The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

America’s first manned space program, the object
of which was to put a human being in orbit, test
his ability to function in space, and return him safely
to Earth. Project Mercury began on October 7, 1958—
one year and three days after the launch of Sputnik 1—
and included six manned flights between 1961 and
1963. It paved the way for the Gemini and Apollo
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programs.
History
Drawing on work done by its predecessor, NACA
(National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics),
NASA requested as early as 1959 proposals for a oneman
capsule to be named Mercury and launched by
either a Redstone or an Atlas. The development of
Project Mercury
Mercury Test Flights
the spacecraft proceeded through a series of unmanned
test flights involving different launch vehicles. Boilerplate
versions were lifted by solid-fueled Little Joes,
and later by Redstone and Atlas rockets, to test the
capsule’s structure and launch escape system. While
some of these tests were successful, others blew up or
veered off course. Next came flights involving real
unmanned capsules, one of which (MR-1) failed
moments after liftoff when the Redstone launcher
simply settled back onto the launch pad. The launch
escape system triggered, however, tricked into supposing
an abort had happened during the ascent to orbit,
and a few minutes later the capsule parachuted back
to Earth within sight of the pad. It was collected and
fitted to a new Redstone, which launched successfully
a few weeks later. A major milestone was passed with
Test Launch Date Passenger Notes
LJ-1 Aug. 21, 1959 — Abort and escape test; failed
BJ-1 Sep. 9, 1959 — Atlas-launched heat-shield test
LJ-6 Oct. 4, 1959 — Capsule aerodynamics and integrity test
LJ-1A Nov. 4, 1959 — Abort and escape test
LJ-2 Dec. 4, 1959 Rhesus monkey Sam Primate escape at high altitude
LJ-1B Jan. 21, 1960 Rhesus monkey Miss Sam Abort and escape test
BA-1 May 9, 1960 — Pad escape system test
MA-1 Jul. 29, 1960 — Qualification of spacecraft and Atlas; failed
LJ-5 Nov. 8, 1960 — Qualification of Mercury spacecraft; failed
MR-1 Nov. 21, 1960 — Qualification of spacecraft and Redstone; failed
MR-1A Dec. 19, 1960 — Qualification of systems for suborbital operation
MR-2 Jan. 31, 1961 Chimpanzee Ham Primate suborbital and auto abort test
MA-2 Feb. 21, 1961 — Qualification of Mercury-Atlas interfaces
MR BD Mar. 24, 1961 — Qualification of booster for manned operation
MA-3 Apr. 25, 1961 — Test of spacecraft and Atlas in orbit; failed
LJ-5B Apr. 28, 1961 — Max Q escape and sequence
MA-4 Sep. 13, 1961 — Test of spacecraft environmental control in orbit
MS-1 Nov. 1, 1961 — Test of Mercury-Scout configuration; failed
MA-5 Nov. 29, 1961 Chimpanzee Enos Primate test in orbit
Key
LJ = Little Joe, BJ = Big Joe, BA = Beach abort, MA = Mercury-Atlas, MR = Mercury-Redstone, MS = Mercury-Scout
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