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The Mercury Project design brief was simple: To launch a man into Orbit and safely return him to Earth afterwards.
After significant testing in the early years of NASA with a variety of rockets, satellite launches and ever Chimpanzee animal tests, NASA had enough data to show that manned flight in space was a feasible goal. NASA knew that they were now in a race with Russia to put a man into space and all their energies turned to that task.
With the help of the Cape Canaveral Air Station, NASA obtained and modified a series of Military rockets - the Redstone - which was itself a development of the German V2 rockets. It also started to create a Capsule, which would ultimately protect a Man from the dangerous environment in space.
Over a number of years it launched these modified Redstone rockets with these Mercury Capsules to test and certify them. In total, there were 26 launches in the Mercury program. Some launches resulted in spectacular failures: Some exploded on the launch pad, some flew only to turn around and head back towards the Earth prematurely.
But gradually, the rockets were perfected and certified. So that manned flights could begin.
As the rockets were perfected, seven American test pilots were chosen from various arms of the U.S. Military to fly these experimental rockets:
First American in Space:
In the Rocket Garden at the John F. Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex is a good example of a Mercury Redstone rocket. These modified military Redstone rockets were used at the start of the Mercury Project to test and prove the equipment needed to put a man safely in space. Some of the early Mercury rockets met with quite catastrophic endings, but slowly, over time the process was perfected until it was deemed safe to try a manned mission.
Mercury Redstone
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It was the 18th Mercury flight, using one of these Mercury Redstone launch vehicles which propelled the first American, Alan B. Shepard, into space on 5 May, 1961 aboard his single-seat Freedom 7 capsule. The launch of Freedom 7 took place from Pad 5 at Cape Canaveral Air Station. This sub-orbital ballistic trajectory flight took Shepard to an altitude of 116.5 miles and he traveled 303 miles downrange.
Alan B. Shepard
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MR-3 Launch
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This mere 15 minute flight of Freedom 7 was the catalyst which directly made President John F. Kennedy pledge, in his famous speech, to put a man on the moon before the end of the 1960's.
Russian, Senior Lieutenant Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin, pipped Shepard to the post when he became the first man in space earlier that year on 12 April, 1961 aboard his Vostok I space-craft launched atop a huge 20-engined R-7 rocket. In fact, he was also the first person to Orbit Earth too at an altitude of 187.8 miles at a speed of 18,000mph he orbited the Earth in only 108 minutes.
Snr. Lt. Yuri Gagarin
After Shepard's flight, the second Redstone-powered manned Mercury mission was successfully flown on 21 July, 1961 by Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom. He would later return to space in Project Gemini and would also command the ill-fated Apollo 1 crew.
When Grissom splashed down he exited as soon as his hatch-bolts were blown open. His capsule, The Liberty Bell 7 sank in 15,000ft of water. It was the only capsule to be lost during the Mercury, Gemini or Apollo programs. Eventually the Liberty Bell 7 was successfully recovered by an underwater rescue team, some 38 years later, in 1999.
First American in Orbit:
A more powerful rocket than the Redstone was required to get a man into orbit, so the Atlas rocket was conscripted to the job. Originally designed as an Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), the Mercury Atlas was a modified design specifically created to carry the one-man Mercury capsules.
Mercury Atlas
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The first of the four manned Mercury Atlas rockets sat at Launch Complex 14, on 20 February, 1962. Atop it was the Friendship 7 capsule containing Lieutenant Colonel John H. Glenn Jr. That morning he was boosted into Orbit to circle the Earth three times, and so he became the first American in orbit. Glenn spent a total of 4 hours 48minutes and 27 seconds in weightlessness.
John H. Glenn
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MA-6 Launch
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Next up was Lieutenant Commander Scott Carpenter, specifically to corroborate Glenn's flight. His mission went almost perfectly, but like every other Mercury mission, some systems aboard the capsule/launch vehicle suffered minor failures. Though, they luckily rarely inhibited the flight itself in any way.
Time spent in weightlessness was gradually extended on the next two flights to test whether weightlessness would harm humans over longer and longer periods. Lieutenant Commander Walter M. Schirra Jr. was placed into orbit next in Sigma 7, to circle the globe a total of six times. His time in zero-G was 8 hours 56min 22sec.
With Schirra's successful flight showing no serious risk to humans from zero-G exposure, the final Mercury flight put Major L. Gordon Cooper into orbit for a full day. In the event Cooper spent 34 hours 3min 30sec in zero-G aboard his Faith 7 capsule.
Only six of the original seven Mercury Astronauts flew during the project. Captain Donald Kent Slayton never flew. He was grounded with a previously undiscovered heart condition. He would later fly as a member of the American crew of the Apollo Soyuz Test Project in July 1975 once his condition cleared up.
The six manned Project Mercury capsules were piloted by astronauts:
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The next challenge was already on the table to the Russians from President John F. Kennedy, so NASA turned it's primary focus to developing the tools required to get a man to the Moon. They had a severe job to accomplish, because Russia had beaten them to this point. NASA's next step was the Gemini Project.
There is a simple Memorial at the entrance to the, now inactive, Mercury Atlas Launch Complex: 14, which commemorates the successful completion of Project Mercury.
Last modified: 2nd July 2001
© Ross B. Tierney, 2001.
