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Mercury
The Mercury capsule, the first U.S. spaceship, was a cone-shaped one-man capsule with a cylinder mounted on top. 2 meters long, 1.9 meters in diameter, a 5.8 meter escape tower was fastened to the cylinder of the capsule. The blunt end was covered with an ablative heat shield to protect it against the 3000 degree heat of entry into the atmosphere.
The Mercury program used three launch vehicles: The Little-Joe-1 for escape rocket tests, the Redstone-MRLV for the suborbital and the Atlas-D Mercury for orbital flights. Prior to the crewed flights, uncrewed tests of the booster and the capsule, carrying a chimpanzee, were made. Each astronaut named his capsule and added the numeral 7 to denote the teamwork of the original astronauts.
| Nation: | USA |
|---|---|
| Type / Application: | Crewed spacecraft |
| Operator: | NASA |
| Contractors: | McDonnel Aircraft Corporation |
| Equipment: | |
| Configuration: | |
| Propulsion: | 3 × TE-M-316 retro rockets |
| Power: | Batteries |
| Lifetime: | |
| Mass: | |
| Orbit: |
| Satellite | COSPAR | Date | LS | Launch Vehicle | Remarks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury BA-1 (Mercury 1) | N/A | 09.05.1960 | WI | * | Mercury-LES | |
| Mercury LJ-5 (Mercury 3) | N/A | 08.11.1960 | WI LA-1 | *P | Little-Joe-1 (2 Pollux, 4 Recruit) | |
| Mercury LJ-5A (Mercury 14 F1) | N/A | 18.03.1961 | WI LA-1 | * | Little-Joe-1 (4 Castor, 4 Recruit) | |
| Mercury LJ-5B (Mercury 14 F2) | N/A | 28.04.1961 | WI LA-4 | *P | Little-Joe-1 (4 Castor, 4 Recruit) | |
| Mercury MA-1 (Mercury 4) | N/A | 29.07.1960 | CC LC-14 | *F | Atlas-D Mercury | |
| Mercury MA-2 (Mercury 6) | N/A | 21.02.1961 | CC LC-14 | * | Atlas-D Mercury | |
| Mercury MA-3 (Mercury 8 F1) | 1961-F03 | 25.04.1961 | CC LC-14 | F | Atlas-D Mercury | |
| Mercury MA-4 (Mercury 8 F2) | 1961 αα 1 | 13.09.1961 | CC LC-14 | Atlas-D Mercury | ||
| Mercury MA-5 (Mercury 9) | 1961 αι 1 | 29.11.1961 | CC LC-14 | Atlas-D Mercury | ||
| Mercury MA-6 (Mercury 13, Friendship 7) | 1962 γ 1 | 20.02.1962 | CC LC-14 | Atlas-D Mercury | ||
| Mercury MA-7 (Mercury 18, Aurora 7) | 1962 τ 1 | 24.05.1962 | CC LC-14 | Atlas-D Mercury | with Balloon-Subsat 1 | |
| Mercury MA-8 (Mercury 16, Sigma 7) | 1962 βδ 1 | 03.10.1962 | CC LC-14 | Atlas-D Mercury | ||
| Mercury MA-9 (Mercury 20, Faith 7) | 1963-015A | 15.05.1963 | CC LC-14 | Atlas-D Mercury | with Flashing Light Capsule, Balloon-Subsat 2 | |
| Mercury MA-10 (Mercury 15B, Freedom 7-II) | - | not launched | CC LC-14 | Atlas-D Mercury | ||
| Mercury MR-1 (Mercury 2 F1) | N/A | 21.11.1960 | CC LC-5 | *F | Redstone-MRLV | |
| Mercury MR-1A (Mercury 2 F2) | N/A | 19.12.1960 | CC LC-5 | * | Redstone-MRLV | |
| Mercury MR-2 (Mercury 5) | N/A | 31.01.1961 | CC LC-5 | * | Redstone-MRLV | |
| Mercury MR-3 (Mercury 7, Freedom 7) | N/A | 05.05.1961 | CC LC-5 | * | Redstone-MRLV | |
| Mercury MR-4 (Mercury 11, Liberty Bell 7) | N/A | 21.07.1961 | CC LC-5 | * | Redstone-MRLV | |
| Mercury 10 | - | not launched | ||||
| Mercury 12B | - | not launched | ||||
| Mercury 17 | - | not launched | ||||
| Mercury 19 | - | not launched |
* = suborbital
Launch Sites:
- CC = Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Eastern Test Range, Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA
- WI = Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia, USA
- Mercury MA / MR Capsule
- Mercury Boilerplate
- Mercury MS1
- Flashing Light Capsule
- Balloon-Subsat
