Mercury Space Program

John glenn scott carpenter and walter.
Mercury space program. Initiated in 1958 completed in 1963 project mercury was the united states first man in space program. The mercury space program was designed to put an american into space. Their fellow mercury astronauts alan shepard and virgil gus grissom flew earlier suborbital flights. Investigate man s ability to function in space.
Like the explorer 1 before it mercury followed earlier soviet successes at similar missions but it pushed american capabilities to the frontiers of space exploration which made it possible for the subsequent apollo missions that took the first americans to the moon. Mercury was nasa s inaugural human spaceflight program. Nasa commemorated the 45th anniversary of americans in orbit with a special multimedia salute to the original mercury astronauts and new interviews with sen. To see if humans could function effectively in space and to put a man in space before the soviet union did.
Nasa s first seven. Orbit a manned spacecraft around earth. An early highlight of the space race its goal was to put a man into earth orbit and return him safely ideally before the soviet union. All of the mercury seven eventually flew in space.
The objectives of the program which made six manned flights from 1961 to 1963 were specific. Glenn was soon followed into orbit by colleagues scott carpenter walter schirra and gordon cooper. To investigate man s ability to function in space. They piloted the six spaceflights of the mercury program that had an astronaut on board from may 1961 to may 1963 and members of the group flew on all of the nasa human spaceflight programs of the 20th century mercury gemini apollo and the space shuttle.
Project mercury was the united states first man in space program. Recover both man and spacecraft safely. The series began with a suborbital flight about three weeks after the soviet cosmonaut yury gagarin became the first human in space see vostok. The mercury program represented nasa s first human spaceflight program with the aim to see if humans could function effectively in space for a few minutes or hours at a time.
To orbit a manned spacecraft around earth. Deke slayton was grounded by a medical condition until the apollo soyuz test project in 1975. Mercury any of the first series of crewed spaceflights conducted by the united states 1961 63. How the mercury 13 began with the soviet union s 1957 launch of sputnik the first artificial satellite the space race between the ussr and the united states was officially underway.
To recover both man and spacecraft safely.