Project Mercury
Duration	1959-1963
Nationality	USA
Organization	NASA
Primary goal	First man in space
Achievements	US manned flight firsts: suborbital: 5 May, 1961 orbital: 20 February, 1962 +1 day: 15-16 May, 1963 Overall firsts: soft landing: 5 May, 1961
Crew size	One
Rockets	Little Joe, Redstone, Atlas D
Followers	Gemini and Apollo
Rival	Vostok program (Soviet)
Legacy	The right stuff (film)

Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States. It ran from 1959 through 1963 with two goals: putting a human in orbit around the Earth, and doing it before the Soviet Union, as part of the early space race. It succeeded in the first but not the second: in the first Mercury mission on 5 May 1961,^[1] Alan Shepard became the first American in space; however the Soviet Union had put Yuri Gagarin into space one month earlier.^[2] John Glenn became the first American (third overall, following Gagarin and Titov) to reach orbit on February 20, 1962, during the third manned Mercury flight.^[3]

The program included 20 unmanned launches, followed by two suborbital and four orbital flights with astronaut pilots. Early planning and research were carried out by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA),^[4] but the program was officially conducted by its successor organization, NASA. It also absorbed the USAF program Man In Space Soonest which had had the same objectives. Mercury laid the groundwork for Project Gemini and the follow-on Apollo moon-landing program.

The project name came from Mercury, a Roman god often seen as a symbol of speed. Mercury is also the name of the innermost planet of the Solar System, which moves faster than any other and hence provides an image of speed, although Project Mercury had no other connection to the planet.

Goals and guidelines[link]

The goals of the program were to orbit a manned spacecraft around Earth, investigate the pilot's ability to function in space and to recover both pilot and spacecraft safely.^[5]

NASA also established program guidelines: existing technology and off-the-shelf equipment should be used wherever practical, the simplest and most reliable approach to system design would be followed, an existing launch vehicle would be employed to place the spacecraft into orbit, and a progressive and logical test program would be used.

Project requirements for the spacecraft were that it must be fitted with a reliable launch escape system to separate the spacecraft and its astronaut from its launch vehicle in case of impending failure; the pilot must have been given the capability of manually controlling the attitude of the spacecraft; the spacecraft must carry a retro-rocket system capable of reliably providing the necessary impulse to bring the spacecraft out of orbit; a zero-lift body utilizing drag braking to be used for reentry; and that the spacecraft design must satisfy the requirements for a landing on water.^[6]

Contractors[link]

Production of spacecraft at McDonnell

On 7 October 1958, T. Keith Glennan, the first administrator of NASA, approved the Mercury project.^[7][8] On December 17 Glennan announced Project Mercury publicly.^[9]

On 29 December 1958 North American Aviation was awarded a contract to design and build Little Joe launch vehicles to be used for altitude flight testing of the Mercury launch escape system.^[10] In January 1959 McDonnell Aircraft Corporation was chosen to be prime contractor for the Mercury spacecraft, and the contract for 12 spacecraft was awarded in February. In April seven astronauts, known as the Mercury Seven or more formally as Astronaut Group 1, were selected to participate in the Mercury program.

In May 1959 North American Aviation delivered the first two Little Joes, and in June, an Atlas D launch vehicle named Big Joe was delivered, for use in a suborbital heat shield test flight. In July, the planned use of the Jupiter rocket as a suborbital launch vehicle was changed to the Redstone.^[11] In October General Electric delivered to McDonnell the ablative heat shield designated for installation on the first Mercury spacecraft. In December the launch vehicle for Mercury-Redstone 1 was ready to begin static tests installed on a test stand at ABMA.

In January 1960 NASA awarded Western Electric Company a contract for the Mercury tracking network. The value of the contract was over $33 million.^[12] Also in January, McDonnell delivered the first production-type Mercury spacecraft, less than a year after award of the formal contract. On February 12, Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. was appointed to head the Mercury operations coordination group.^[13] In April, the first spacecraft was delivered to Wallops Island for the beach-abort test. The test was completed successfully on May 9.^[14]

Spacecraft[link]

1. retrorockets, 2. heatshield, 3. crew compartment, 4. recovery compart., 5. antenna section, 6. escape tower

Interior and functions

Design[link]

Because of their small size, it was said that the Mercury spacecraft were worn, not ridden. With 12 m³ (428.5 cubic feet) of habitable volume, the spacecraft was just large enough for the single crew member. Inside were 120 controls: 55 electrical switches, 30 fuses and 35 mechanical levers.^[15] The spacecraft was designed by Max Faget and NASA's Space Task Group.^{[16][17]:26–28}

Despite the astronauts' test pilot experience NASA at first envisioned them as "minor participants" during their flights, causing many conflicts between the astronauts and engineers during the spacecraft's design. Nonetheless, contrary to other reports, the project's leaders always intended for pilots to be able to control their spacecraft, as they valued humans' ability to contribute to missions' success.^[17]:23–25 John Glenn's manual attitude adjustments during the first orbital flight were an example of the value of such control.^[17]:33 The astronauts requested—and received—a larger window and manual reentry controls.^[17]:24–25

Production summary[link]

NASA ordered 20 production spacecraft, numbered 1 through 20, from McDonnell Aircraft Company, St. Louis, Missouri. Five of the 20, Nos. 10, 12, 15, 17, and 19, were not flown.^[18] Spacecraft No. 3 and No. 4 were destroyed during unmanned test flights.^[18] Spacecraft No. 11 sank^[18] and was recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after 38 years.^[19] Some spacecraft were modified after initial production (refurbished after launch abort, modified for longer missions, etc.) and received a letter designation after their number, examples 2B, 15B. Some spacecraft were modified twice; for example, spacecraft 15 became 15A and then 15B.^[20]

A number of Mercury boilerplate spacecraft (including mockup/prototype/replica spacecraft, made from non-flight materials or lacking production spacecraft systems and/or hardware) were also made by NASA and McDonnell Aircraft.^[21][22] They were designed and used to test spacecraft recovery systems, and escape tower and rocket motors. Formal tests were done on test pad at Langley and at Wallops Island using the Little Joe and Big Joe rockets.^[23]

Launch vehicles[link]

Little Joe, used for test of escape system

Redstone, used for suborbital missions

Atlas, used for orbital missions

The Mercury program used three launch vehicles:^[17]:28–30

• Little Joe (height: 55 ft) – for launch escape system tests at altitude. Eight unmanned flights were made, two of which carried live monkeys. It was a solid-fuel rocket designed specially for Project Mercury and theoretically able to carry a spacecraft to an altitude of 100 miles (161 km) on a ballistic curve.^{[citation needed]} Together with a Mercury boilerplate it was used to test the escape tower and abort procedures.^[24]
• Redstone (height 83 ft) – 1-stage rocket for suborbital (ballistic) flights. Four unmanned flights were made, one of which carried a chimpanzee. After that it was used for the first two manned flights. The Jupiter rocket was originally considered for the suborbital launch vehicle, but were replaced with the Redstone in July 1959 due to budget constraints.

• Atlas D (height 94 ft) – 2-stage rocket for orbital manned flight. Six unmanned test flights were made, four suborbital and two orbital one of which carried a chimpanzee. After that it was used for four manned orbital flights. The Atlas D rocket required extra strengthening^[25] in order to handle the increased weight of the Mercury spacecraft beyond that of the nuclear warheads they were designed to carry.

The Titan missile was also considered for use for later Mercury missions;^[26] however, the Mercury program was terminated before these missions were flown. Instead, the Titan was used for the Gemini program which followed Mercury. The Mercury program also used a Scout rocket for a single flight, Mercury-Scout 1, which was intended to launch a small satellite designed to evaluate the worldwide Mercury Tracking Network. Launched on November 1, 1961, however, the rocket was destroyed by the Range Safety Officer after 44 seconds of flight.^[27]

Mission profile[link]

Stages in a mission

There were two kinds of missions: suborbital and orbital. In the suborbital flight, the space craft went directly from launch to re-entry at the highest point (point E on the picture); in the orbital mission on the other hand, the craft went into an orbit around the Earth. To achieve the latter a higher altitude and thereby bigger rocket was needed. The altitude for suborbital missions were 117 miles (188 km)^[28] and for orbital missions 156 miles (251 km).^[29]

During the launch phase of the mission, the Mercury spacecraft and astronaut were protected from launch vehicle failures by the Launch Escape System. The LES consisted of a solid fuel, 52,000 lbf (231 kN) thrust rocket with three engine bells mounted on a tower above the spacecraft.^[17]:28 In the event of a launch abort, the LES would fire for one second, pulling the spacecraft and astronaut away from the launch vehicle and a possible explosion. The spacecraft would then descend on its parachute recovery system. After booster engine cutoff (BECO), the LES was no longer needed and was separated from the spacecraft by a solid fuel, 800 lbf (3.6 kN) thrust jettison rocket that fired for 1.5 seconds.

After a successful liftoff, the spacecraft fired three small clustered solid-fuel, 400 lbf (1.8 kN) thrust rockets for 1 second to separate the spacecraft from the launch vehicle. These rockets were called the posigrade rockets^[17]:28 (point D on illustration).

Heat shield and retropack. Small red posigrade rockets can be seen between big retrogrades

The spacecraft were only equipped with attitude control thrusters; after orbit insertion but before retrofire they could not change their orbit. There were three sets of high and low powered automatic control jets and separate manual jets, one for each axis (roll, pitch, and yaw), and supplied from two separate fuel tanks, one automatic and one manual. The pilot could use any one of the three thruster systems and fuel them from either of the two fuel tanks to provide spacecraft attitude control. The Mercury spacecraft was designed to be completely controllable from the ground in the event that something impaired the pilot's ability to function.

The spacecraft had three solid-fuel, 1000 lbf (4.5 kN) thrust retrorockets that fired for 10 seconds each^[17]:28 (point F on illustration). One was sufficient to return the spacecraft to Earth if the other two failed. The firing sequence (known as ripple firing) required firing the first retro, followed by the second retro five seconds later (while the first was still firing). Five seconds after that, the third retro fired (while the second retro was still firing).

Freedom 7 recovered. Notice landing bag beneath spacecraft

There was a small hinged metal flap at the nose of the spacecraft called the spoiler. If the spacecraft started to reenter nose first (another stable reentry attitude for the spacecraft), airflow over the spoiler would flip the spacecraft around to the proper, heatshield-first reentry attitude,^[30] a technique called shuttlecocking. During reentry (point G), the astronaut would experience about 8 g-forces on an orbital mission, and 11–12 gs on a suborbital mission.

Initial designs for the spacecraft suggested the use of either beryllium heat-sink heat shields or an ablative shield. Extensive testing settled the issue – ablative shields proved to be reliable (so much so that the initial shield thickness was safely reduced, allowing a lower total spacecraft weight), and were easier to produce — at that time, beryllium was only produced in sufficient quantities by a single company in the U.S. — and cheaper. The surface of the heat shield had a coating of aluminum with glassfiber in many layers. As the temperature rose to 2,000 °F (1,100 °C) the layers would evaporate and take the heat with it. The spacecraft would become hot but not harmfully so.^[31]

After re-entry, a small, drogue parachute (point H) was deployed at 21,000 ft (6.4km) for first lowering of speed. The main parachute (point I) was deployed at 10,000 ft (3 km), further slowing the spacecraft in preparation for landing. Just before hitting the water, a landing bag inflated from behind the heat shield to reduce the force of impact. Upon landing, additional bags inflated around the nose of the craft to keep the capsule upright in the water, and the parachutes were released. Once the recovery helicopter hooked onto the spacecraft, the astronaut blew the escape hatch to exit the capsule. It was also possible to exit the capsule through the nose cone.^[31]

Space race[link]

John Glenn during his flight, 1962

On 4 October 1957 the Soviet Union had launched the first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 and ignited the Space Race, a part of the Cold War.^[32] The next step of this became the competition between the Mercury Project and the Soviet Vostok Program of bringing a pilot into space and in orbit around the Earth. In the first Mercury mission on 5 May 1961,^[1] Alan Shepard became the first American in space and the second person following Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union who flew one month earlier.^[2] John Glenn became the first American (third overall, following Gagarin and Titov) to reach orbit on February 20, 1962, during the third manned Mercury flight.^[3] Three more orbital flights were made, the last in 1963.^[1]

2 suborbital flights were cancelled; they began to look embarrassing after the Soviet Union had made a day-long orbital flight in August 1961. Three orbital flights were also cancelled since it was clear that the spacecraft had reached its limits. At the last flight the batteries were exhausted before reentry but, luckily, the spacecraft landed safely.^[33] USA had lost the first round of the space race to the Soviet; however, the FAI rules in 1961 required that a pilot must land safely with the spacecraft for the flight to be considered an official spaceflight.^[34]:283 In reality, Gagarin landed separately by parachute while the space craft crashed to the ground, but the Soviet Union did not admit this until 1971.^[34]:283

Flights[link]

Astronauts[link]

Left to right: Grissom, Shepard, Carpenter, Schirra, Slayton, Glenn and Cooper, 1962

The first Americans to venture into space were drawn from a group of 110 military pilots^[35] chosen for their flight test experience and because they met certain physical requirements. NASA announced the selection of seven of these – known as the Mercury Seven – as astronauts on 9 April 1959,^[36] though only six of the seven flew Mercury missions, after Slayton was grounded due to a heart condition. In order of flight:

• Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr., USN (1923–1998); first American in space, May 1961
• Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom, USAF (1926–1967); flew 21 July 1961. Died during Apollo 1 pre-launch test
• John Herschel Glenn, Jr., USMC (born 1921); first American to orbit the Earth, 20 February 1962
• Malcolm Scott Carpenter, USN (born 1925), flew 24 May 1962
• Walter Marty "Wally" Schirra, Jr., USN (1923–2007), flew 3 October 1962
• Leroy Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, Jr., USAF (1927–2004), flew 15 May 1963
• Donald Kent "Deke" Slayton, USAF (1924–1993); grounded in 1962, but reinstated in 1972 and flew on the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975.^[37]

Training and model testing[link]

Just like the rockets and spacecraft were tested in details by unmanned flights, the astronauts went through a training program in special facilities and model arrangements. Some tests were made to see their response to weightlessness on the one hand and high g forces on the other. Other parts of the training was meant to give them practice in maneuvering the spacecraft and get in and out of its narrow openings wearing a space suit. Together with this, the aerodynamics of the spacecraft and its heat shield were tested in wind tunnels.^{[citation needed]}

• 

  G force training in human centrifuge

• 

  Weightlessness simulation in plane

• 

  Maneuvre practice in gimbaling rig

• 

  Egress training in water

• 

  Full scale model test in wind tunnel

Tracking network[link]

Control Center, Florida

Map of orbits and tracking stations (MA-8)

In all, 6 manned Mercury missions were made, all controlled from the Mercury Control Center near the launch site. To track the manned orbit missions a network of radio stations was built around the equator. Two other tracking networks already existed: one for unmanned missions and one for deep space missions, however they were not adequate for manned missions.^{[citation needed]}

Deep space missions require a few big telescopes whereas earth orbit manned missions require many small radiostations at points that the spacecraft will pass over on its way. Unmanned missions need the same kind of radio stations but in smaller number. These differences led NASA to build an independent network for the manned missions. Apart from USA there were tracking stations in Australia and Africa together with stations on ships on the Oceans around equator.^{[citation needed]}

Summary[link]

"M" in the start of a mission name stands for Mercury. Names of launch vehicles can be read from mission names; MR=Redstone, MA=Atlas, MJ=Jupiter, MS=Scout and LJ=Little Joe. Times are in UTC.

Manned flights[link]

Beginning with Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 flight, the astronauts named their own spacecraft, and all added "7" to the name or callsign to acknowledge the teamwork of they and their fellow astronauts.^{[citation needed]} Redstone and Atlas rockets had been tested by unmanned flight. This is the reason why the first manned mission with a Redstone rocket has the number 3 (MR-3) and the first with an Atlas rocket is MA-6.

Mission	Callsign	Pilot	Date	Time	Duration	Remarks	Launches
MR-3	Freedom 7	Shepard	5 May 1961	14:34	15 m 28 s	First American to make a suborbital flight into space
MR-4	Liberty Bell 7	Grissom	21 Jul. 1961	12:20	15 m 37 s	Second suborbital flight. Spacecraft sank before recovery when hatch unexpectedly blew off (recovered 1999).
MA-6	Friendship 7	Glenn	20 Feb. 1962	14:47	4 h 55 m 23 s	First American to orbit the Earth (3 times). Retropack retained during re-entry due to concerns about heat shield.
MA-7	Aurora 7	Carpenter	24 May 1962	12:45	4 h 56 m 15 s	3 orbits. Reentered off-target by 402 km. Carpenter replaced Deke Slayton.
MA-8	Sigma 7	Schirra	3 Oct. 1962	12:15	9 h 13 m 11 s	Carried out engineering tests; six orbits
MA-9	Faith 7	Cooper	15 May 1963	13:04	1 d 10 h 19 m 49 s	First American in space for over a day. Last American to orbit the Earth solo. 22 orbits.

Unmanned flights[link]

The program included 20 robotic launches for development and testing of equipment. Not all of these were intended to reach space and not all were successful in completing their objectives. Four of the flights included animals as test pilots starting with the fifth flight in 1959.^[38] All animals returned safely.^{[citation needed]} Launch vehicles not following naming rule: Big Joe 1 was launched by an Atlas rocket and Beach Abort was a test of the launch escape system from the ground.

Mission	Date	Time	Duration	Remarks	Big Joe and Ham
LJ-1	21 August 1959	N/A	20 s	Test of launch escape system during flight.
Big Joe 1	9 September 1959	N/A	13 m 00 s	Test of heat shield and Atlas / spacecraft interface
LJ-6	4 October 1959	N/A	5 m 10 s	Test of spacecraft aerodynamics and integrity
LJ-1A	4 November 1959	N/A	8 m 11 s	Test of launch escape system during flight
LJ-2	4 December 1959	N/A	11 m 6 s	Carried Sam, a rhesus macaque, to 85 kilometres in altitude
LJ-1B	21 January 1960	N/A	8 m 35 s	Carried Miss Sam to 9.3 statute miles (15 kilometres) in altitude
Beach Abort	9 May 1960	N/A	1 m 31 s	Test of the off-the-pad abort system
MA-1	29 July 1960	13:13	3 m 18 s	First flight of Mercury / Atlas
LJ-5	8 November 1960	N/A	2 m 22 s	First flight of a production Mercury spacecraft
MR-1	21 November 1960	N/A	2 s	Launched 4 inches (100 mm); settled back on pad due to electrical malfunction
MR-1A	19 December 1960	N/A	15 m 45 s	First flight of Mercury / Redstone
MR-2	31 January 1961	16:55	16 m 39 s	Carried the chimpanzee Ham on suborbital flight
MA-2	21 February 1961	14:10	17 m 56 s	Unmanned test
LJ-5A	18 March 1961	N/A	23 m 48 s	Test of the launch escape system during the most severe conditions of a launch
MR-BD	24 March 1961	17:30	8 m 23 s	Redstone development test flight
MA-3	25 April 1961	16:15	7 m 19 s	Contained "robot astronaut"
LJ-5B	28 April 1961	N/A	5 m 25 s	Test of the launch escape system during the most severe conditions of a launch
MA-4	13 September 1961	14:09	1 h 49 m 20 s	Unmanned test, completed one orbit
MS-1	1 November 1961	15:32	44 s	Test of Mercury tracking network
MA-5	29 November 1961	15:08	3 h 20 m 59 s	Carried the chimpanzee Enos on a two-orbit flight

Canceled flights[link]

Apart from the listed missions, ballon ascents were intended to study high altitude conditions. These were cancelled on May 22, 1959 and replaced with experiments at the Lewis Research Center altitude wind tunnel facilities.^[39]

Splashdown sites[link]

See also: Splashdown (spacecraft landing)

The method of landing a space craft in water by parachute is normally referred to as splashdown. It was introduced in the Mercury Project and used by other programs until the introduction of aircraft landing with the Space Shuttle program. Most of the space crafts landed in the Atlantic Ocean east of Florida, however the last two landed in the Pacific.

Spacecraft	Landing Date	Location	Recovery Ship	Miss Distance (km)	USS Kearsarge with crew spelling Mercury-9 Δ
Jupiter AM-18	28 May, 1959	48-96 km N of Antigua Is	USS Kiowa (ATF-72)	16[44][45]
Mercury-Big Joe	9 September, 1959	2,407 km SE of Cape Canaveral	USS Strong (DD-758)	925[46]
Mercury-Little Joe 2	4 December, 1959	319 km SE of Wallops Is, VA	USS Borie (DD-704)	N/A[47]
Mercury-Redstone 1A	19 December, 1960	378 km SE of Cape Canaveral	USS Valley Forge (CV-45)	12.9[48]
Mercury-Redstone 2	31 January, 1961	676 km SE of Cape Canaveral	USS Donner (LSD-20)	209.2[49][50]
Mercury-Atlas 2	21 February, 1961	2,293 km SE of Cape Canaveral	USS Donner (LSD-20)	20.9[51][52]
Mercury-Atlas 4	13 September, 1961	258 km E of Bermuda	USS Decatur (DD-936)	64.4[53]
Mercury-Atlas 5	29 November, 1961	805 km SE of Bermuda	USS Stormes (DD-780)	N/A[54]
Freedom 7	5 May, 1961	27°13.7′N 75°53′W / 27.2283°N 75.883°W / 27.2283; -75.883 (Freedom 7)	USS Lake Champlain (CVS-39)	5.6[55]
Liberty Bell 7	21 July, 1961	27°32′N 75°44′W / 27.533°N 75.733°W / 27.533; -75.733 (Liberty Bell 7)	USS Randolph (CVS-15)	9.3[56]
Friendship 7	20 February, 1962	21°26′N 68°41′W / 21.433°N 68.683°W / 21.433; -68.683 (Friendship 7)	USS Noa (DD-841)	74[57]
Aurora 7	24 May, 1962	19°27′N 63°59′W / 19.45°N 63.983°W / 19.45; -63.983 (Aurora 7)	USS Farragut (DLG-6)	400[58]
Sigma 7	3 October, 1962	32°06′N 174°28′W / 32.1°N 174.467°W / 32.1; -174.467 (Sigma 7)	USS Kearsarge (CVS-33)	7.4[59]
Faith 7	16 May, 1963	27°20′N 176°26′W / 27.333°N 176.433°W / 27.333; -176.433 (Faith 7)	USS Kearsarge (CVS-33)	8.1[60]

Program cost[link]

In January 1969, NASA prepared for the US Congress an estimate of the costs for projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo (to the first manned Moon landing). This estimate gave the cost of Project Mercury as $392.6 million, broken down as follows:^[61]

• Spacecraft: $135.3 million
• Launch vehicles: $82.9 million
• Operations: $49.3 million
• Tracking operations and equipment: $71.9 million
• Facilities: $53.2 million

In 2010, The Space Review estimated the cost of Mercury as $1.6 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars.^[62]

Legacy[link]

Insignias[link]

Mercury program monument at LC-14

Flight patches that purport to be patches from various Mercury missions are available to the public. In reality, these patches were designed by private entrepreneurs several years after the Mercury program. When mission patches were created by crews in the Gemini program, this caused a public demand for Mercury flight patches, which was filled by these entrepreneurs. The only patches the Mercury astronauts wore, however, were the NASA logo and a name tag. Each manned Mercury spacecraft was decorated with a flight insignia featuring the spacecraft name (Freedom 7, etc.).

Films[link]

An American film about the Mercury project is The Right Stuff from 1983 adapted from Tom Wolfe's 1979 book by the same name. It also deals with the test pilots who were involved in high-speed aeronautical research that preceded the project.^[63]

Stamps[link]

Project Mercury issue of 1962

In 1962, the US Post Office honored the Mercury-Atlas 6 flight with the Project Mercury commemorative stamp, the first U.S. postal issue to depict a manned spacecraft. The stamp first went on sale in Cape Canaveral, Florida on 20 February 1962, the same day as the Project Mercury launch putting the first U.S. astronaut into orbit.^[64] On 4 May 2011, the US Postal Service released a stamp commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 5 May 1961 flight of Freedom 7 (which carried Alan Shepard into space).^[65]

Awards[link]

On 25 February 2011, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the world's largest technical professional society, awarded Boeing Company (successor to McDonnell Aircraft and McDonnell Douglas) a Milestone Award for important inventions which debuted on the Mercury spacecraft. The IEEE bestows this honor on projects that were accomplished at least 25 years in the past. Boeing received the award in recognition of Project Mercury's pioneering "navigation and control instruments, autopilot, rate stabilization and control, and fly-by-wire systems."^[66]

See also[link]

• Spaceflight portal
• Media related to Mercury program at Wikimedia Commons

Appendix[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Chris Kraft, Flight: My Life in Mission Control (March 2001). Hardcover, 371 pages, ISBN 0-525-94571-7 or paperback (2002) ISBN 0-452-28304-3.
• Gene Kranz, Failure is Not an Option. Factual, from the standpoint of a chief flight controller. ISBN 0-7432-0079-9
• Schirra, Grissom, Glenn, Slayton, Shepherd, Carpenter, Cooper, We Seven. (ISBN B00005X54G); Simon & Schuster – 1962. A collection of articles written by the seven Mercury astronauts.
• Francis French and Colin Burgess, Into That Silent Sea:Trailblazers of the Space Era 1961–1965. ISBN 978-0-8032-1146-9. First-hand interviews of Project Mercury participants.

External links[link]

• The Mercury Project (Kennedy Space Center)
• Space Medicine In Project Mercury By Mae Mills Link
• Project Mercury Simulator for Mac and PC
• Chronology of Project Mercury – NASA report (PDF format)
• This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury – NASA report (PDF format) (Note: missing pages 430-431 of original NASA document).
• Project Mercury familiarization manual (PDF) November 1961
• The Mercury Redstone Project (PDF) December 1964
• Results of the first US manned orbital space flight – Feb 20, 1962 (Friendship 7) NASA report – (PDF format)
• Results of the second US manned orbital space flight, May 24, 1962 (Aurora 7) NASA report – (PDF format)
• PDFs of historical Mercury documents including familiarization manuals.
• Project Mercury Drawings and Technical Diagrams

v t e Project Mercury General NASA (Organizer) Space race (Political background) Space flight (Scientific background) Contractors McDonnell Aircraft Corporation (Space craft) North American Aviation (Test rocket) Related programs USA Gemini (Mercury Mark II) Apollo (Moon program) Soviet Vostok (Rival in space race) Missions Manned Freedom 7 (First suborbital flight) Liberty Bell 7 Friendship 7 (First orbital flight) Aurora 7 Sigma 7 Faith 7 Unmanned LJ-1 Big Joe 1 LJ-6 LJ-1A LJ-2 LJ-1B Beach Abort MA-1 Little Joe 5 MR-1 MR-1A MR-2 MA-2 LJ-5A MR-BD MA-3 LJ-5B MA-4 MS-1 MA-5 Astronauts General Mercury Seven In order of flight (In suborbit:) Alan Shepard Gus Grissom (In orbit:) John Glenn Scott Carpenter Wally Schirra Gordon Cooper (Did not fly:) Deke Slayton Equipment Navy Mark IV (Space suit) Test animals Ham Enos (Background:) Animals in space Subprograms Mercury-Atlas Mercury-Redstone Mercury-Scout Big Joe Mercury-Jupiter (Canceled) Rockets Atlas Redstone Blue Scout II Little Joe Jupiter (Proposed) Other Mercury 13 (Non NASA project inspired by Project Mercury)

Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
NASA Astronaut
Nationality	American
Status	Killed during training
Born	(1926-04-03)April 3, 1926 Mitchell, Indiana
Died	January 27, 1967(1967-01-27) (aged 40) Cape Canaveral, Florida
Other occupation	Test pilot
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel, USAF
Time in space	5h 7m
Selection	1959 NASA Group
Missions	Mercury-Redstone 4, Gemini 3, Apollo 1
Mission insignia
Awards

Virgil Ivan Grissom (April 3, 1926 – January 27, 1967), (Lt Col, USAF), better known as Gus Grissom, was one of the original NASA Project Mercury astronauts and a United States Air Force pilot. He was the second American to fly in space, and the first member of the NASA Astronaut Corps to fly in space twice.^{[note 1]}

Grissom was killed along with fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger Chaffee during a pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (then known as Cape Kennedy), Florida. He was the first of the Mercury Seven to die. He was also a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross and, posthumously, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Family and background[link]

Grissom was born in Mitchell, Indiana on April 3, 1926, the second child of Dennis and Cecile King Grissom.^[1] His father was a signalman for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and his mother a homemaker. His older sister died shortly before his birth, and he was followed by three younger siblings, Wilma, Norman and Lowell.^[2] As a child he attended the local Church of Christ where he remained a lifelong member and joined the Boy Scouts' Troop 46. He was enrolled in public elementary schools and went on to attend Mitchell High School. Grissom met and befriended Betty Lavonne Moore at school through their extracurricular activities.^[3] He worked delivering newspapers for the Indianapolis Star and in a local meat market for his first jobs.^[4]

Grissom occasionally spent time at a local airport in Bedford, Indiana where he first became interested in flying. A local attorney who owned a small plane would take him on flights for a $1 fee and taught him the basics of flying an airplane.^[5] World War II broke out while Grissom was still in high school, and he was eager to enlist upon graduation. Grissom enlisted as an aviation cadet in the United States Army Air Forces and completed an entrance exam in November 1943. He graduated from high school in 1944 and was inducted into the army at Fort Benjamin Harrison on August 8, 1944.^[6] He was sent to Sheppard Field in Wichita Falls, Texas for basic training after which he was assigned as a clerk at Brooks Field in San Antonio, Texas.^[7]

As the war neared its end, Grissom sought to be discharged. He married Betty Moore on July 6, 1945 while on leave, and secured his discharge in September.^[8] He took a job at Carpenter Body Works, a local bus manufacturing business, and rented an apartment in Mitchell. However, he had trouble providing a sufficient income and was determined to attend college. Taking advantage of the G.I. Bill for partial payment of his school tuition, Grissom enrolled at Purdue University in September 1946.^[9] During his time in college, Betty returned to live with her parents and took a job at the Indiana Bell Telephone Company while he worked part time as a cook at a local restaurant.^[10] Grissom took summer classes to finish early and graduated with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering in 1950.^[11]

Korean War[link]

Grissom re-enlisted in the military after his graduation from Purdue, this time in the newly formed United States Air Force. He was accepted into the air cadet basic training program at Randolph Air Force Base in Universal City, Texas. Upon completion of the program, he was assigned to Williams Air Force Base in Mesa, Arizona.^[12] In March 1951 Grissom received his pilot wings and commission as a second lieutenant.^[13] Grissom's wife remained in Indiana and while he was away his first child, Scott, was born. After his birth they joined Grissom at his base in Arizona.^[14] The family remained there only briefly and in December 1951 they moved to Presque Isle, Maine where Grissom was assigned to Presque Isle Air Force Base and became a member of the 75th Fighter Interceptor Squadron.^[15]

USAF F-86F similar to the aircraft Grissom flew in Korea.

With the ongoing Korean War, Grissom's squadron was dispatched to the war zone in February 1952. There he flew as an F-86 Sabre replacement pilot and was reassigned to the 334th Fighter Squadron of the 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing stationed at Kimpo Air Base.^[16] Grissom flew 100 combat missions during his time in the war, serving as a wingman protecting the lead fighters. The position was not one that put him in a position to attack the enemy and he did not shoot down any planes while he was in service. He did personally drive off Korean air raids on multiple occasions as their MiGs would often flee at the first sign of superior American aircraft.^[17] On March 11, 1952, Grissom was promoted to First Lieutenant and was cited for his "superlative airmanship".^[18]

Grissom requested to remain in Korea to fly another 25 flights, but his request was denied. He was given the option of which base he would like to be stationed at in the United States and he requested the Bryan AFB in Bryan, Texas. There he served as a flight instructor, and was joined by his wife and son. His second child was born in Bryan in 1953.^[19] During a training exercise with a cadet, a trainee pilot caused a flap to break off the plane, causing it to spin out of control. Grissom climbed from the rear seat of the small craft to take over the controls and safely land the jet.^[20]

In August 1955, Grissom was reassigned to the Air Force Institute of Technology located in Dayton, Ohio. There he earned a bachelors degree in aero mechanics after completing the year-long course.^[21] In October 1956, he entered test pilot school at Edwards Air Force Base, California and returned to Wright-Patterson in May 1957 as a test pilot assigned to the fighter branch.^[22][23]

Astronaut[link]

The Project Mercury astronauts with a model of an Atlas rocket, July 12, 1962. Grissom is at the far left.

In 1958, Grissom received an official teletype message instructing him to report to an address in Washington, D.C. wearing civilian clothes. The message was classified "Top Secret" and Grissom was not to discuss its contents with anyone. Grissom discovered that he was one of 110 military test pilots whose credentials had earned them an invitation to learn more about the space program in general and Project Mercury in particular. Grissom liked the sound of the program, but knew that competition for the final spots would be fierce.^[24]

Captain Grissom then underwent a series of physical and psychological tests and on April 13, 1959, was notified that he had been chosen as one of the seven Mercury astronauts.^[25]

Liberty Bell 7[link]

Grissom in front of the Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft

On July 21, 1961, Grissom was pilot of the second Project Mercury flight, Mercury-Redstone 4, popularly known as Liberty Bell 7. This was a suborbital flight which lasted 15 minutes and 37 seconds. After splashdown, emergency explosive bolts unexpectedly fired and blew the hatch off, causing water to flood into the spacecraft. Quickly exiting through the open hatch and into the ocean, Grissom was nearly drowned as water began filling his spacesuit. A nearby helicopter tried to lift and recover the spacecraft, but the flooding spacecraft became too heavy, and it was ultimately cut loose before sinking.

Grissom asserted he had done nothing to cause the hatch to blow, and NASA officials eventually concluded that he was correct. Initiating the explosive egress system required hitting a metal trigger with the side of a closed fist, which unavoidably left a large, obvious bruise on the astronaut's hand,^{[citation needed]} but Grissom was found not to have any of the tell-tale bruising. Still, controversy remained, and fellow Mercury astronaut Wally Schirra, at the end of his October 3, 1962 flight, remained inside his spacecraft until it was safely aboard the recovery ship, and made a point of deliberately blowing the hatch to get out, bruising his hand.^[26]

Grissom's spacecraft was recovered in 1999, but no further evidence was found which could conclusively explain how the explosive hatch release had occurred. Later, Guenter Wendt, pad leader for the early American manned space launches, wrote that he believed a small cover over the external release actuator was accidentally lost sometime during the flight or splashdown and the T-handle may have been tugged by a stray parachute shroud line, or was perhaps damaged by the heat of re-entry and after cooling upon splashdown, contracted and fired.^[25][27]

Grissom was surrounded by reporters in a news conference after his space flight in America's second manned ship. When asked how he felt, he replied, "Well, I was scared a good portion of the time; I guess that's a pretty good indication."^[28]

Gemini 3[link]

In early 1964 Alan Shepard was grounded after being diagnosed with Ménière's disease and Grissom was designated command pilot for Gemini 3, the first manned Project Gemini flight, which flew on March 23, 1965. This mission would make him the first NASA astronaut to fly into space twice.^[29] This flight made three revolutions of the Earth and lasted 4 hours, 52 minutes and 31 seconds. Grissom was one of the eight pilots of the NASA paraglider research vehicle.

Grissom was one of the smaller astronauts, and he worked very closely with the engineers and technicians from McDonnell Aircraft who built the Gemini spacecraft. The first three spacecraft were built around him and the design was humorously named the Gusmobile. However by July 1963 NASA discovered 14 out of the 16 astronauts could not fit themselves into the cabin and later cockpits were modified.^[30] During this time Grissom invented the multi-axis translation thruster controller used to push the Gemini and Apollo spacecraft in linear directions for rendezvous and docking.^[31]

[edit] Naming of the Molly Brown

Gemini 3 mission patch design.

In a joking nod to the sinking of his Mercury craft Grissom named the first Gemini spacecraft Molly Brown after the popular Broadway show The Unsinkable Molly Brown; NASA publicity officials were unhappy with this name. When Grissom and his pilot John Young were ordered to come up with a new one, they offered Titanic. Aghast, NASA executives gave in and allowed the name Molly Brown, but did not use it in any official references. Subsequently and much to the agency's chagrin, on launch CAPCOM Gordon Cooper gave Gemini 3 its sendoff by saying over the uplink, "You're on your way, Molly Brown!" and ground controllers used this name throughout the flight.^[32]

After the safe return of Gemini III, NASA announced new spacecraft would not be named. Hence Gemini IV was not named American Eagle as planned. The naming of spacecraft resumed in 1967 after managers found the Apollo flights needed a name for each of two flight elements, the command module and lunar module. Lobbying by the astronauts and senior NASA administrators also had an effect. Apollo 9 had the callsigns "Gumdrop" for the command module and "Spider" for the lunar module. However, Wally Schirra had been prevented from naming his Apollo 7 spacecraft Phoenix in honor of Grissom's Apollo 1 crew since it was believed the average taxpayer would not take a "fire" metaphor as intended.