Ignition Protocol / Programme
Project Mercury
Whether an American could go up and come back alive, and how fast that answer could be produced. The science was thin on purpose. The point was to have something to say in public while the Soviet Union kept talking.
Project Mercury ran from 1958 to 1963 and flew six people: twice on a Redstone that only reached suborbital height, four times on an Atlas that could reach orbit. It was a one man pressure vessel bolted to missiles built to carry warheads, and nearly every design decision in it was made by asking which option could be finished soonest.
How it went
NASA took the problem on in 1958 and chose the shortest path available, a single seat capsule flown on missiles already in production rather than a purpose built vehicle.
Alan Shepard made a suborbital hop on 5 May 1961, three weeks after Gagarin had already completed an orbit, which settled the question of who was ahead.
John Glenn made three orbits in Friendship 7 on 20 February 1962 while mission control watched a sensor saying the heat shield had unlatched, a reading later traced to a faulty switch.
Gordon Cooper closed the programme in Faith 7 on 15 May 1963, and NASA moved its attention to Gemini before the capsule had cooled.
What it flew
What it cost, what it got
Six crewed flights in five years from a standing start, with nobody killed. It proved a person could live and work in orbit, and it lost the race it was built to win, because Gagarin flew first and Vostok went on setting records while Mercury was still flying.
Sources
- This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury (NASA SP-4201)NASA History Series
- Mercury-Atlas 6Wikipedia