Welcome To The Mercury Project
First US Earth Orbit

JRL is proud to have played a small role in the historic Mercury, Gemini and Apollo Programs.

A Brief History

The Mercury program was the first successful US manned spaceflight program. It ran from 1959 through 1963 with the goal of putting a man in orbit around the Earth.

At the start of the 1960s the United States space program appeared to be trailing that of the Soviet Union. In April 1961, the Soviets had launched Vostok 1, the world's first manned space flight piloted by Yuri Gagarin. The American response was to boost its Mercury program (1958 - 1963). Freedom 7 (Mercury 3) became the first manned U.S. space mission in May 1961. An enhanced Redstone ballistic missile launched Freedom 7 from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Alan Shephard was the first American astronaut. Although Freedom 7 went into space it did not orbit the Earth. That honor went to Friendship 7 (Mercury 6). U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth on Friendship 7 in February 1962. He was powered into space by an Atlas ICBM. Glenn closely studied the effects of space travel on himself, orbited the Earth three times and re-entered the atmosphere manually. NASA launched four more Mercury craft after Friendship 7. Faith 7 (Mercury 9) orbited the Earth 22 times and stayed in space for about 34 hours. All the craft used in Mercury program bore the number seven in recognition of the seven men who were chosen to become the first American astronauts.

Mercury spacecraft were very small one-man vehicles. Some joked that the Mercury spacecraft were not ridden, they were worn. The spacecraft had only attitude and reentry thrusters. They could not effect any orbital changes apart from the reentry burn. The spacecraft were designed to be totally controllable from the ground in the event that the space environment impaired the pilot's ability to function. Suborbital Mercury capsules used beryllium heat-sink heat shields, orbital ones used ablative shields.

The Mercury program used three boosters: Little Joe, Redstone, and Atlas. Little Joe and Redstone were used for suborbital flights, Atlas for orbital ones. The Atlas boosters required extra strengthening in order to handle the increased weight of the Mercury capsules beyond that of the nuclear warheads they were designed to carry. Little Joe was a solid-propellant booster designed specially for the Mercury program.

On April 9, 1959, NASA introduced the public to the seven men chosen to be the first human space travelers. They were identified as "Astronauts" after the pioneers of ballooning "Argonauts". Although personable, thes pilots did not stand out more than ordinary men but all were engineers committed to flying advanced aircraft. "Slightly short of average in stature, they were above average in seriousness of purpose."

The Mercury 7 Astronauts
Carpenter, Cooper, Glenn, Grissom, Schirra, Shepard, and Slayton

For the Mercury Project, JRL calibrated the small Hydrogen Peroxide thrusters that controlled the attitude of the Mercury Capsule while in orbit and worked with the Bell Rocket belt which used the same type small Hydrogen Peroxide thrusters. It was featured in the first super bowl.