Project Mercury Overview

Unmanned Missions

• LJ-1 Little Joe 1
• BJ-1 Big Joe 1
• LJ-6 Little Joe 6
• LJ-1A Little Joe 1A
• LJ-2 Little Joe 2
• LJ-1B Little Joe 1
• BA-1 Beach Abort
• MA-1Mercury-Atlas 1
• LJ-5 Little Joe 5
• MR-1 Mercury-Redstone 1
• MR-1AMercury-Redstone 1A
• MR-2 Mercury-Redstone 2
• MA-2 Mercury-Atlas 2
• LJ-5A Little Joe 5A
• MR-BD Mercury BD
• MA-3 Mercury-Atlas 3
• LJ-5B Little Joe 5B
• MA-4 Mercury-Atlas 4
• MS-1 Mercury-Scout 1
• MA-5 Mercury-Atlas 5

Manned Missions

• Mercury-Redstone 3
  FREEDOM 7
  May 5, 1961
  Alan B. Shepard, Jr.
  15 minutes, 28 seconds
  Suborbital flight that successfully put the first American in space.
• Mercury-Redstone 4
  LIBERTY BELL 7
  July 21, 1961
  Virgil I. Grissom
  15 minutes, 37 seconds
  Also suborbital; successful flight but the spacecraft sank shortly after splashdown.
• Mercury-Atlas 6
  FRIENDSHIP 7
  February 20, 1962
  John H. Glenn, Jr.
  04 hours, 55 minutes 23 seconds
  Three-orbit flight that placed the first American into orbit.
• Mercury-Atlas 7
  AURORA 7
  May 24, 1962
  M. Scott Carpenter
  04 hours, 56 minutes, 5 seconds
  Confirmed the success of Mercury-Atlas 6 by duplicating flight.
• Mercury-Atlas 8
  SIGMA 7
  October 03, 1962
  Walter M. Schirra, Jr.
  09 hours, 13 minutes, 11 seconds
  Six-orbit engineering test flight.
• Mercury-Atlas 9
  FAITH 7
  May 15-16, 1963
  L. Gordon Cooper, Jr.
  34 hours, 19 minutes, 49 seconds
  Last Mercury mission; completed 22 orbits to evaluate effects of one day in space.

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