149-455: 28°27′47″N 80°34′57″W / 28.463082°N 80.582562°W / 28.463082; -80.582562 The Mercury Control Center (also known as Building 1385 or simply MCC ) provided control and coordination of all activities associated with the NASA's Project Mercury flight operation as well as the first three Project Gemini flights (the first two had no crew). It was located on
298-552: A Scout rocket attempted to launch a specialized satellite equipped with Mercury communications components for testing the ground tracking network, but the booster failed soon after liftoff. The Little Joe program used seven airframes for eight flights, of which three were successful. The second Little Joe flight was named Little Joe 6, because it was inserted into the program after the first 5 airframes had been allocated. Production spacecraft and boilerplates were used for these test flights. Astronauts An astronaut (from
447-531: A human mission to Mars . Over the last decade, flight surgeons and scientists at NASA have seen a pattern of vision problems in astronauts on long-duration space missions. The syndrome, known as visual impairment intracranial pressure (VIIP) , has been reported in nearly two-thirds of space explorers after long periods spent aboard the International Space Station (ISS). On 2 November 2017, scientists reported that significant changes in
596-487: 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
745-724: A "spacewalk"), on 18 March 1965, on the Soviet Union's Voskhod 2 mission. This was followed two and a half months later by astronaut Ed White who made the first American EVA on NASA's Gemini 4 mission. The first crewed mission to orbit the Moon, Apollo 8 , included American William Anders who was born in Hong Kong, making him the first Asian-born astronaut in 1968. The Soviet Union, through its Intercosmos program, allowed people from other " socialist " (i.e. Warsaw Pact and other Soviet-allied) countries to fly on its missions, with
894-489: 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
1043-498: 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
1192-584: 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
1341-455: 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
1490-432: 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
1639-549: A crewed spacecraft, several other nations have sent people into space in cooperation with one of these countries, e.g. the Soviet-led Interkosmos program. Inspired partly by these missions, other synonyms for astronaut have entered occasional English usage. For example, the term spationaut (French: spationaute ) is sometimes used to describe French space travelers, from the Latin word spatium for "space";
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#17327733063441788-451: 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
1937-521: 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
2086-574: 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
2235-436: 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
2384-778: 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
2533-555: A larger facility located in Houston, Texas , but the MCC continued to be used for training and meeting space. On June 1, 1967, the Center became a historic stop for public tours, and continued this function through the mid-1990s. The MCC was organized into three rows and was smaller and simpler than subsequent control centers. It needed only to support a mission of no more than 36 hours with
2682-513: 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
2831-436: 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
2980-562: 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
3129-600: A physical two-dimensional representation of the capsule suspended and lit in front of the map. More modern mission control centers were split between launch control, which is located at the launch site such as Cape Canaveral, and mission control which is located at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center for the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs or at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for unmanned missions. Though
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#17327733063443278-625: A researcher from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who flew on STS-9 in 1983. In December 1990, Toyohiro Akiyama became the first paying space traveler and the first journalist in space for Tokyo Broadcasting System , a visit to Mir as part of an estimated $ 12 million (USD) deal with a Japanese TV station, although at the time, the term used to refer to Akiyama was "Research Cosmonaut". Akiyama suffered severe space sickness during his mission, which affected his productivity. The first self-funded space tourist
3427-400: 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
3576-935: 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
3725-429: A spacecraft less complex than those used on future missions. Positions included those for monitoring the spacecraft and astronauts during flight as well as positions for supporting the launch and recovery of the capsule. The MCC also featured a large backlit status map for display of the capsule position. Unlike later mission control centers which featured computer generated graphics, this Mercury-era display operated with
3874-576: 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
4023-584: Is John Glenn , one of the Mercury 7 , who was 77 when he flew on STS-95 . The longest time spent in space was by Russian Valeri Polyakov , who spent 438 days there. As of 2006, the most spaceflights by an individual astronaut is seven, a record held by both Jerry L. Ross and Franklin Chang-Diaz . The farthest distance from Earth an astronaut has traveled was 401,056 km (249,205 mi), when Jim Lovell , Jack Swigert , and Fred Haise went around
4172-863: Is also where the Shuttle Training Aircraft is maintained and developed, although most flights of the aircraft are conducted from Edwards Air Force Base . Astronauts in training must learn how to control and fly the Space Shuttle; further, it is vital that they are familiar with the International Space Station so they know what they must do when they get there. The master's degree requirement can also be met by: Mission Specialist Educators , or "Educator Astronauts", were first selected in 2004; as of 2007, there are three NASA Educator astronauts: Joseph M. Acaba , Richard R. Arnold , and Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger . Barbara Morgan , selected as back-up teacher to Christa McAuliffe in 1985,
4321-436: Is anticipated that remote guided ultrasound will have application on Earth in emergency and rural care situations, where access to a trained physician is often rare. A 2006 Space Shuttle experiment found that Salmonella typhimurium , a bacterium that can cause food poisoning , became more virulent when cultivated in space. More recently, in 2017, bacteria were found to be more resistant to antibiotics and to thrive in
4470-522: Is called an astronaut . The first known use of the term "astronaut" in the modern sense was by Neil R. Jones in his 1930 short story "The Death's Head Meteor". The word itself had been known earlier; for example, in Percy Greg 's 1880 book Across the Zodiac , "astronaut" referred to a spacecraft. In Les Navigateurs de l'infini (1925) by J.-H. Rosny aîné , the word astronautique ( astronautics )
4619-644: Is considered to be the first Educator astronaut by the media, but she trained as a mission specialist. The Educator Astronaut program is a successor to the Teacher in Space program from the 1980s. Astronauts are susceptible to a variety of health risks including decompression sickness , barotrauma , immunodeficiencies , loss of bone and muscle , loss of eyesight , orthostatic intolerance , sleep disturbances , and radiation injury. A variety of large scale medical studies are being conducted in space via
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4768-460: Is strictly defined as the navigation of outer space within the local star system , i.e. Solar System . The phrase tàikōng rén ( 太空人 , "spaceman") is often used in Hong Kong and Taiwan . The term taikonaut is used by some English-language news media organizations for professional space travelers from China . The word has featured in the Longman and Oxford English dictionaries, and
4917-633: The Ancient Greek ἄστρον ( astron ), meaning 'star', and ναύτης ( nautes ), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft . Although generally reserved for professional space travelers, the term is sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists . "Astronaut" technically applies to all human space travelers regardless of nationality. However, astronauts fielded by Russia or
5066-501: The Cape Canaveral Space Force Station , east of Samuel C. Phillips Parkway. The facility was expanded in 1963 to support Project Gemini by contractor Pan American World Airways to provide more meeting space along with space for data analysis, and a large space for a new Gemini spacecraft trainer. The more complex requirements of later Gemini and Apollo flights forced control operations to move to
5215-523: 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
5364-575: The International Space Station : The first NASA astronauts were selected for training in 1959. Early in the space program, military jet test piloting and engineering training were often cited as prerequisites for selection as an astronaut at NASA, although neither John Glenn nor Scott Carpenter (of the Mercury Seven ) had any university degree, in engineering or any other discipline at the time of their selection. Selection
5513-552: The Kármán line , at an altitude of 100 kilometers (62 mi). In the United States, professional, military, and commercial astronauts who travel above an altitude of 80 kilometres (50 mi) are awarded astronaut wings . As of 17 November 2016 , 552 people from 36 countries have reached 100 km (62 mi) or more in altitude, of whom 549 reached low Earth orbit or beyond. Of these, 24 people have traveled beyond low Earth orbit, either to lunar orbit,
5662-693: The Malay term angkasawan (deriving from angkasa meaning 'space') was used to describe participants in the Angkasawan program (note its similarity with the Indonesian term antariksawan ). Plans of the Indian Space Research Organisation to launch its crewed Gaganyaan spacecraft have spurred at times public discussion if another term than astronaut should be used for the crew members, suggesting vyomanaut (from
5811-474: 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
5960-846: The National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) to address these issues. Prominent among these is the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity Study in which astronauts (including former ISS commanders Leroy Chiao and Gennady Padalka ) perform ultrasound scans under the guidance of remote experts to diagnose and potentially treat hundreds of medical conditions in space. This study's techniques are now being applied to cover professional and Olympic sports injuries as well as ultrasound performed by non-expert operators in medical and high school students. It
6109-474: The People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps astronauts and their foreign counterparts are all officially called hángtiānyuán ( 航天员 , meaning "heaven navigator" or literally " heaven-sailing staff"). Since 1961, 600 astronauts have flown in space. Until 2002, astronauts were sponsored and trained exclusively by governments, either by the military or by civilian space agencies. With the suborbital flight of
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6258-613: The Redstone and Atlas D missiles. The capsule was fitted with a launch escape rocket to carry it safely away from 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
6407-673: The Sanskrit word vyoman meaning 'sky' or 'space') or gagannaut (from the Sanskrit word gagan for 'sky'). In Finland , the NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra , a Finnish American , has sometimes been referred to as sisunautti , from the Finnish word sisu . Across Germanic languages, the word for "astronaut" typically translates to "space traveler", as it does with German's Raumfahrer , Dutch's ruimtevaarder , Swedish's rymdfarare , and Norwegian's romfarer . As of 2021 in
6556-611: The Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. On 30 May 2020, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken became the first astronauts to launch on a private crewed spacecraft, Crew Dragon . The youngest person to reach space is Oliver Daemen , who was 18 years and 11 months old when he made a suborbital spaceflight on Blue Origin NS-16 . Daemen, who was a commercial passenger aboard the New Shepard , broke the record of Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov , who
6705-572: The Soviet Union are typically known instead as cosmonauts (from the Russian "kosmos" (космос), meaning "space", also borrowed from Greek κόσμος ). Comparatively recent developments in crewed spaceflight made by China have led to the rise of the term taikonaut (from the Mandarin "tàikōng" ( 太空 ), meaning "space"), although its use is somewhat informal and its origin is unclear. In China,
6854-498: The planet Mars , may substantially damage the gastrointestinal tissues of astronauts. The studies support earlier work that found such journeys could significantly damage the brains of astronauts, and age them prematurely. Researchers in 2018 reported, after detecting the presence on the International Space Station (ISS) of five Enterobacter bugandensis bacterial strains, none pathogenic to humans, that microorganisms on ISS should be carefully monitored to continue assuring
7003-606: The " Mercury Seven ", and each spacecraft was given a name ending with a "7" by its pilot. The Space Race began with 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
7152-543: The " Vomit Comet ," the nickname given to a pair of modified KC-135s (retired in 2000 and 2004, respectively, and replaced in 2005 with a C-9 ) which perform parabolic flights. Astronauts are also required to accumulate a number of flight hours in high-performance jet aircraft. This is mostly done in T-38 jet aircraft out of Ellington Field , due to its proximity to the Johnson Space Center . Ellington Field
7301-546: The 100 kilometers (54 nautical miles) line, qualifying him by the international definition of spaceflight. Walker had joined the US Army Air Force but was not a member during his flight. The first people in space who had never been a member of any country's armed forces were both Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Yegorov aboard Voskhod 1 . The first non-governmental space traveler was Byron K. Lichtenberg ,
7450-494: 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
7599-461: The Earth was John Glenn , aboard Friendship 7 on 20 February 1962. The first American woman in space was Sally Ride , during Space Shuttle Challenger 's mission STS-7 , on 18 June 1983. In 1992, Mae Jemison became the first African American woman to travel in space aboard STS-47 . Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was the first person to conduct an extravehicular activity (EVA), (commonly called
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#17327733063447748-438: 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
7897-524: The Earth. When Mercury ended in May 1963, both nations had sent six people into space, but 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
8046-533: The European Space Agency envisioned recruiting an astronaut with a physical disability, a category they called "parastronauts", with the intention but not guarantee of spaceflight. The categories of disability considered for the program were individuals with lower limb deficiency (either through amputation or congenital), leg length difference, or a short stature (less than 130 centimetres or 4 feet 3 inches). On 23 November 2022, John McFall
8195-767: 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
8344-611: The MCC provided command and control, it was not the only facility involved in supporting Mercury or Gemini flights. The Computing and Communications Center was located at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and provided computing power for missions. To minimize the time that the spacecraft was out of communications range with the ground, additional ground stations were established at US military facilities, tracking ships, and in cooperation with
8493-541: 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
8642-558: 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
8791-411: The Moon during the Apollo 13 emergency. The first civilian in space was Valentina Tereshkova aboard Vostok 6 (she also became the first woman in space on that mission). Tereshkova was only honorarily inducted into the USSR's Air Force, which did not accept female pilots at that time. A month later, Joseph Albert Walker became the first American civilian in space when his X-15 Flight 90 crossed
8940-495: 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
9089-554: 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
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#17327733063449238-455: The Russian kosmonavt, such as the Polish : kosmonauta (although Poles also used astronauta , and the two words are considered synonyms). Coinage of the term космонавт has been credited to Soviet aeronautics (or " cosmonautics ") pioneer Mikhail Tikhonravov (1900–1974). The first cosmonaut was Soviet Air Force pilot Yuri Gagarin , also the first person in space. He was part of
9387-481: 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
9536-607: The United States, astronaut status is conferred on a person depending on the authorizing agency: On July 20, 2021, the FAA issued an order redefining the eligibility criteria to be an astronaut in response to the private suborbital spaceflights of Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson . The new criteria states that one must have "[d]emonstrated activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety" to qualify as an astronaut. This new definition excludes Bezos and Branson. The first human in space
9685-496: 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
9834-411: 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
9983-433: 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
10132-422: 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
10281-431: 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
10430-647: 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
10579-502: 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 ,
10728-593: 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
10877-406: 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
11026-586: The center to its original state would have cost $ 6 million. The decision was made to preserve the consoles and other equipment and destroy the building. In 1999, consoles, displays and other equipment were moved to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex to a recreation of the MCC inside the Kurt Debus Center. Consoles and displays were reassembled and many are powered on. Project Mercury Project Mercury
11175-555: 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
11324-423: 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
11473-620: 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
11622-653: The first Asian in space when he flew aboard Soyuz 37 . Also in 1980, Cuban Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez became the first person of Hispanic and black African descent to fly in space, and in 1983, Guion Bluford became the first African American to fly into space. In April 1985, Taylor Wang became the first ethnic Chinese person in space. The first person born in Africa to fly in space was Patrick Baudry (France), in 1985. In 1985, Saudi Arabian Prince Sultan Bin Salman Bin AbdulAziz Al-Saud became
11771-455: 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,
11920-437: The first American to ride to space on board a Russian launch vehicle, and thus became the first "American cosmonaut". In Chinese, the term Yǔ háng yuán ( 宇航员 , "cosmos navigating personnel") is used for astronauts and cosmonauts in general, while hángtiān yuán ( 航天员 , "navigating celestial-heaven personnel") is used for Chinese astronauts. Here, hángtiān ( 航天 , literally "heaven-navigating", or spaceflight )
12069-551: The first Arab Muslim astronaut in space. In 1988, Abdul Ahad Mohmand became the first Afghan to reach space, spending nine days aboard the Mir space station. With the increase of seats on the Space Shuttle, the U.S. began taking international astronauts. In 1983, Ulf Merbold of West Germany became the first non-US citizen to fly in a US spacecraft. In 1984, Marc Garneau became the first of eight Canadian astronauts to fly in space (through 2010). In 1985, Rodolfo Neri Vela became
12218-418: The first Mexican-born person in space. In 1991, Helen Sharman became the first Briton to fly in space. In 2002, Mark Shuttleworth became the first citizen of an African country to fly in space, as a paying spaceflight participant. In 2003, Ilan Ramon became the first Israeli to fly in space, although he died during a re-entry accident . On 15 October 2003, Yang Liwei became China's first astronaut on
12367-413: 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
12516-511: 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
12665-698: The first person in space twice. Space travelers have spent over 41,790 man-days (114.5-man-years) in space, including over 100 astronaut-days of spacewalks . As of 2024 , the man with the longest cumulative time in space is Oleg Kononenko , who has spent over 1100 days in space. Peggy A. Whitson holds the record for the most time in space by a woman, at 675 days. In 1959, when both the United States and Soviet Union were planning, but had yet to launch humans into space, NASA Administrator T. Keith Glennan and his Deputy Administrator, Hugh Dryden , discussed whether spacecraft crew members should be called astronauts or cosmonauts . Dryden preferred "cosmonaut", on
12814-452: The first six Soviet citizens, with German Titov , Yevgeny Khrunov , Andriyan Nikolayev , Pavel Popovich , and Grigoriy Nelyubov , who were given the title of pilot-cosmonaut in January 1961. Valentina Tereshkova was the first female cosmonaut and the first and youngest woman to have flown in space with a solo mission on the Vostok 6 in 1963. On 14 March 1995, Norman Thagard became
12963-474: 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
13112-405: 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,
13261-461: 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:
13410-500: The governments of Spain, United Kingdom, Nigeria and Australia: The building was erected between 1956 and 1958 and was used throughout Project Mercury (1961–1963) and for Project Gemini through Gemini 3 (1964–1965). Though the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 16, 1984, as a contributing property to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station , asbestos removal, other repairs and restoring
13559-736: 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
13708-505: 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
13857-468: 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
14006-409: 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 ),
14155-434: The grounds that flights would occur in and to the broader cosmos , while the "astro" prefix suggested flight specifically to the stars . Most NASA Space Task Group members preferred "astronaut", which survived by common usage as the preferred American term. When the Soviet Union launched the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin in 1961, they chose a term which anglicizes to "cosmonaut". A professional space traveler
14304-401: 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
14453-480: The heat of atmospheric reentry . Finally, 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
14602-400: 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
14751-480: 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
14900-484: 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
15049-555: 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
15198-514: The lunar surface, or, in one case, a loop around the Moon . Three of the 24— Jim Lovell , John Young and Eugene Cernan —did so twice. As of 17 November 2016 , under the U.S. definition, 558 people qualify as having reached space, above 50 miles (80 km) altitude. Of eight X-15 pilots who exceeded 50 miles (80 km) in altitude, only one, Joseph A. Walker , exceeded 100 kilometers (about 62.1 miles) and he did it two times, becoming
15347-412: 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
15496-449: 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
15645-459: The near-weightlessness of space. Microorganisms have been observed to survive the vacuum of outer space. On 31 December 2012, a NASA -supported study reported that human spaceflight may harm the brain and accelerate the onset of Alzheimer's disease . In October 2015, the NASA Office of Inspector General issued a health hazards report related to space exploration , including
15794-469: 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
15943-422: The next goal. The Soviet Union put the first human, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin , into 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
16092-526: The notable exceptions of France and Austria participating in Soyuz TM-7 and Soyuz TM-13 , respectively. An example is Czechoslovak Vladimír Remek , the first cosmonaut from a country other than the Soviet Union or the United States , who flew to space in 1978 on a Soyuz-U rocket. Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian citizen to travel to space. He was launched aboard Soyuz T-11 , on 2 April 1984. On 23 July 1980, Pham Tuan of Vietnam became
16241-414: 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
16390-440: 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
16539-473: 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
16688-564: The position and structure of the brain have been found in astronauts who have taken trips in space , based on MRI studies . Astronauts who took longer space trips were associated with greater brain changes. Being in space can be physiologically deconditioning on the body. It can affect the otolith organs and adaptive capabilities of the central nervous system . Zero gravity and cosmic rays can cause many implications for astronauts. In October 2018, NASA -funded researchers found that lengthy journeys into outer space , including travel to
16837-523: 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
16986-487: The privately funded SpaceShipOne in 2004, a new category of astronaut was created: the commercial astronaut . The criteria for what constitutes human spaceflight vary, with some focus on the point where the atmosphere becomes so thin that centrifugal force , rather than aerodynamic force , carries a significant portion of the weight of the flight object. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) Sporting Code for astronautics recognizes only flights that exceed
17135-614: 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
17284-497: 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
17433-413: 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
17582-413: 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
17731-429: 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
17880-428: 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
18029-425: 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
18178-600: The term astronaut for members of its Astronaut Corps . By convention, an astronaut employed by the Russian Federal Space Agency (or its predecessor, the Soviet space program ) is called a cosmonaut in English texts. The word is an Anglicization of kosmonavt (Russian: космонавт Russian pronunciation: [kəsmɐˈnaft] ). Other countries of the former Eastern Bloc use variations of
18327-616: The term became more common in 2003 when China sent its first astronaut Yang Liwei into space aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. This is the term used by Xinhua News Agency in the English version of the Chinese People's Daily since the advent of the Chinese space program. The origin of the term is unclear; as early as May 1998, Chiew Lee Yih ( 趙裡昱 ) from Malaysia used it in newsgroups . For its 2022 Astronaut Group ,
18476-545: 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
18625-425: 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
18774-416: 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
18923-487: Was Dennis Tito on board the Russian spacecraft Soyuz TM-3 on 28 April 2001. The first person to fly on an entirely privately funded mission was Mike Melvill , piloting SpaceShipOne flight 15P on a suborbital journey, although he was a test pilot employed by Scaled Composites and not an actual paying space tourist. Jared Isaacman was the first person to self-fund a mission to orbit, commanding Inspiration4 in 2021. Nine others have paid Space Adventures to fly to
19072-456: Was 25 years old when he flew Vostok 2 . Titov remains the youngest human to reach orbit ; he rounded the planet 17 times. Titov was also the first person to suffer space sickness and the first person to sleep in space, twice. The oldest person to reach space is William Shatner , who was 90 years old when he made a suborbital spaceflight on Blue Origin NS-18 . The oldest person to reach orbit
19221-443: Was Soviet Yuri Gagarin , who was launched on 12 April 1961, aboard Vostok 1 and orbited around the Earth for 108 minutes. The first woman in space was Soviet Valentina Tereshkova , who launched on 16 June 1963, aboard Vostok 6 and orbited Earth for almost three days. Alan Shepard became the first American and second person in space on 5 May 1961, on a 15-minute sub-orbital flight aboard Freedom 7 . The first American to orbit
19370-557: 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
19519-500: 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
19668-705: 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
19817-411: 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
19966-543: 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
20115-465: 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
20264-502: Was initially limited to military pilots. The earliest astronauts for both the US and the USSR tended to be jet fighter pilots, and were often test pilots. Once selected, NASA astronauts go through twenty months of training in a variety of areas, including training for extravehicular activity in a facility such as NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory . Astronauts-in-training (astronaut candidates) may also experience short periods of weightlessness ( microgravity ) in an aircraft called
20413-453: 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
20562-512: 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
20711-528: 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
20860-552: 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
21009-415: 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
21158-421: 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
21307-487: 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
21456-468: Was selected to be the first ESA parastronaut. With the rise of space tourism , NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency agreed to use the term " spaceflight participant " to distinguish those space travelers from professional astronauts on missions coordinated by those two agencies. While no nation other than Russia (and previously the Soviet Union), the United States, and China have launched
21605-400: 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
21754-515: Was the establishment of the annual International Astronautical Congress in 1950, and the subsequent founding of the International Astronautical Federation the following year. NASA applies the term astronaut to any crew member aboard NASA spacecraft bound for Earth orbit or beyond. NASA also uses the term as a title for those selected to join its Astronaut Corps . The European Space Agency similarly uses
21903-708: 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 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
22052-456: 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
22201-487: Was used. The word may have been inspired by "aeronaut", an older term for an air traveler first applied in 1784 to balloonists . An early use of "astronaut" in a non-fiction publication is Eric Frank Russell 's poem "The Astronaut", appearing in the November 1934 Bulletin of the British Interplanetary Society . The first known formal use of the term astronautics in the scientific community
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