Thank you very much for visiting Gunter's Space Page. I hope that this site is useful and informative for you.
If you appreciate the information provided on this site, please consider supporting my work by making a simple and secure donation via PayPal. Please help to run the website and keep everything free of charge. Thank you very much.
Mercury
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: | McDonnell |
| 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
- Mercury MA / MR Capsule
- Mercury Boilerplate
- Mercury MS1
- Flashing Light Capsule
- Balloon-Subsat
