126-519: Juno II was an American space launch vehicle used during the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was derived from the Jupiter missile, which was used as the first stage. Solid-fueled rocket motors derived from the MGM-29 Sergeant were used as upper stages, eleven for the second stage, three for the third stage, and one for the fourth stage, the same configuration as used for the upper stages of
252-487: A launch escape system to separate the spacecraft and its occupant from the launch vehicle in case of impending failure; attitude control for orientation of the spacecraft in orbit; a retrorocket system to bring the spacecraft out of orbit; drag braking blunt body for atmospheric reentry ; and landing on water. To communicate with the spacecraft during an orbital mission, an extensive communications network had to be built. In keeping with his desire to keep from giving
378-436: A parachute slowed the craft for a water landing . Both astronaut and capsule were recovered by helicopters deployed from a US Navy ship. The Mercury project gained popularity, and its missions were followed by millions on radio and TV around the world. Its success laid the groundwork for Project Gemini , which carried two astronauts in each capsule and perfected space docking maneuvers essential for crewed lunar landings in
504-489: A 15-hour hold, during which pyrotechnics were installed. Then came the main countdown which for orbital flights started 6½ hours before launch (T – 390 min), counted backwards to launch (T = 0) and then forward until orbital insertion (T + 5 min). On an orbital mission, the Atlas' rocket engines were ignited four seconds before lift-off. The launch vehicle was held to the ground by clamps and then released when sufficient thrust
630-419: A Juno II, Pioneer 3 on 6 December 1958, suffered a premature first-stage cutoff, preventing the upper stages from achieving sufficient velocity. Pioneer 3 could not escape Earth orbit, but transmitted data for some 40 hours before reentering the atmosphere. A malfunction in a propellant depletion circuit was found to be the cause of the failure, although the exact nature of it could not be determined. The circuit
756-498: A blunt, forward-facing heat shield could solve the problem of heating. T. Keith Glennan had been appointed the first Administrator of NASA, with Hugh L. Dryden (last Director of NACA) as his Deputy, at the creation of the agency on October 1, 1958. Glennan would report to the president through the National Aeronautics and Space Council . The group responsible for Project Mercury was NASA's Space Task Group , and
882-584: A centrifuge at the Naval Air Development Center , and were taught special breathing techniques necessary when subjected to more than 6 g. Weightlessness training took place in aircraft, first on the rear seat of a two-seater fighter and later inside converted and padded cargo aircraft . They practiced gaining control of a spinning spacecraft in a machine at the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory called
1008-455: A college degree in a STEM subject. The college degree requirement excluded the USAF's X-1 pilot, then-Lt Col (later Brig Gen) Chuck Yeager , the first person to exceed the speed of sound . He later became a critic of the project, ridiculing the civilian space program, labeling astronauts as "spam in a can." John Glenn did not have a college degree either, but used influential friends to make
1134-432: A convex base, which carried a heat shield (Item 2 in the diagram below) consisting of an aluminum honeycomb covered with multiple layers of fiberglass . Strapped to it was a retropack ( 1 ) consisting of three rockets deployed to brake the spacecraft during reentry. Between these were three posigrade rockets: minor rockets for separating the spacecraft from the launch vehicle at orbital insertion. The straps that held
1260-451: A cuff that could take his blood pressure, and a rectal thermometer to record his temperature (this was replaced by an oral thermometer on the last flight). Data from these was sent to the ground during the flight. The astronaut normally drank water and ate food pellets. Despite the lessons learnt from the U2 program, which also utilized a pressure suit, initially no urine collection device
1386-582: A day-long, 22 orbit flight. However, the Soviet Union ended its Vostok program the next month, with the human spaceflight endurance record set by the 82-orbit, almost 5-day Vostok 5 flight. All of the six crewed Mercury flights were successful, though some planned flights were canceled during the project (see below). The main medical problems encountered were simple personal hygiene , and post-flight symptoms of low blood pressure . The launch vehicles had been tested through uncrewed flights, therefore
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#17327732051041512-574: A dog into orbit. Though the animal was not recovered alive, it was obvious their goal was human spaceflight. Unable to disclose details of military space projects, President Eisenhower ordered the creation of a civilian space agency in charge of civilian and scientific space exploration. Based on the federal research agency National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), it was named the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The agency achieved its first goal of launching
1638-436: A fuel. For orientation, the pilot could look through the window in front of him or he could look at a screen connected to a periscope with a camera which could be turned 360°. The Mercury astronauts had taken part in the development of their spacecraft, and insisted that manual control, and a window, be elements of its design. As a result, spacecraft movement and other functions could be controlled three ways: remotely from
1764-778: A full staff of technical personnel around solely to fly a few Mercury capsules would result in excessively high costs. Orbital missions required use of the Atlas LV-3B , a man-rated version of the Atlas D which was originally developed as the United States ' first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) by Convair for the Air Force during the mid-1950s. The Atlas was a "one-and-one-half-stage" rocket fueled by kerosene and liquid oxygen (LOX). The rocket by itself stood 67 feet (20 m) high; total height of
1890-513: A liquid-fueled engine that burned alcohol and liquid oxygen producing about 75,000 pounds-force (330 kN) of thrust, which was not enough for orbital missions. It was a descendant of the German V-2 , and developed for the U.S. Army during the early 1950s. It was modified for Project Mercury by removing the warhead and adding a collar for supporting the spacecraft together with material for damping vibrations during launch. Its rocket motor
2016-436: A low pressure of 5.5 psi or 38 kPa (equivalent to an altitude of 24,800 feet or 7,600 metres) was chosen, rather than one with the same composition as air ( nitrogen /oxygen) at sea level. This was easier to control, avoided the risk of decompression sickness ("the bends"), and also saved on spacecraft weight. Fires (which never occurred during the course of Project Mercury) would have to be extinguished by emptying
2142-562: A missile race. The rocket technology in turn enabled both sides to develop Earth-orbiting satellites for communications, and gathering weather data and intelligence . Americans were shocked when the Soviet Union placed the first satellite into orbit in October 1957, leading to a growing fear that the US was falling into a " missile gap ". A month later, the Soviets launched Sputnik 2 , carrying
2268-400: A rocket sled track at Holloman Air Force Base at Alamogordo, New Mexico were used for aerodynamic studies. Both Navy and Air Force aircraft were made available for the development of the spacecraft's landing system, and Navy ships and Navy and Marine Corps helicopters were made available for recovery. South of Cape Canaveral the town of Cocoa Beach boomed. From here, 75,000 people watched
2394-540: A rocket stage may be recovered while others are not. The Space Shuttle , for example, recovered and reused its solid rocket boosters , the Space Shuttle orbiter that also acted as a second stage, and the engines used by the core stage (the RS-25 , which was located at the back of the orbiter), however the fuel tank that the engines sourced fuel from, which was separate from the engines, was not reused. For example,
2520-935: A satellite into space, the Pioneer 1 , in 1958. The next goal was to put a man there. The limit of space (also known as the Kármán line ) was defined at the time as a minimum altitude of 62 mi (100 km), and the only way to reach it was by using rocket-powered boosters. This created risks for the pilot, including explosion, high g-forces and vibrations during lift off through a dense atmosphere, and temperatures of more than 10,000 °F (5,500 °C) from air compression during reentry. In space, pilots would require pressurized chambers or space suits to supply fresh air. While there, they would experience weightlessness , which could potentially cause disorientation. Further potential risks included radiation and micrometeoroid strikes, both of which would normally be absorbed in
2646-582: A single orbit aboard Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961. Shortly after this, on May 5, the US launched its first astronaut, Alan Shepard , on a suborbital flight. Soviet Gherman Titov followed with a day-long orbital flight in August 1961. The US reached its orbital goal on February 20, 1962, when John Glenn made three orbits around the Earth. When Mercury ended in May 1963, both nations had sent six people into space, but
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#17327732051042772-576: A spaceflight, and was consequently dropped. The heat shield and the stability of the spacecraft were tested in wind tunnels , and later in flight. The launch escape system was developed through uncrewed flights. During a period of problems with development of the landing parachutes, alternative landing systems such as the Rogallo glider wing were considered, but ultimately scrapped. The spacecraft were produced at McDonnell Aircraft , St. Louis , Missouri, in clean rooms and tested in vacuum chambers at
2898-647: Is developing the first stage of the orbital New Glenn LV to be reusable, with first flight planned for no earlier than 2024. SpaceX has a new super-heavy launch vehicle under development for missions to interplanetary space . The SpaceX Starship is designed to support RTLS, vertical-landing and full reuse of both the booster stage and the integrated second-stage/large-spacecraft that are designed for use with Starship. Its first launch attempt took place in April 2023; however, both stages were lost during ascent. The fifth launch attempt ended with Booster 12 being caught by
3024-653: Is typically a rocket -powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites ) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space . The most common form is the ballistic missile -shaped multistage rocket , but the term is more general and also encompasses vehicles like the Space Shuttle . Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad , supported by a launch control center and systems such as vehicle assembly and fueling. Launch vehicles are engineered with advanced aerodynamics and technologies, which contribute to high operating costs. An orbital launch vehicle must lift its payload at least to
3150-695: The European Space Agency is responsible for the Ariane V , and the United Launch Alliance manufactures and launches the Delta IV and Atlas V rockets. Launchpads can be located on land ( spaceport ), on a fixed ocean platform ( San Marco ), on a mobile ocean platform ( Sea Launch ), and on a submarine . Launch vehicles can also be launched from the air . A launch vehicle will start off with its payload at some location on
3276-574: The Freedom 7 capsule demonstrated the ability to withstand the high g-forces of launch and atmospheric re-entry . Shepard later went on to fly in the Apollo program and became the only Mercury astronaut to walk on the Moon on Apollo 14 . Gus Grissom became the second American in space on Mercury-Redstone 4 on July 21, 1961. After the splashdown of Liberty Bell 7 , the side hatch opened and caused
3402-474: The Mission Control Center . Recovery was practiced in pools at Langley , and later at sea with frogmen and helicopter crews. A Redstone rocket was used to boost the capsule for 2 minutes and 30 seconds to an altitude of 32 nautical miles (59 km); the capsule continued ascending on a ballistic curve after booster separation. The launch escape system was jettisoned at the same time. At
3528-444: The upper stage of the launch vehicle or launched to a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). A direct insertion places greater demands on the launch vehicle, while GTO is more demanding of the spacecraft. Once in orbit, launch vehicle upper stages and satellites can have overlapping capabilities, although upper stages tend to have orbital lifetimes measured in hours or days while spacecraft can last decades. Distributed launch involves
3654-572: The 1957 launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1 . This came as a shock to the American public, and led to the creation of NASA to expedite existing US space exploration efforts, and place most of them under civilian control. After the successful launch of the Explorer 1 satellite in 1958, crewed spaceflight became the next goal. The Soviet Union put the first human, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin , into
3780-472: The 2000s and launch vehicles with integrated distributed launch capability built in began development in 2017 with the Starship design. The standard Starship launch architecture is to refuel the spacecraft in low Earth orbit to enable the craft to send high-mass payloads on much more energetic missions. After 1980, but before the 2010s, two orbital launch vehicles developed the capability to return to
3906-494: The Atlas-Mercury space vehicle at launch was 95 feet (29 m). The Atlas first stage was a booster skirt with two engines burning liquid fuel. This, together with the larger sustainer second stage, gave it sufficient power to launch a Mercury spacecraft into orbit. Both stages fired from lift-off with the thrust from the second stage sustainer engine passing through an opening in the first stage. After separation from
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4032-438: The Earth. Here the spacecraft fired the three posigrade rockets for a second to separate it from the launch vehicle. Just before orbital insertion and sustainer engine cutoff, g-loads peaked at 8 g (6 g for a suborbital flight). In orbit, the spacecraft automatically turned 180°, pointed the retropackage forward and its nose 14.5° downward and kept this attitude for the rest of the orbital phase to facilitate communication with
4158-827: The Greek Atlas and Roman Jupiter for the SM-65 and PGM-19 missiles . It absorbed military projects with the same aim, such as the Air Force Man in Space Soonest . Following the end of World War II , a nuclear arms race evolved between the US and the Soviet Union (USSR). Since the USSR did not have bases in the western hemisphere from which to deploy bomber planes , Joseph Stalin decided to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles , which drove
4284-462: The Juno II suffered minor damage from flying debris. This was quickly repaired and the launch performed successfully on 13 October 1959. Explorer 7 would be the last Juno II launch from LC-5 as the pad was then permanently reassigned to Project Mercury . On 23 March 1960, another Explorer satellite failed to reach orbit when one second-stage motor failed to ignite, causing imbalanced thrust that sent
4410-401: The Juno II. The conversion of the booster for LEO launches also threw off the calibration of the spinning tub third stage which was designed for the tiny Pioneer probes and not the larger Explorer satellites. At this time, NASA had four Juno IIs remaining in their inventory. The review board predicted that two of them would launch successfully, but recommended that there was no reason not to fly
4536-496: The Jupiter), a reinforced structure to support the added weight of upper stages, and the inertial guidance system replaced with a radio ground guidance package, which was moved to the upper stages. The Juno II was used for ten satellite launches, of which six failed. It launched Pioneer 3 , Pioneer 4 , Explorer 7 , Explorer 8 , and Explorer 11 from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 5 and Launch Complex 26B . The first launch of
4662-541: The McDonnell plant. The spacecraft had close to 600 subcontractors, such as Garrett AiResearch which built the spacecraft's environmental control system. Final quality control and preparations of the spacecraft were made at Hangar S at Cape Canaveral. NASA ordered 20 production spacecraft, numbered 1 through 20. Five of the 20, Nos. 10, 12, 15, 17, and 19, were not flown. Spacecraft No. 3 and No. 4 were destroyed during uncrewed test flights. Spacecraft No. 11 sank and
4788-558: The Mercury spacecraft on a $ 20 million ($ 209 million adjusted for inflation) contract. In January 1959, McDonnell Aircraft Corporation was chosen to be prime contractor for the spacecraft. Two weeks earlier, North American Aviation , based in Los Angeles, was awarded a contract for Little Joe , a small rocket to be used for development of the launch escape system. The World Wide Tracking Network for communication between
4914-495: The Multi-Axis Spin-Test Inertia Facility (MASTIF), by using an attitude controller handle simulating the one in the spacecraft. A further measure for finding the right attitude in orbit was star and Earth recognition training in planetaria and simulators. Communication and flight procedures were practiced in flight simulators, first together with a single person assisting them and later with
5040-554: The Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, was considered as well for intermediate Mercury suborbital flights at a higher speed and altitude than Redstone, but this plan was dropped when it turned out that man-rating Jupiter for the Mercury program would actually cost more than flying an Atlas due to economics of scale. Jupiter's only use other than as a missile system was for the short-lived Juno II launch vehicle, and keeping
5166-559: The Soviets led the US in total time spent in space. The Mercury space capsule was produced by McDonnell Aircraft , and carried supplies of water, food and oxygen for about one day in a pressurized cabin . Mercury flights were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, on launch vehicles modified from the Redstone and Atlas D missiles. The capsule was fitted with a launch escape rocket to carry it safely away from
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5292-481: The US space program an overtly military flavor, President Eisenhower at first hesitated to give the project top national priority (DX rating under the Defense Production Act ), which meant that Mercury had to wait in line behind military projects for materials; however, this rating was granted in May 1959, a little more than a year and a half after Sputnik was launched. Twelve companies bid to build
5418-496: The World Wide Tracking Network, a chain of 18 stations placed around the equator, which was based on a network used for satellites and made ready in 1960. It collected data from the spacecraft and provided two-way communication between the astronaut and the ground. Each station had a range of 700 nautical miles (1,300 km) and a pass typically lasted 7 minutes. Mercury astronauts on the ground would take
5544-548: The accomplishment of a goal with multiple spacecraft launches. A large spacecraft such as the International Space Station can be constructed by assembling modules in orbit, or in-space propellant transfer conducted to greatly increase the delta-V capabilities of a cislunar or deep space vehicle. Distributed launch enables space missions that are not possible with single launch architectures. Mission architectures for distributed launch were explored in
5670-411: The air around the spacecraft. After reentry, a small, drogue parachute ( H ) was deployed at 21,000 ft (6,400 m) for stabilizing the spacecraft's descent. The main parachute ( I ) was deployed at 10,000 ft (3,000 m) starting with a narrow opening that opened fully in a few seconds to lessen the strain on the lines. Just before hitting the water, the landing bag inflated from behind
5796-433: The angle of retrofire was 34° downward from the flight path angle. Retrorockets fired for 10 seconds each ( F ) in a sequence where one started 5 seconds after the other. During reentry ( G ), the astronaut would experience about 8 g (11–12 g on a suborbital mission). The temperature around the heat shield rose to 3,000 °F (1,600 °C) and at the same time, there was a two-minute radio blackout due to ionization of
5922-422: The astronauts' tasks was publicity; they gave interviews to the press and visited project manufacturing facilities to speak with those who worked on Project Mercury. The press was especially fond of John Glenn, who was considered the best speaker of the seven. They sold their personal stories to Life magazine which portrayed them as 'patriotic, God-fearing family men.' Life was also allowed to be at home with
6048-431: The atmosphere. All seemed possible to overcome: experience from satellites suggested micrometeoroid risk was negligible, and experiments in the early 1950s with simulated weightlessness, high g-forces on humans, and sending animals to the limit of space, all suggested potential problems could be overcome by known technologies. Finally, reentry was studied using the nuclear warheads of ballistic missiles, which demonstrated
6174-647: The beginning of Project Gemini . On March 13, 1972, after doctors confirmed he no longer had a coronary condition, Slayton returned to flight status and the next year was assigned to the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project , which successfully flew in 1975 with Slayton as the docking module pilot. After the ASTP, he managed the Space Shuttle Program's Approach and Landing Tests (ALT) and Orbital Flight Tests (OFT) before retiring from NASA in 1982. One of
6300-539: The booster stage of a launch vehicle. After 2010, SpaceX undertook a development program to acquire the ability to bring back and vertically land a part of the Falcon 9 orbital launch vehicle: the first stage . The first successful landing was done in December 2015, since 2017 rocket stages routinely land either at a landing pad adjacent to the launch site or on a landing platform at sea, some distance away from
6426-484: The booster, leading to low interest and apathy among those in the program. The JPL team who developed the Juno II had originally only intended it for the Pioneer lunar probes and their interest started waning as soon as NASA began Earth orbital launches with the vehicle. Even worse, most of the design team had been disbanded and its members reassigned to other projects, making it difficult to obtain technical information for
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#17327732051046552-517: The booster. On 15 August 1959, the next Juno II was flown, carrying the Beacon satellite . While first-stage performance was nominal, the upper stages malfunctioned. One intended experiment on this mission was the ejection of four flares stowed in the interstage section which would be tracked and photographed during the launch. However, things went awry when the flare ejection failed to take place on schedule. The control system also malfunctioned and drove
6678-424: The boosters since they had already been bought and paid for. Their assumptions proved correct. Explorer 8 was launched successfully on 3 November 1960, with the next attempt on 24 February 1961 a failure. A control cable came loose during ascent and wrapped itself around the spinning third-stage tub, damaging the upper stages and payload. Second-stage ignition occurred on time, but the third stage did not ignite and
6804-838: The boundary of space, approximately 150 km (93 mi) and accelerate it to a horizontal velocity of at least 7,814 m/s (17,480 mph). Suborbital vehicles launch their payloads to lower velocity or are launched at elevation angles greater than horizontal. Practical orbital launch vehicles use chemical propellants such as solid fuel , liquid hydrogen , kerosene , liquid oxygen , or hypergolic propellants . Launch vehicles are classified by their orbital payload capacity, ranging from small- , medium- , heavy- to super-heavy lift . Launch vehicles are classed by NASA according to low Earth orbit payload capability: Sounding rockets are similar to small-lift launch vehicles, however they are usually even smaller and do not place payloads into orbit. A modified SS-520 sounding rocket
6930-502: The cabin of oxygen. In such case, or failure of the cabin pressure for any reason, the astronaut could make an emergency return to Earth, relying on his suit for survival. The astronauts normally flew with their visor up, which meant that the suit was not inflated. With the visor down and the suit inflated, the astronaut could only reach the side and bottom panels, where vital buttons and handles were placed. The astronaut also wore electrodes on his chest to record his heart rhythm ,
7056-593: The capsule to sink although Grissom was able to be safely recovered. His flight also gave NASA the confidence to move on to orbital flights. Grissom went on to participate in the Gemini and Apollo programs, but died in January 1967 during a pre-launch test for Apollo 1 . John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth on Mercury-Atlas 6 February 20, 1962. During the flight, the spacecraft Friendship 7 experienced issues with its automatic control system but Glenn
7182-406: The capsule was just large enough for a single crew member. Inside were 120 controls: 55 electrical switches, 30 fuses and 35 mechanical levers. The heaviest spacecraft, Mercury-Atlas 9, weighed 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg) fully loaded. Its outer skin was made of René 41 , a nickel alloy able to withstand high temperatures. The spacecraft was cone shaped, with a neck at the narrow end. It had
7308-555: The design submitted as "C" in November 1958. After it failed a test flight in July 1959, a final configuration, "D", emerged. The heat shield shape had been developed earlier in the 1950s through experiments with ballistic missiles, which had shown a blunt profile would create a shock wave that would lead most of the heat around the spacecraft. To further protect against heat, either a heat sink , or an ablative material, could be added to
7434-475: The escape tower. McDonnell also built the spacecraft simulators used by the astronauts during training, and adopted the motto "First Free Man in Space". A 55-foot-long (17 m) launch vehicle called Little Joe was used for uncrewed tests of the launch escape system, using a Mercury capsule with an escape tower mounted on it. Its main purpose was to test the system at max q , when aerodynamic forces against
7560-620: The families while the astronauts were in space. During the project, Grissom, Carpenter, Cooper, Schirra and Slayton stayed with their families at or near Langley Air Force Base; Glenn lived at the base and visited his family in Washington DC on weekends. Shepard lived with his family at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia. Other than Grissom, who was killed in the 1967 Apollo 1 fire, the other six survived past retirement and died between 1993 and 2016. Prior to Project Mercury, there
7686-455: The first American orbital flight being launched in 1962. The Mercury spacecraft's principal designer was Maxime Faget , who started research for human spaceflight during the time of the NACA. It was 10.8 feet (3.3 m) long and 6.0 feet (1.8 m) wide; with the launch escape system added, the overall length was 25.9 feet (7.9 m). With 100 cubic feet (2.8 m ) of habitable volume,
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#17327732051047812-413: The first crewed Apollo mission, Apollo 7 , becoming the first astronaut to fly three times and the only person to fly in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. Gordon Cooper made the last flight of Project Mercury with Mercury-Atlas 9 on May 15, 1963. His flight onboard Faith 7 set another U.S. endurance record with a 34-hour and 19 minute flight duration, and 22 completed orbits. This mission marks
7938-458: The first person in space on an orbital flight. Alan Shepard became the first American in space on a suborbital flight three weeks later, on May 5, 1961. John Glenn, the third Mercury astronaut to fly, became the first American to reach orbit on February 20, 1962, but only after the Soviets had launched a second cosmonaut, Gherman Titov , into a day-long flight in August 1961. Three more Mercury orbital flights were made, ending on May 16, 1963, with
8064-408: The first stage propulsion and Jet Propulsion Laboratory handled the upper stage propulsion. The first three Juno IIs were converted Jupiter missiles, however all remaining boosters were built as Juno IIs from the beginning. The main differences between the Juno II and Jupiter were stretched propellant tanks for increased burn time (the first stage burn time was approximately 20 seconds longer than on
8190-536: The first stage, the sustainer stage continued alone. The sustainer also steered the rocket by thrusters guided by gyroscopes. Smaller vernier rockets were added on its sides for precise control of maneuvers. NASA announced the following seven astronauts – known as the Mercury Seven – on April 9, 1959: Alan Shepard became the first American in space by making a suborbital flight on May 5, 1961. Mercury-Redstone 3 , Shepard's 15 minute and 28 second flight of
8316-405: The flight. On the morning of the trip he typically ate a steak breakfast. After having sensors applied to his body and being dressed in the pressure suit, he started breathing pure oxygen to prepare him for the atmosphere of the spacecraft. He arrived at the launch pad, took the elevator up the launch tower and entered the spacecraft two hours before launch. Once the astronaut was secured inside,
8442-409: The fourth stage, the payload capacity was nearly doubled. The attempted launch of an Explorer satellite on 16 July 1959 failed dramatically when the Juno II lost control almost immediately at liftoff, performing a cartwheel before the range safety officer sent the destruct command. The almost fully fueled booster crashed a few hundred feet from the pad, blockhouse crews watching in stunned surprise at
8568-461: The goals of the program were to orbit a crewed spacecraft around Earth, investigate the pilot's ability to function in space, and to recover both pilot and spacecraft safely. Existing technology and off-the-shelf equipment would be used wherever practical, the simplest and most reliable approach to system design would be followed, and an existing launch vehicle would be employed, together with a progressive test program. Spacecraft requirements included:
8694-736: The ground and spacecraft during a flight was awarded to the Western Electric Company . Redstone rockets for suborbital launches were manufactured in Huntsville , Alabama, by the Chrysler Corporation and Atlas rockets by Convair in San Diego, California. For crewed launches, the Atlantic Missile Range at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida was made available by the USAF. This
8820-505: The ground when passing over a ground station, automatically guided by onboard instruments, or manually by the astronaut, who could replace or override the two other methods. Experience validated the astronauts' insistence on manual controls. Without them, Gordon Cooper 's manual reentry during the last flight would not have been possible. The Mercury spacecraft design was modified three times by NASA between 1958 and 1959. After bidding by potential contractors had been completed, NASA selected
8946-468: The ground, with their results (retrofire times and firing attitude) then transmitted to the spacecraft by radio while in flight. All computer systems used in the Mercury space program were housed in NASA facilities on Earth . (See Ground control for details.) The astronaut lay in a sitting position with his back to the heat shield, which was found to be the position that best enabled a human to withstand
9072-409: The ground. Once in orbit, it was not possible for the spacecraft to change its trajectory except by initiating reentry. Each orbit would typically take 88 minutes to complete. The lowest point of the orbit, called perigee , was at about 87 nautical miles (161 km) altitude, and the highest point, called apogee , was about 150 nautical miles (280 km) altitude. When leaving orbit ( E ),
9198-442: The ground. In contrast, reusable launch vehicles are designed to be recovered intact and launched again. The Falcon 9 is an example of a reusable launch vehicle. As of 2023, all reusable launch vehicles that were ever operational have been partially reusable, meaning some components are recovered and others are not. This usually means the recovery of specific stages, usually just the first stage, but sometimes specific components of
9324-401: The hatch was bolted, the launch area evacuated and the mobile tower rolled back. After this, the launch vehicle was filled with liquid oxygen. The entire procedure of preparing for launch and launching the spacecraft followed a time table called the countdown. It started a day in advance with a pre-count, in which all systems of the launch vehicle and spacecraft were checked. After that followed
9450-400: The heat shield to reduce the force of impact ( J ). Upon landing the parachutes were released. An antenna ( K ) was raised and sent out signals that could be traced by ships and helicopters . Further, a green marker dye was spread around the spacecraft to make its location more visible from the air. Frogmen brought in by helicopters inflated a collar around the craft to keep it upright in
9576-480: The high g-forces of launch and reentry. A fiberglass seat was custom-molded from each astronaut's space-suited body for maximum support. Near his left hand was a manual abort handle to activate the launch escape system if necessary prior to or during liftoff, in case the automatic trigger failed. To supplement the onboard environmental control system, he wore a pressure suit with its own oxygen supply, which would also cool him. A cabin atmosphere of pure oxygen at
9702-484: The interviews, 32 were selected for further physical and mental testing. Their health, vision, and hearing were examined, together with their tolerance to noise, vibrations, g-forces, personal isolation, and heat. In a special chamber, they were tested to see if they could perform their tasks under confusing conditions. The candidates had to answer more than 500 questions about themselves and describe what they saw in different images. Navy Lt (later Capt) Jim Lovell , who
9828-555: The last time an American was launched alone to conduct an entirely solo orbital mission. Cooper later went on to participate in Project Gemini where he once again beat the endurance record during Gemini 5 . Deke Slayton was grounded in 1962 due to a heart condition, but remained with NASA and was appointed senior manager of the Astronaut Office and later additionally assistant director of Flight Crew Operations at
9954-528: The launch site (RTLS). Both the US Space Shuttle —with one of its abort modes —and the Soviet Buran had a designed-in capability to return a part of the launch vehicle to the launch site via the mechanism of horizontal-landing of the spaceplane portion of the launch vehicle. In both cases, the main vehicle thrust structure and the large propellant tank were expendable , as had been
10080-561: The launch site. The Falcon Heavy is similarly designed to reuse the three cores comprising its first stage. On its first flight in February 2018, the two outer cores successfully returned to the launch site landing pads while the center core targeted the landing platform at sea but did not successfully land on it. Blue Origin developed similar technologies for bringing back and landing their suborbital New Shepard , and successfully demonstrated return in 2015, and successfully reused
10206-654: The launch tower, and Ship 30, the upper stage, successfully landing in the Indian Ocean. Project Mercury Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race , its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Union . Taken over from the US Air Force by
10332-481: The launch vehicle in case of a failure. The flight was designed to be controlled from the ground via the Manned Space Flight Network , a system of tracking and communications stations; back-up controls were outfitted on board. Small retrorockets were used to bring the spacecraft out of its orbit, after which an ablative heat shield protected it from the heat of atmospheric reentry . Finally,
10458-412: The mission order, with some capsules being reserved as backup or used in tests. Times given are Coordinated Universal Time , local time + 5 hours. MA = Mercury-Atlas, MR = Mercury-Redstone, LC = Launch Complex. The 20 uncrewed flights used Little Joe, Redstone, and Atlas launch vehicles. They were used to develop the launch vehicles, launch escape system, spacecraft and tracking network. One flight of
10584-449: The narrow end of the spacecraft contained three parachutes: a drogue to stabilize free fall and two main chutes, a primary and reserve. Between the heat shield and inner wall of the crew compartment was a landing skirt, deployed by letting down the heat shield before landing. On top of the recovery compartment was the antenna section ( 5 ) containing both antennas for communication and scanners for guiding spacecraft orientation. Attached
10710-469: The new position of astronaut. During this time, women were banned from flying in the military and so could not successfully qualify as test pilots. This meant that no female candidates could earn consideration for the title of astronaut. Civilian NASA X-15 pilot Neil Armstrong was also disqualified, though he had been selected by the US Air Force in 1958 for its Man in Space Soonest program, which
10836-433: The newly created civilian space agency NASA , it conducted 20 uncrewed developmental flights (some using animals), and six successful flights by astronauts . The program, which took its name from Roman mythology , cost $ 2.68 billion (adjusted for inflation ). The astronauts were collectively known as the " Mercury Seven ", and each spacecraft was given a name ending with a "7" by its pilot. The Space Race began with
10962-414: The number of candidates at 508. These candidates were USN or USMC naval aviation pilots (NAPs), or USAF pilots of Senior or Command rating . These aviators had long military records, which would give NASA officials more background information on which to base their decisions. Furthermore, these aviators were skilled in flying the most advanced aircraft to date, giving them the best qualifications for
11088-440: The numbering of crewed missions did not start with 1. Also, there were two separately numbered series: MR for "Mercury-Redstone" (suborbital flights), and MA for "Mercury-Atlas" (orbital flights). These names were not popularly used, since the astronauts followed a pilot tradition, each giving their spacecraft a name. They selected names ending with a "7" to commemorate the seven astronauts. Spacecraft production numbers don't match
11214-473: The package could be severed when it was no longer needed. Next to the heat shield was the pressurized crew compartment ( 3 ). Inside, an astronaut would be strapped to a form-fitting seat with instruments in front of him and with his back to the heat shield. Underneath the seat was the environmental control system supplying oxygen and heat, scrubbing the air of CO 2 , vapor and odors, and (on orbital flights) collecting urine. The recovery compartment ( 4 ) at
11340-415: The payload falling into the ocean instead of reaching orbit. By this time however, the fast-rising Thor-Delta and Agena vehicles were on their way to take over as mainstays of the U.S. light and medium-lift launch vehicle arsenal. Juno II was launched ten times by NASA , with the first launch being joint with ABMA . Juno II had the following specifications: Launch vehicle A launch vehicle
11466-466: The payload into the Atlantic Ocean. In mid-1960, with only two successful launches in six attempts, a NASA board conducted a thorough reevaluation of the Juno II as a launch vehicle. The failures were mostly traced to isolated component failures that occurred as a result of inadequate testing and checkouts. This was blamed on the program being close-ended, with no further plans for development of
11592-523: The position of the spacecraft, its ground track and the place it could land in an emergency within the next 30 minutes. Other computers associated with ground control for Mercury included a vacuum-tube-based IBM 709 system in Cape Canaveral which determined whether a mid-launch abort might be needed and where an aborting capsule would land, another IBM 709 in Bermuda which served as backup for
11718-614: The role of Capsule Communicator, or CAPCOM, who communicated with the astronaut in orbit. Data from the spacecraft were sent to the ground, processed at the Goddard Space Center by a redundant pair of transistorized IBM 7090 computers and relayed to the Mercury Control Center at Cape Canaveral. In the Control Center, the data were displayed on boards on each side of a world map, which showed
11844-496: The same booster on a second suborbital flight in January 2016. By October 2016, Blue had reflown, and landed successfully, that same launch vehicle a total of five times. The launch trajectories of both vehicles are very different, with New Shepard going straight up and down, whereas Falcon 9 has to cancel substantial horizontal velocity and return from a significant distance downrange. Both Blue Origin and SpaceX also have additional reusable launch vehicles under development. Blue
11970-454: The satellite failed to reach orbit. Explorer 11 launched successfully on 27 April 1961, an event that raised NASA's morale during a mostly disastrous month characterized by Project Mercury failures and the Soviet launch of a man into space . On 24 May 1961, the final Juno II lifted from LC-26A carrying another ionospheric beacon satellite. The instrument unit lost power following first-stage separation, resulting in no second-stage ignition and
12096-441: The second Mercury flight as a crude workaround. It would take until the third flight in February 1962 before a dedicated urine collection device was installed. Once in orbit, the spacecraft could be rotated in yaw, pitch, and roll : along its longitudinal axis (roll), left to right from the astronaut's point of view (yaw), and up or down (pitch). Movement was created by rocket-propelled thrusters which used hydrogen peroxide as
12222-413: The selection committee accept him. USAF Capt. (later Col.) Joseph Kittinger , a USAF fighter pilot and stratosphere balloonist, met all the requirements but preferred to stay in his contemporary project. Other potential candidates declined because they did not believe that human spaceflight had a future beyond Project Mercury. From the original 508, 110 candidates were selected for an interview, and from
12348-413: The shield. The heat sink would remove heat by the flow of the air inside the shock wave, whereas the ablative heat shield would remove heat by a controlled evaporation of the ablative material. After uncrewed tests, the latter was chosen for crewed flights. Apart from the capsule design, a rocket plane similar to the existing X-15 was considered. This approach was still too far from being able to make
12474-447: The smaller Juno I launch vehicle. On some launches to low Earth orbit the fourth stage was not flown, allowing the launch vehicle to carry an additional nine kilograms of payload. Development of the Juno II was extremely fast due to being completely built from existing hardware. The project began in early 1958 and the first vehicle flew at the end of the year. Chrysler was responsible for the overall contract, while Rocketdyne handled
12600-429: The spacecraft peaked, making separation of the launch vehicle and spacecraft most difficult. It was also the point at which the astronaut was subjected to the heaviest vibrations. The Little Joe rocket used solid-fuel propellant and was originally designed in 1958 by NACA for suborbital crewed flights, but was redesigned for Project Mercury to simulate an Atlas-D launch. It was produced by North American Aviation . It
12726-428: The spacecraft, the pilot would experience weightlessness as shown on the image. The recovery procedure would be the same as an orbital mission.[AS] Preparations for a mission started a month in advance with the selection of the primary and back-up astronaut; they would practice together for the mission. For three days prior to launch, the astronaut went through a special diet to minimize his need for defecating during
12852-428: The standard procedure for all orbital launch vehicles flown prior to that time. Both were subsequently demonstrated on actual orbital nominal flights, although both also had an abort mode during launch that could conceivably allow the crew to land the spaceplane following an off-nominal launch. In the 2000s, both SpaceX and Blue Origin have privately developed a set of technologies to support vertical landing of
12978-425: The subsequent Apollo program announced a few weeks after the first crewed Mercury flight. Project Mercury was officially approved on October 7, 1958, and publicly announced on December 17. Originally called Project Astronaut, President Dwight Eisenhower felt that gave too much attention to the pilot. Instead, the name Mercury was chosen from classical mythology , which had already lent names to rockets like
13104-450: The surface of the Earth. To reach orbit, the vehicle must travel vertically to leave the atmosphere and horizontally to prevent re-contacting the ground. The required velocity varies depending on the orbit but will always be extreme when compared to velocities encountered in normal life. Launch vehicles provide varying degrees of performance. For example, a satellite bound for Geostationary orbit (GEO) can either be directly inserted by
13230-481: The top of the curve, the spacecraft's retrorockets were fired for testing purposes; they were not necessary for reentry because orbital speed had not been attained. The spacecraft landed in the Atlantic Ocean. The suborbital mission took about 15 minutes, had an apogee altitude of 102–103 nautical miles (189–191 km), and a downrange distance of 262 nautical miles (485 km). From the time of booster-spacecraft separation until reentry where air started to slow down
13356-425: The two IBM 7090 transistor-based machines at Goddard, and a Burroughs-GE system which provided radio guidance for the Atlas during launch. The World Wide Tracking Network went on to serve subsequent space programs, until it was replaced by a satellite relay system in the 1980s. Mission Control Center was moved from Cape Canaveral to Houston in 1965. On April 12, 1961, the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became
13482-465: The upper stage motors burning on the ground. Cause of the mishap was quickly traced to a short between two diodes in a power inverter, which cut off power to the guidance system at liftoff and caused the Juno's engine to gimbal to full stop, flipping the vehicle onto its side before Range Safety action was taken. To prevent a recurrence of this failure mode, improved coatings were used on the circuit boards in
13608-503: The upper stages into the Atlantic Ocean instead of orbit. It was concluded that one of the flares deployed inside the interstage section instead of outside like it was intended to, causing the guidance compartment to depressurize and cause loss of vehicle control. Explorer 7 was scheduled for launch in the last week of September 1959, but a Jupiter missile test on an adjacent pad failed just after liftoff on 15 September 1959 and
13734-416: The water. The recovery helicopter hooked onto the spacecraft and the astronaut blew the escape hatch to exit the capsule. He was then hoisted aboard the helicopter that finally brought both him and the spacecraft to the ship. The number of personnel supporting a Mercury mission was typically around 18,000, with about 15,000 people associated with recovery. Most of the others followed the spacecraft from
13860-557: Was a flap used to ensure the spacecraft was faced heat shield first during reentry. A launch escape system ( 6 ) was mounted to the narrow end of the spacecraft containing three small solid-fueled rockets which could be fired briefly in a launch failure to separate the capsule safely from its booster. It would deploy the capsule's parachute for a landing nearby at sea. (See also Mission profile for details.) The Mercury spacecraft did not have an on-board computer, instead relying on all computation for reentry to be calculated by computers on
13986-500: Was able to manually control the spacecraft's attitude. He quit NASA in 1964, when he came to the conclusion that he likely would not be selected for any Apollo missions, and was later elected to the US Senate, serving from 1974 to 1999. During his tenure, he returned to space in 1998 as a Payload Specialist aboard STS-95 . Scott Carpenter was the second astronaut in orbit and flew on Mercury-Atlas 7 on May 24, 1962. The spaceflight
14112-705: Was also the site of the Mercury Control Center while the computing center of the communication network was in Goddard Space Center , Maryland. Little Joe rockets were launched from Wallops Island , Virginia. Astronaut training took place at Langley Research Center in Virginia, Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio, and Naval Air Development Center Johnsville in Warminster, PA. Langley wind tunnels together with
14238-411: Was built up at lift-off ( A ). After 30 seconds of flight, the point of maximum dynamic pressure against the vehicle was reached, at which the astronaut felt heavy vibrations. After 2 minutes and 10 seconds, the two outboard booster engines shut down and were released with the aft skirt, leaving the center sustainer engine running ( B ). At this point, the launch escape system was no longer needed, and
14364-543: Was essentially a repeat of Mercury-Atlas 6, but a targeting error during re-entry took Aurora 7 250 miles (400 km) off-course, delaying recovery. Afterwards, he joined the Navy's "Man in the Sea" program and is the only American to be both an astronaut and an aquanaut . Carpenter's Mercury flight was his only trip into space. Wally Schirra flew aboard Sigma 7 on Mercury-Atlas 8 on October 3, 1962. The mission's main goal
14490-465: Was included for the Mercury astronauts. An inquiry on the subject was made in February 1961 by a student, but NASA responded by stating that "the first space man is not expected to have 'to go". The expected short flight times meant that this was overlooked, although after Alan Shepard had a launch delay of four hours, he was forced to urinate in his suit, short-circuiting some of the electrodes monitoring his vital signs. Gus Grissom wore two rubber pants on
14616-453: Was later an astronaut in the Gemini and Apollo programs , did not pass the physical tests. After these tests it was intended to narrow the group down to six astronauts, but in the end it was decided to keep seven. The astronauts went through a training program covering some of the same exercises that were used in their selection. They simulated the g-force profiles of launch and reentry in
14742-512: Was no protocol for selecting astronauts, so NASA would set a far-reaching precedent with both their selection process and initial choices for astronauts. At the end of 1958, various ideas for the selection pool were discussed privately within the national government and the civilian space program, and also among the public at large. Initially, there was the idea to issue a widespread public call to volunteers. Thrill-seekers such as rock climbers and acrobats would have been allowed to apply, but this idea
14868-528: Was not able to change direction; instead its flight depended on the angle from which it was launched. Its maximum altitude was 100 mi (160 km) fully loaded. A Scout launch vehicle was used for a single flight intended to evaluate the tracking network; however, it failed and was destroyed from the ground shortly after launch. The Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle was an 83-foot-tall (25 m) (with capsule and escape system) single-stage launch vehicle used for suborbital ( ballistic ) flights. It had
14994-552: Was produced by North American Aviation and its direction could be altered during flight by its fins. They worked in two ways: by directing the air around them, or by directing the thrust by their inner parts (or both at the same time). Both the Atlas-D and Redstone launch vehicles contained an automatic abort sensing system which allowed them to abort a launch by firing the launch escape system if something went wrong. The Jupiter rocket, also developed by Wernher von Braun 's team at
15120-415: Was quickly shot down by NASA officials who understood that an undertaking such as space flight required individuals with professional training and education in flight engineering. By late 1958, NASA officials decided to move forward with test pilots being the heart of their selection pool. On President Eisenhower's insistence, the group was further narrowed down to active duty military test pilots , which set
15246-421: Was recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after 38 years. Some spacecraft were modified after initial production (refurbished after launch abort, modified for longer missions, etc.). A number of Mercury boilerplate spacecraft (made from non-flight materials or lacking production spacecraft systems) were also made by NASA and McDonnell. They were designed and used to test spacecraft recovery systems and
15372-401: Was redesigned afterwards. Pioneer 4 launched successfully on 3 March 1959, making for the only first-generation U.S. lunar probe to accomplish all of its mission goals, as well as the sole successful U.S. lunar probe until 1964. After Pioneer 4, NASA shifted their lunar efforts to the bigger Atlas-Able booster and decided instead to utilize the Juno II for Earth orbital launches. By removing
15498-487: Was replaced by Mercury. Although Armstrong had been a combat-experienced NAP during the Korean War, he left active duty in 1952. Armstrong became NASA's first civilian astronaut in 1962 when he was selected for NASA's second group, and became the first man on the Moon in 1969. It was further stipulated that candidates should be between 25 and 40 years old, no taller than 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m), and hold
15624-400: Was separated from the spacecraft by its jettison rocket ( C ). The space vehicle moved gradually to a horizontal attitude until, at an altitude of 87 nautical miles (161 km), the sustainer engine shut down and the spacecraft was inserted into orbit ( D ). This happened after 5 minutes and 10 seconds in a direction pointing east, whereby the spacecraft would gain speed from the rotation of
15750-456: Was to show development of environmental controls or life-support systems that would allow for safety in space, thus being a flight mainly focused on technical evaluation, rather than scientific experimentation. The mission lasted 9 hours and 13 minutes, setting a new U.S. flight duration record. In December 1965, Schirra flew on Gemini 6A , achieving the first ever space rendezvous with sister spacecraft Gemini 7 . Three years later, he commanded
15876-596: Was used to place a 4-kilogram payload ( TRICOM-1R ) into orbit in 2018. Orbital spaceflight requires a satellite or spacecraft payload to be accelerated to very high velocity. In the vacuum of space, reaction forces must be provided by the ejection of mass, resulting in the rocket equation . The physics of spaceflight are such that rocket stages are typically required to achieve the desired orbit. Expendable launch vehicles are designed for one-time use, with boosters that usually separate from their payload and disintegrate during atmospheric reentry or on contact with
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