Overview of the Mercury Project
by Krysta CardinaleNASA Project Mercury was the United States first successful human space mission. It went from 1959 to 1963 and cost around $1.5 billion. The goal of the Mercury Project was to successfully put a man in orbit around the Earth. The spacecrafts of this mission were considered very small in size, and the capsule was large enough for only one crew member. Many secrets remain locked in space, secrets that have puzzled men for centuries. The search for knowledge about space was already underway. Hundreds of scientific rockets and satellites had already been launched. As the information was collected from space, it was made available to people all over the world. There were many startling and practical advances in many scientific fields. For these projects information was obtained from scientific instruments in the rockets and satellites. In the Mercury space project man himself followed these mechanical devices
The Spacecrafts
In October of 1958, NASA Project Mercury went to work. It assembled a team of scientists, engineers and technicians to manage America’s manned space-flight programs; to select and train the men who would be the free world’s first space pilots, the seven Mercury Astronauts.
American industry went to work too. In January 1959, McDonnell Aircraft was chosen to produce the Mercury Spacecraft. To lift it into orbit Project Mercury selected the Atlas Rocket. The task of modifying Atlas from a military missile to a man-rated orbital launch vehicle was assigned to General Dynamics Astronautics. To the 4,000 Mercury contractors and sub-contractors, to all America, human life is priceless. Nothing was left to chance. All systems, each tiny component of each sub-system, every switch, every valve would have to function perfectly, would have to be the very best in American scientific and engineering know-how could produce, before the Mercury-Atlas could be man-rated, before it could carry an American astronaut safely into space.
Safety was a Mercury Project byword from the beginning. The life of a human being would be at stake - a positive escape mechanism; an escape rocket; systems to sustain life in space where there is no life; to provide oxygen where there is no oxygen; pressure where there is no pressure; and back-up systems in case of trouble. Power for the spacecraft had seven miles of electrical circuits for a powerful radio and telemetry. Power for the in-flight control systems was both automatic and manual. There was also a shield against the blazing heat of reentry friction.
The Project Mercury spacecrafts were designed with the feature of being able to be completely controlled from ground in case something happened to the lone pilot. During the launch phase, a Launch Escape System was used. This system protected the astronaut by firing for one second which would allow the spacecraft to break away from a defective laugh vehicle. The spacecraft would then use its parachute recovery system and fall safely to the ground.
The spacecrafts only had attitude control thrusters, which meant after entering orbit and before retrofire the ship could not change its orbit. They also had three sets of low and high powered automatic control jets. These were separate from the manual jets. Each spacecraft had three retrorockets that could fire for ten seconds each. This was just enough to break orbit and return the spacecraft to Earth.
There were twenty spacecrafts built for the Mercury Project, and they were numbered one through twenty. Only five of these crafts weren’t flown during the mission, they were numbers ten, twelve, fifteen, and seventeen. Numbers three and four were destroyed during flight but had no human crew aboard. Spacecraft eleven sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean and was found thirty-eight years later.
The Astronauts
On April 9, 1959 seven astronauts out of 110 men were chosen for the Mercury Project. These men included Malcolm Scott Carpenter, Leroy Gordon “Gordo” Cooper Jr., John Herschel Glenn Jr., Virgil Ivan “Gus” Grissom, Walter Marty Schirra Jr., Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr., and Donald Kent “Deke” Slayton. The men were all allowed to name their spacecraft and each added a seven to the end of it to symbolize their teamwork throughout this project.
Astronaut was a new word for a new and demanding profession. There were rigorous, intensive trainings and new and strange devices, high acceleration, and re-entry g-loads in the human centrifuge. Then there were the opposite of G-loads, no G’s at all or weightlessness. Training was done for manual control of the spacecraft. Practice roll, pitch and yaw maneuvers, survival training, every conceivable situation, both normal and emergency was covered.
Astronautics was a new science -there were classes for the astronauts in astronomy, meteorology, geophysics, rocketry, astrophysics, celestial navigation, and there was plenty of homework. There was other work too. The astronauts participated as engineers in every aspect of the program. Each had a special area of responsibility in the development of the project. There were dozens of flight tests - tests that confirmed the operation of spacecraft and booster systems in actual flight and when there were difficulties, no one tried to hide them. Eventually the tests indicated that everything was ready for “man” to be added.
Project Mercury Flights
There were seven scheduled Mercury flights but the last one was canceled. On May 5, 1961 Astronaut Alan B. Shepard became the free world’s first space pilot. He had indeed started free man was on his way into space. Shepard used Redstone powered ballistic flight downrange in “Freedom 7.” On July 25, 1961, Astronaut Virgil “Gus” Grissom repeated what Shepard did in the “Liberty Bell 7.” The Redstone flights paved the way for Atlas-boosted orbital missions. U.S. Mercury Astronaut, Alan B. Shepard entered his spacecraft. Very shortly, he would be on his way into space. As the hatch went on, two big questions came to his mind. Was the vehicle ready? Was he ready?
Before the flight, Shepard had this to say:
“I think the one thing that strikes me, as I look back on the time with Burbank, is that I have really developed a feeling of confidence - a confidence in the people with whom I work, a confidence in the systems with which I am dealing and will have to deal in flight, and of course a confidence in myself.”
On November 29, 1961 was test flight number five for the Mercury-Atlas. A chimpanzee named Enos was orbited, tracked, and recovered unharmed, confirming that the Mercury Spacecraft could sustain life in orbit. The Mercury Project then named Astronaut John Glenn to pilot America’s first manned orbital flight. Pre-launch preparations had already begun, like the detailed checkouts of spacecraft systems, test of the electrical circuits, tests and retests of the control systems, the life support systems, pressure, oxygen, cooling. Outside on launch pad number 14, the Atlas Rocket, Atlas 109D was raised into position. Launch time drew near. The spacecraft was gently placed atop the rocket.
This was a mission of science, a mission of peace. The name of the spacecraft was Friendship 7. It was January 7, 1962, and the countdown for Mercury Atlas Flight Number 6 with John Glenn at the controls was underway. The weather was marginal while the world watched and listened, Mercury’s operation team made a difficult decision. The flight would not go today because of weather. Five hours in the Mercury spacecraft and it was still “no go”. But there would be another day, and there was.
February 20, 1962 was a day mankind would never forget.
• 2:45 A.M. - the countdown was underway again. A feeling of “go” was in the air.
• 3:00 A.M. - Mercury doctors agreed the astronaut was “go”. Medical sensors, tiny devices to constantly monitor John Glenn’s physical condition, were carefully attached.
• 4:30 A.M. - the count was T minus 120 minutes and holding. John Glenn wriggled into his snug-fitting spacesuit.
• 5:01 A.M. - the trip to the launch pad.
• 6:00 A.M. - the long elevator ride to the eleventh deck of the gantry, where Friendship 7 waited.
• 6:25 A.M. - the count was resumed. From nearby beaches thousands of visitors watched and from the press site, a mile and a half from the launch pad, hundreds of newsmen, radio and television representatives, broadcasted every drama-packed moment to the people of America and to every nation on Earth.
• 7:52 A.M. - a broken hatch bolt was repaired and the astronaut was sealed inside the spacecraft, alone, but alone only physically.
• 8:20 A.M. - the gantry was rolled back, leaving Mercury-Atlas Flight Number 6 poised like an arrow, aimed at the heavens. Downrange, the ships and aircraft of the Recovery Forces were ready.
• 8:58 A.M. - a “hold” was ordered while the broken valve and liquid oxygen fueling system were repaired. In the Mercury Control Center, the minutes ticked away.
• 9:23 A.M. - the count was picked up. Around the world the Mercury Tracking Network reported condition “green”.
An overview of the Mercury Project flights includes:
1. Shepard- May 5, 1961- The “Freedom 7” spacecraft made him the first American to make a suborbital flight into space.
2. Grissom- July 21, 1961- The “Liberty Bell 7” sank before recovery, but made the second ever suborbital flight.
3. Glenn- February 20, 1962- Was the first American to orbit the Earth in his spacecraft the “Friendship 7.” He made three orbits.
4. Carpenter- May 24, 1962- In the “Aurora 7” made three orbits around the Earth.
5. Schirra- October 3, 1962- Completed engineering tests and six orbits in the “Sigma 7” spacecraft.
6. Cooper- May 15, 1963- In the “Faith 7,” he was the first American to be in space for over a day while orbiting the Earth twenty-two times.
