missile, which was first tested on December 17, 1957. Having no inherent structural stability, the core sustainer stage needed to be pressurized when vertical.
Scout Rocket Family
Designed in 1957 at NACA's Langley Research Center and contracted to Vought, later LTV, the first Solid Controlled Orbital Utility Test system, or Scout, flew on April 18, 1960.
Little Joe Flights
  1. Little Joe 1 (LJ-1), Launch Escape System (LES) test, boilerplate capsule (1959, failed)
  2. Little Joe 6 (LJ-6), LES test, boilerplate capsule (1959)
  3. Little Joe 1A (LJ-1A), LES test, boilerplate capsule (1959, failed)
  4. Little Joe 2 (LJ-2), LES test with rhesus monkey Sam (1959)
  5. Little Joe 1B (LJ-1B), LES Max-Q abort test with boilerplate capsule and rhesus monkey Miss Sam (1960)
  6. Little Joe 5 (LJ-5), Capsule #3 and LES Max-Q ascent abort test (1960, failed)
  7. Little Joe 5A (LJ-5A), Capsule #14 and LES ascent abort test (1961)
  8. Little Joe 5B (LJ-5B), Capsule #14A and LES ascent abort test (1961)
Redstone Flights
  1. Mercury-Redstone 1 (MR-1), Capsule #2 (1960, failed)
  2. Mercury-Redstone 1A (MR-1A), Capsule #2 (1960)
  3. Mercury-Redstone 2 (MR-2), Capsule #5 with chimpanzee Ham (1961)
  4. Mercury-Redstone BD (Booster Development), boilerplate capsule (1961)
  5. Mercury-Redstone 3 (MR-3), Freedom 7 (#7) with Alan Shepard, first American suborbital spaceflight (1961)
  6. Mercury-Redstone 4 (MR-4), Liberty Bell 7 (#11) with Gus Grissom (1961)
Atlas Flights
  1. Big Joe 1 (BJ-1), heat shield and Atlas/Mercury capsule interface (1959)
  2. Mercury-Atlas 1 (MA-1), Capsule #4 (1960, failed)
  3. Mercury-Atlas 2 (MA-2), Capsule #6 (1961)
  4. Mercury-Atlas 3 (MA-3), Capsule #8, orbital flight with mechanical astronaut (1961)
  5. Mercury-Atlas 4 (MA-4), Capsule #8, environmental control system test with mechanical astronaut (1961)
  6. Mercury-Atlas 5 (MA-5), Capsule #9, environmental control system test with chimpanzee Enos (1961)
  7. Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6), Friendship 7 (#13) with John Glenn, first American orbital spaceflight (1962)
  8. Mercury-Atlas 7 (MA-7), Aurora 7 (#18) with Scott Carpenter (1962)
  9. Mercury-Atlas 8 (MA-8), Sigma 7 (#16) with Wally Schirra (1962)
  10. Mercury-Atlas 9 (MA-9), Faith 7 (#20) with Gordon Cooper (1963)
Other Flights
  1. Beach Abort, Capsule #1 only LES test (1960)
  2. Mercury-Scout 1 (MS-1), tracking stations test satellite on Blue Scout-II, D-8 (1961, failed)
Wikipedia (en)
Gunter D. Krebs, Gunther's Space Page (en)
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