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Early Space Programs |
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Early Space Programs
Mercury Project Patch
Atlas Rocket |
Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab.... The world watched as our first Astronauts took their first rides upon rockets. Could man survive the ride? Could man survive in space? It was an exciting thought, but also one that was a bit scarey. The chimps Ham and Enos proved that the capsules, so well engineered, would be more than adequate protection to substain man in orbit, and return him safely through re-entry and back to earth. A man in a can on an ICBM Most people did not realize that the first launch boosters were actually modified ICBM's (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile) that were originally designed to deliver destructive wartime payloads on our enemy's. Quoted from a Lockheed-Martin web page, Placing a man in orbit riding atop one of these was once described by the Air Force as "a man in a can on an ICBM" http://www.lmco.com/lmtoday/0596/atlas.html Then the low altitude orbits with Sheppard and Grissom were launched. All went as planned. Then it was John Glenn's turn. "You are go for 7 orbits" they told him after his launch into space was a success. His comments during the flight were great, saying that the lights over the coast of Australia were very visible. "Tell them thanks for turning the lights on" he said. He commented many times on the view, and saying "I feel great" when the Flight Physician asked if he felt nauseaous. He did not go the entire 7 orbits, but instead, 3 orbits. Splashdown.....and cherry pickers retrieving the capsules out of the water, or later, the divers out of the helicopters, opening the capsule door, and seeing the astronauts climb out and enter inflatable rafts. Isolation for all the astronauts was a common site as NASA wanted assurance that they had not brought back any 'space bugs'. Those memories are from years ago. Those first astronauts were the men who laid the path to our space program. A great admiration for the courage of the first 7 astronauts as well as Ham and Enos should be held by all. Lets look back on some of those programs. Mercury! The Olympian messenger Mercury, alias Hermes, the son of Zeus and grandson of Atlas. For detailed info on the Mercury
program, see: Online book on the Mercury Program:
The goals of Project Mercury were simple.
Started in 1958 and completed in 1963, Mercury made six manned space flights, from 1961 to 1963. Many of us remember those. Here are the 7 original astronauts.
The Mercury Astronaut Flights:
Each astronaut named their capsules, ending the name with the number 7 (in honor of this team). The capsules were very small, measuring (6 ft, 10 in.) long, 1.9 meters (6 ft, 2 1/2 in) in diameter. Prior to the manned flights were the chimpanzee flights. The first chimp in space was named Ham. Perhaps we will do a section just on Ham. More on Mercury soon! Gemini and Apollo information soon as well! NASA Early Space Program information can be found in a variety of web sites. However, NASA History resources and information online is one of the best. This free space provided by
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