1. Mercury Center Norman Ok

.Project Mercury was the first program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the, its goal was to put a man into Earth and return him safely, ideally before the. Taken over from the by the newly created civilian space agency, it conducted twenty uncrewed developmental flights (some using animals), and six successful flights. The program, which took its name from, cost $2.2 billion adjusted for.

The astronauts were collectively known as the ', 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. 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 satellite in 1958, crewed spaceflight became the next goal. The Soviet Union put the first human, into a single orbit aboard on April 12, 1961. Shortly after this, on May 5, the US launched its first astronaut, on a flight. Soviet followed with a day-long orbital flight in August 1961.

The US reached its orbital goal on February 20, 1962, when made three orbits around 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 was produced by, and carried supplies of water, food and oxygen for about one day in a. Mercury flights were launched from in Florida, on modified from the and missiles. The capsule was fitted with a 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, a system of tracking and communications stations; back-up controls were outfitted on board. Small were used to bring the spacecraft out of its orbit, after which an protected it from the heat of. Finally, a slowed the craft for a.

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, which carried two astronauts in each capsule and perfected space docking maneuvers essential for crewed in the subsequent announced a few weeks after the first crewed Mercury flight. Contents.Creation Project Mercury was officially approved on October 7, 1958 and publicly announced on December 17.

Originally called Project Astronaut, President felt that gave too much attention to the pilot. Instead, the name was chosen from, which had already lent names to rockets like the Greek and Roman for the.

It absorbed military projects with the same aim, such as the Air Force. Background Following the end of, a evolved between the US and the (USSR). Since the USSR did not have bases in the western hemisphere from which to deploy, decided to develop, which drove a missile race.

The rocket technology in turn enabled both sides to develop Earth-orbiting satellites for communications, and gathering weather data. 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 '. A month later, the Soviets launched, carrying 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 (NACA), it was named the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

It achieved its first goal, an American satellite in space, in 1958. The next goal was to put a man there.The limit of space (also known as the ) 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 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 to supply fresh air. While there, they would experience, which could potentially cause disorientation. Further potential risks included and strikes, both of which would normally be absorbed in 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 a blunt, forward-facing heat shield could solve the problem of heating. Organization had been appointed the first Administrator of NASA, with (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. The group responsible for Project Mercury was NASA's, and 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: a to separate the spacecraft and its occupant from the in case of impending failure; for orientation of the spacecraft in orbit; a system to bring the spacecraft out of orbit; drag braking for; 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 the US space program an overtly military flavor, President Eisenhower at first hesitated to give the project top national priority (DX rating under the ), 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. Contractors and facilities Twelve companies bid to build the Mercury spacecraft on a $20 million ($172 million adjusted for inflation) contract. In January 1959, was chosen to be prime contractor for the spacecraft. Two weeks earlier, based in Los Angeles, was awarded a contract for, a small rocket to be used for development of the launch escape system. The World Wide Tracking Network for communication between the ground and spacecraft during a flight was awarded to the.

Redstone rockets for suborbital launches were manufactured in, Alabama by the and Atlas rockets by in San Diego, California. For crewed launches, the at in Florida was made available by the USAF. This was also the site of the Mercury Control Center while the computing center of the communication network was in, Maryland. Little Joe rockets were launched from, Virginia. Astronaut training took place at in Virginia, in Cleveland, Ohio, and in Warminster, PA.

Langley wind tunnels together with a rocket sled track at 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 boomed. From here, 75,000 people watched the first American orbital flight being launched in 1962. Location of production and operational facilities of Project MercurySpacecraft The Mercury spacecraft's principal designer was, 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 3) of habitable volume, the capsule was just large enough for a single crew member.

Inside were 120 controls: 55 electrical switches, 30 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, a nickel alloy able to withstand high temperatures.The spacecraft was cone shaped, with a neck at the narrow end. It had a convex base, which carried a heat shield (Item 2 in the diagram below) consisting of an aluminum covered with multiple layers of. Strapped to it was a retropack ( 1) consisting of three rockets deployed to brake the spacecraft during reentry. Between these were three minor rockets for separating the spacecraft from the launch vehicle at orbital insertion.

The straps that held 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 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 section ( 5) containing both antennas for communication and scanners for guiding spacecraft orientation.

Attached 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 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 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 facilities on.

The computer systems were computers. (See also for details.). Wearing his Mercury space suitThe 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 the high 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 with its own supply, which would also cool him. A cabin atmosphere of pure oxygen at 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 (/oxygen) at sea level.

This was easier to control, avoided the risk of ('the bends'), and also saved on spacecraft weight. Fires (which never occurred) would have to be extinguished by emptying 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 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 on his chest to record his, a cuff that could take his blood pressure, and a 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.Once in orbit, the spacecraft could be rotated in: 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 thrusters which used as 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 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 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. Spacecraft production in clean room at, St. Louis, 1960The Mercury spacecraft design was modified three times by NASA between 1958 and 1959.

After bidding by potential contractors had been completed, NASA selected 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, or an ablative material, could be added to 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 similar to the existing was considered. This approach was still too far from being able to make a spaceflight, and was consequently dropped. The heat shield and the stability of the spacecraft were tested in, 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 were considered, but ultimately scrapped.The spacecraft were produced at, Missouri, in clean rooms and tested in vacuum chambers at the McDonnell plant. The spacecraft had close to 600 subcontractors, such as which built the spacecraft's environmental control system.

Mercury Center Norman Ok

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.

4 were destroyed during uncrewed test flights. Spacecraft No.

11 sank and 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 (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 the escape tower. McDonnell also built the spacecraft simulators used by the astronauts during training. Launch vehicles: 1. Mercury-Atlas (orbital flights). Mercury-Redstone (suborbital flights). Little Joe (uncrewed tests) Launch escape system testing A 55-foot-long (17 m) launch vehicle called 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 a point called max-q, at which air pressure against 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 propellant and was originally designed in 1958 by the NACA for suborbital crewed flights, but was redesigned for Project Mercury to simulate an Atlas-D launch. It was produced. It 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 was used for a single flight intended to evaluate the tracking network; however, it failed and was destroyed from the ground shortly after launch. Suborbital flight The was an 83-foot-tall (25 m) (with capsule and escape system) single-stage launch vehicle used for suborbital flights.

It had 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, and developed for the 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 was produced by 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 rocket, also developed by Von Braun's team at 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 launch vehicle, and keeping a full staff of technical personnel around solely to fly a few Mercury capsules would result in excessively high costs. Orbital flight Orbital missions required use of the, a man-rated version of the which was originally developed as the ' first operational by for the Air Force during the mid-1950s. The Atlas was a 'one-and-one-half-stage' rocket fueled by and liquid (LOX). The rocket by itself stood 67 feet (20 m) high; total height of 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 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.

Gallery. Left to right:, and, 1962NASA announced the following seven astronauts – known as the – on April 9, 1959: NameRankUnitBornDiedLt (later Cdr)19252013Capt (later Col)19272004Maj (later Col)19212016Capt (later Lt Col)USAF19261967Lt Cdr (later Capt)USN19232007Lt Cdr (later Radm)USN19231998MajUSAF19241993Shepard became the first American in space by making a suborbital flight in May 1961. He went on to fly in the Apollo program and became the. Gus Grissom, who became the second American in space, also participated in the Gemini and Apollo programs, but died in January 1967 during a pre-launch test for. Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in February 1962, then quit NASA and went into politics, serving as a US Senator from 1974 to 1999, and returned to space in 1998 as a Payload Specialist aboard. Deke Slayton was grounded in 1962, but remained with NASA and was appointed Chief Astronaut at the beginning of.

He remained in the position of senior astronaut, in charge of space crew flight assignments among many other responsibilities, until towards the end of, when he resigned and began training to fly on the in 1975, which he successfully did. Gordon Cooper became the last to fly in Mercury and made its longest flight, and also flew a Gemini mission. Carpenter's Mercury flight was his only trip into space.

Schirra flew the third orbital Mercury mission, and then flew a Gemini mission. Three years later, he commanded the first crewed Apollo mission, becoming the only person to fly in all three of those programs.One of 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. To make their travels easier, they requested and got jet fighters for personal use. The press was especially fond of John Glenn, who was considered the best speaker of the seven. They sold their personal stories to magazine which portrayed them as patriotic, God-fearing family men. Life was also allowed to be at home with 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 in Virginia.Other than Grissom, who was killed in the 1967 fire, the other six survived past retirement and died between 1993 and 2016. Selection and training Prior to Project Mercury, there was no protocol for selecting astronauts so NASA would set a far reaching precedent with both their selection process and initial choices for astronaut.

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 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, which set the number of candidates at 508 men who were or (NAPs),. These men had long military records, which would give NASA officials more background information on which to base their decisions. Furthermore, these men were adept at flying the most advanced aircraft to date, giving them the best qualifications for the new position of astronaut. However, this selection excluded women since there were no female military test pilots at the time. It also excluded civilian NASA pilot, though he had been selected by the US Air Force in 1958 for its program, which 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 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 a college degree in a subject.

The college degree requirement excluded the USAF's pilot, then-Lt Col (later Brig Gen), the first person to exceed the. 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 the selection committee accept him. (later Col.), 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 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), who was later an astronaut in the and, 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 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. They practiced gaining control of a spinning spacecraft in a machine at the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory called the Multi-Axis Spin-Test Inertia Facility (MASTIF), by using an 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 the Mission Control Center. Recovery was practiced in pools at Langley, and later at sea with frogmen and helicopter crews.

See timetable for explanation. Dashed line: region of weightlessness.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 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 the spacecraft, the pilot would experience weightlessness as shown on the image.

The recovery procedure would be the same as an orbital mission.Timetable (mm:ss)0:00Launch2:22Launch vehicle cut-off and tower separation2:32Spacecraft separation2:37Turnaround5:14Retrofire6:14Retropack jettisoned7:48Reentry9:38Drogue deployed10:15Main chute deployed15:22LandingOrbital. Launch Complex 14 just before launch (service tower rolled aside). Preparations for launch were made in the blockhouse.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 during 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, 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 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). Launch and reentry profiles: A-C: launch; D: orbital insertion; E-K: reentry and landingOn 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 was built up at lift-off ( A).

After 30 seconds of flight, the point of maximum 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 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 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 the ground.Once in orbit, it was not possible for the spacecraft to change its except by initiating reentry. Each orbit would typically take 88 minutes to complete. The lowest point of the orbit, called, was at about 87 nautical miles (161 km) altitude, and the highest point, called, was about 150 nautical miles (280 km) altitude.

When leaving orbit ( E), 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 of 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 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. Further, a green marker dye was spread around the spacecraft to make its location more visible from the air. Brought in by helicopters inflated a collar around the craft to keep it upright in 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. Inside Control Center at Cape Canaveral (Mercury-Atlas 8)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 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 the role of Capsule Communicator, or CAPCOM, who communicated with the astronaut in orbit. Data from the spacecraft was sent to the ground, processed at the Goddard Space Center and relayed to the at Cape Canaveral. In the Control Center, the data was displayed on boards on each side of a world map, which showed the position of the spacecraft, its and the place it could land in an emergency within the next 30 minutes.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 in 1965. Faith 7On April 12, 1961 the Soviet became the first person in space on an orbital flight. Program de at muzica de pe youtube tpu. 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 a day-long, 22 orbit flight. However, the Soviet Union ended its the next month, with the human spaceflight endurance record set by the 82-orbit, almost 5-day flight. Crewed 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, and post-flight. The launch vehicles had been tested through uncrewed flights, therefore 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. Times given are, local time + 5 hours.

MA = Mercury-Atlas, MR = Mercury-Redstone, LC = Launch Complex. MissionCall-signPilotLaunchDurationOrbitsApogeemi (km)Perigeemi (km)Max. Velocitymph (km/h)Missmi (km)timesiteFreedom 714:34 on May 5, 196115 m 22 s0117 (188)—5,134 (8,262)3.5 (5.6)Liberty Bell 712:20 on Jul.

21, 1961LC-515 m 37 s0118 (190)—5,168 (8,317)5.8 (9.3)Friendship 714:47 on Feb. 20, 19624 h 55 m 23 s3162 (261)100 (161)17,544 (28,234)46 (74)Aurora 712:45 on May 24, 1962LC-144 h 56 m 5 s3167 (269)100 (161)17,549 (28,242)248 (400)Sigma 712:15 on Oct. 3, 1962LC-149 h 13 m 15 s6176 (283)100 (161)17,558 (28,257)4.6 (7.4)Faith 713:04 on May 15, 1963LC-141 d 10 h 19 m 49 s22166 (267)100 (161)17,547 (28,239)5.0 (8.1)RemarksMercury-Redstone 3First American in space.

Recovered by.Mercury-Redstone 4Spacecraft sank during recovery when hatch unexpectedly blew off. Astronaut recovered by carrier.Mercury-Atlas 6First American in orbit. Retropack retained during reentry. Recovered by.Mercury-Atlas 7Carpenter replaced Deke Slayton. Biggest miss.Mercury-Atlas 8The flight closest to plan. Carried out maneuvering tests. Recovered by carrier.Mercury-Atlas 9First American in space for over a day.

Last American solo mission. Recovered by USS Kearsarge.Recovery variationsMA6) spacecraft and astronaut hoist onboard directly; MA8) spacecraft and astronaut towed by boat to ship; MA9) spacecraft with astronaut inside flown to ship.

Uncrewed 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 a attempted to launch a satellite for testing the ground tracking network, but failed to reach orbit. 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.

After suborbital manned flights RemarksLittle Joe 1Due to an electrical malfunction, the escape tower ignited ½ hour before launch and took the spacecraft with it, leaving the rocket on the ground.Big Joe 1Actually the first Mercury-Atlas flight. Recovered by 2,407 km SE of Cape Canaveral. Altitude: 65 mi (105 km) Qualified ablative heatshield.Little Joe 6No additional testsLittle Joe 1AThe rescue tower rocket ignited 10 seconds too late. Recovered by 11.5 mi (18.5 km) SE of Wallops Island.Little Joe 2Carried Sam, a.

Recovered by 194 mi (312 km) SE of Wallops Island, Virginia; altitude: 53 mi (85 km).Little Joe 1BCarried a female rhesus monkey named Miss Sam.Beach AbortA boilerplate spacecraft was lifted from the ground by the launch escape system alone at. It reached an apogee of 0.751 kilometres (2,465 ft) and was recovered after landing. Top velocity: 436 metres per second (976 mph). Total payload: 1,154 kg.Mercury-Atlas 1Exploded while passing through max-q. To save weight, the airframe had been made thinner since Big Joe, which led to a collapse. The next Atlas was strengthened by a temporary solution while the rest were made from the same specifications as Big Joe.Little Joe 5The clamp holding the spacecraft was deflected by air pressure; due to this and incorrect wiring, the escape tower ignited too early and further failed to separate spacecraft from launch vehicle. Altitude: 10 mi (16 km)Mercury-Redstone 1Engine shutdown caused by improper separation of electrical cables; vehicle rose 4 in (10 cm) and settled back on the pad.Mercury-Redstone 1AFirst flight of Mercury / Redstone.

Altitude: 130 mi (210 km)Mercury-Redstone 2Carried the chimpanzee Ham on suborbital flight. Recovered by 422 mi (679 km) SE of Cape Canaveral; altitude: 157 mi (253 km)Mercury-Atlas 2Recovered by USS Donner 1,432 mi (2,305 km) SE of Cape Canaveral.Little Joe 5ATower fired 14 seconds too soon; it failed to separate the spacecraft from the rocket.Mercury-Redstone BDBD: Booster Development)Mercury-Atlas 3Upgraded from suborbital flight.

Was aborted when it did not go into orbit; boiler plate capsule recovered and reused in Mercury-Atlas 4.Little Joe 5BConcluded Little Joe program.Mercury-Atlas 4Completed one orbit and sent data to the ground; first orbital flight of the project. Recovery by 176 mi (283 km) east of.Mercury-Scout 1Was aborted after malfunction of guidance system; results of Mercury-Atlas 4 and Mercury-Atlas 5 were used instead.Mercury-Atlas 5Chimpanzee Enos completed a two-orbit flight, performing tasks to prove it possible for a person to function during a flight.

Last Mercury-Atlas test flight. Recovery by 255 mi (410 km) SE of Bermuda.

Canceled Nine of the planned flights were canceled. Suborbital flights were planned for four other astronauts but the number of flights was cut down gradually and finally all remaining were canceled after Titov's flight. Mercury-Atlas 9 was intended to be followed by more one-day flights and even a three-day flight but with the coming of the Gemini Project it seemed unnecessary.

The Jupiter booster was, as mentioned above, intended to be used for different purposes.MissionPilotPlanned LaunchCancellationMercury-Jupiter 1July 1, 1959Mercury-Jupiter 2ChimpanzeeFirst quarter, 1960July 1, 1959Mercury-Redstone 5Glenn (likely)March 1960August 1961Mercury-Redstone 6April 1960July 1961Mercury-Redstone 7May 1960Mercury-Redstone 8June 1960ShepardOctober 1963June 13, 1963Mercury-Atlas 11GrissomFourth quarter, 1963October 1962Mercury-Atlas 12SchirraFourth quarter, 1963October 1962Legacy. For Gordon Cooper in New York City, May 1963Today the Mercury program is commemorated as the first American human space program.

It did not win the race against the Soviet Union, but gave back national prestige and was scientifically a successful precursor of later programs such as Gemini, Apollo and Skylab.During the 1950s, some experts doubted that human spaceflight was possible. Still, when was elected president, many, including he, had doubts about the project.

As president he chose to support the programs a few months before the launch of Freedom 7, which became a public success. Afterwards, a majority of the American public supported human spaceflight, and, within a few weeks, Kennedy announced a plan for a crewed mission to land on the Moon and return safely to Earth before the end of the 1960s.The six astronauts who flew were awarded medals, driven in parades and two of them were invited to address a. As a response to the selection criteria, which ruled out women, a private project was founded in which 13 women pilots successfully underwent the same tests as the men in Project Mercury.

It was named by the media Despite this effort, NASA did not select female astronauts for the.On February 25, 2011, the, the world's largest technical professional society, awarded (the successor company to McDonnell Aircraft) a Milestone Award for important inventions which debuted on the Mercury spacecraft. Depictions on film On film, the program was portrayed in, a 1983 adaptation of 's 1979, together with the HBO miniseries (1998), and (2016).Commemorations In 1964, a monument commemorating Project Mercury was unveiled near Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, featuring a metal logo combining the symbol of Mercury with the number 7. In 1962, the honored the Mercury-Atlas 6 flight with a Project Mercury commemorative stamp, the first US postal issue to depict a crewed spacecraft. Designed in 1964 from Mercury Seven astronaut memorial.

The project was delayed by 22 months, counting from the beginning until the first orbital mission. It had a dozen prime contractors, 75 major subcontractors, and about 7200 third-tier subcontractors.

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Contents.History In 1989, Amnon Landan and Arye Finegold founded Mercury Interactive Corporation. The company was based in California and had offices located around the world. It also had a large R&D facility in Yehud, Israel.On 25 July 2006, Hewlett-Packard announced that it would pay approximately $4.5 billion to acquire Mercury Interactive, offering to pay $52 a share.On 7 November 2006, Mercury Interactive formally became part of HP.

The Mercury Interactive products are now sold by.Mercury Interactive legacy products were integrated and sold as part of the portfolio from the.Most of the Mercury Interactive software assets were apportioned to (HPE) when HP split into two companies. In September 2017, HPE completed the sale of most of its software assets, including the legacy Mercury Interactive products to UK-based.Acquisitions From 2000 until its HP acquisition in 2006, Mercury purchased several software companies:. Conduct Software Technologies, Inc., acquired by Mercury Interactive in a share-swap deal worth about $50M, was a privately held software company founded in 1996 by Sharon Azulai, David Barzilai, and Ran Levy. The company provided network topology visualization products, to pinpoint bottlenecks and isolate the location of network problems both across the network and across the system infrastructure. Its main product was SiteRunner, which used multi-agent technology to pinpoint bottlenecks.

As part of Mercury, Conduct alumni started a new project, nicknamed Falcon and later called Prism, that switched focus to monitoring web server traffic. Freshwater Software was a software vendor of a web server monitoring and administration tool called SiteScope. Mercury Interactive acquired Freshwater Software in 2001. The product is now called software. Performant Inc. Was a software vendor of J2EE diagnostic tools. Mercury Interactive acquired Performant in 2003 for $22.5M.

Kintana Inc. Was a software vendor of IT governance products. Mercury Interactive acquired Kintana in June 2003 for $225M. Kintana products are now called. Appilog was a software vendor of auto-discovery and application mapping software. Appilog products mapped the relationships among applications and their underlying infrastructure.

Mercury Interactive acquired Appilog for $49M in 2004. Appilog products are now part of HP Universal software, an HP Business Service Management offering. BeatBox Technologies (formerly named 'ClickCadence LLC') was a software vendor of real user behavior tracking products.

Mercury Interactive acquired BeatBox in 2005 for approximately $14 million in cash, 'to extend the real user monitoring capabilities of its BTO software and to enhance its performance lifecycle offerings.' BeatBox was incorporated into Mercury's Real User Monitor (RUM) product, which is now part of HP Business Availability Center. Systinet (formerly named IdooX) was a software of registry and enablement products for standard service-oriented. Mercury Interactive acquired Systinet in 2006 for $105M. Systinet products are now called HP SOA Systinet software.Corporate malfeasance From 4 January 2006 until its acquisition by Hewlett-Packard, Mercury Interactive was traded via the as a result of being delisted from the NASDAQ due to noncompliance with filing requirements. On 3 January 2006, Mercury missed a second deadline for restating its financials, leading to the delisting.Chief Executive Officer Amnon Landan, Chief Financial Officer Douglas Smith, and General Counsel Susan Skaer resigned in November 2005 after a special committee at the company found that they benefited from a program to favorably price option grants. The committee found that, beginning in 1995, there were 49 instances in which the stated date of a stock option grant was different from the date on which the option appeared to have been granted.

In almost every case, the price on the actual date was higher than the price on the stated grant date. A former Chief Financial Officer, Sharlene Abrams, later associated with the financial misreporting, had resigned previously in November 2001.The Chief Executive Officer, Amnon Landan, also was found to have misreported personal stock option exercise dates to increase his profit on transactions three times between 1998 and 2001. In addition, a $1 million loan to Mr. Landan in 1999—which was repaid—did not appear to have been approved in advance by the Board of Directors and was referred to in some of the company's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but was not clearly disclosed. In 2007, the SEC filed civil fraud charges against Landan, Smith, Skaer and Abrams.

Without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations, Mercury Interactive agreed to pay a $28 million civil penalty to settle the Commission's charges in 2007.The SEC settled charges against Sharlene Abrams in March 2009. Abrams agreed to pay $2,287,914 in disgorgement, of which $1,498,822 represented the 'in-the-money' benefit from her exercise of backdated option grants, and a $425,000 civil penalty. In September 2009, a federal judge dismissed all charges brought by the SEC against Susan Skaer, who now goes by the name Susan Skaer Tanner.