Mercury

Mercury program

Mercury Program might refer to:*the first successful American manned spaceflight program, Project Mercury*an American post-rock band, The Mercury Program...

-Redstone

Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle

The Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle, designed for NASA's Project Mercury, was the first American manned space booster. It was used for six sub-orbital Mercury flights from 1960–61; culminating with the launch of the first, and 11 weeks later, the second American in space.A member of the...

 1A (MR-1A) was launched on December 19, 1960 from LC-5

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 5

Launch Complex 5 was a launch site at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida used for various Redstone and Jupiter launches.It is most well known as the launch site for NASA's 1961 suborbital Mercury-Redstone 3 flight, which made Alan Shepard the first American in space. It was also the launch...

 at Cape Canaveral

Cape Canaveral

Cape Canaveral, from the Spanish Cabo Cañaveral, is a headland in Brevard County, Florida, United States, near the center of the state's Atlantic coast. Known as Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it lies east of Merritt Island, separated from it by the Banana River.It is part of a region known as the...

, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

. The mission objectives of this unmanned suborbital flight were to qualify

Flight qualify

To flight qualify is to take a product, process, or material and test it in order to prove that it will withstand the environment of aerodynamic or space flight...

 the spacecraft for space flight and qualify the system for an upcoming primate suborbital flight. The spacecraft tested its instrumentation, posigrade rockets, retro rockets and recovery system. The mission was completely successful. The Mercury capsule reached an altitude of 130 miles (209.2 km) and a range of 235 miles (378.2 km). The launch vehicle reached a slightly higher velocity than expected - 4909 miles per hour (7,900.3 km/h). The Mercury spacecraft was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

 by recovery helicopters about 15 minutes after landing. Serial numbers: Mercury Spacecraft # 2 together with the escape tower from Capsule # 8, and the antenna fairing from Capsule # 10 were reflown on MR-1A. Redstone MRLV-3 was used. Flight time 15 minutes 45 seconds.

Current location

Mercury spacecraft #2, used in both the Mercury-Redstone 1 and Mercury-Redstone 1A missions, is currently displayed at the Exploration Center at NASA Ames Research Center

NASA Ames Research Center

The Ames Research Center , is one of the United States of America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration 10 major field centers.The centre is located in Moffett Field in California's Silicon Valley, near the high-tech companies, entrepreneurial ventures, universities, and other...

, Moffett Federal Airfield

Moffett Federal Airfield

Moffett Federal Airfield , also known as Moffett Field, is a joint civil-military airport located between northern Mountain View and northern Sunnyvale, California, USA. The airport is near the south end of San Francisco Bay, northwest of San Jose. Formerly a United States Navy facility, the former...

, near Mountain View

Mountain View, California

-Downtown:Mountain View has a pedestrian-friendly downtown centered on Castro Street. The downtown area consists of the seven blocks of Castro Street from the Downtown Mountain View Station transit center in the north to the intersection with El Camino Real in the south...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

.

Mercury-Redstone suborbital flight events

T+ Time	Event	Description
T+00:00:00	Liftoff	Mercury-Redstone lifts off, onboard clock starts.
T+00:00:16	Pitch Program	Redstone pitches over 2 deg/s from 90 deg to 45 deg.
T+00:00:40	End Pitch Program	Redstone reaches 45 deg pitch.
T+00:01:24	Max Q	Maximum dynamic pressure ~575 lb/ft² (28 kPa).
T+00:02:20	BECO	Redstone engine shutdown - Booster Engine Cutoff. Velocity 5,200 mph (2.3 km/s)
T+00:02:22	Tower Jettison	Escape Tower Jettison, no longer needed.
T+00:02:24	Capsule Separation	Posigrade rockets fire for 1 s giving 15 ft/s (4.6 m/s) separation.
T+00:02:35	Turnaround Maneuver	Capsule (ASCS) system rotates capsule 180 degrees, to heat shield forward attitude. Nose is pitched down 34 degrees to retro fire position.
T+00:05:00	Apogee	Apogee of about 115 miles (185 km) reached at 150 miles (240 km) downrange from launch site.
T+00:05:15	Retrofire	Three retro rockets fire for 10 seconds each. They are started at 5 second intervals, firing overlaps. Delta V of 550 ft/s (168 m/s) is taken off forward velocity.
T+00:05:45	Retract Periscope	Periscope is automatically retracted in preparation for reentry.
T+00:06:15	Retro Pack Jettison	One minute after retrofire retro pack is jettisoned, leaving heatshield clear.
T+00:06:20	Retro Attitude Maneuver	(ASCS) orients capsule in 34 degrees nose down pitch, 0 degrees roll, 0 degrees yaw.
T+00:07:15	.05 G Maneuver	(ASCS) detects beginning of reentry and rolls capsule at 10 deg/s to stabilize capsule during reentry.
T+00:09:38	Drogue Parachute Deploy	Drogue parachute deployed at 22,000 ft (6.7 km) slowing descent to 365 ft/s (111 m/s) and stabilizing capsule.
T+00:09:45	Snorkel Deploy	Fresh air snorkel deploys at 20,000 ft (6 km). (ECS) switches to emergency oxygen rate to cool cabin.
T+00:10:15	Main Parachute Deploy	Main parachute deploys at 10,000 ft (3 km). Descent rate slows to 30 ft/s (9 m/s)
T+00:10:20	Landing Bag Deploy	Landing Bag Deploys, dropping heat shield down 4 ft (1.2 m).
T+00:10:20	Fuel Dump	Remaining hydrogen peroxide fuel automatically dumped.
T+00:15:30	Splashdown	Capsule lands in water about 300 mi (500 km) downrange from launch site.
T+00:15:30	Rescue Aids Deploy	Rescue aid package deployed. The package includes green dye marker, recovery radio beacon and whip antenna.

External links

• "Space Progress: 'Man-In-Space' Capsule Recovery Successful", a December 22, 1960 Universal-International
  Universal Newsreel
  Universal Newsreel was a series of 7- to 10-minute newsreels that were released twice a week between 1929 and 1967 by Universal Studios. A Universal publicity official, Sam B. Jacobson, was involved in originating and producing the newsreels...
  
   newsreel
  Newsreel
  A newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers...
  
   briefly covering the Mercury-Redstone 1A mission. Courtesy of the Internet Archive
  Internet Archive
  The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
  
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• Mercury spacecraft #2 display page on "A Field Guide to American Spacecraft" website.