Project Mercury in pictures: the missions
Chimpanzee 65 – later named Ham on his safe return from space – is launched on Mercury-Redstone 2, January 31st, 1961. Ham's mission took a similar trajectory to Alan Shepard, who would follow a little over three months later. Ham's task was to prove that simple operations could be performed whilst in space.
Ham greets the captain of the USS Donner after his splashdown. The three-year old chimp was said to be in good spirits in subsequent news reports - though later analysis suggested he was possibly distressed for parts of his 16-minute flight.
Alan Shepard blasts off in the Freedom 7 capsule atop the Mercury-Redstone 3: May 5th, 1961. Shepard, on his 15-minute flight, became the first American in space; he was beaten to the title of first human in space by the Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin just 23 days earlier.
Alan Shepard boards his Freedom 7 capsule, Virgil ‘Gus’ Grissom (left) and John Glenn (centre, in white hat) looking on. Shepard was forced to remain on the launchpad for several hours prior to launch; as the suit hadn't been fitted with a reservoir, he was forced to urinate in it.
Alan Shepard and his Mercury capsule are collected by military helicopter after splashdown in the Atlantic, May 5th, 1961. According to NASA, “Engineers said the spacecraft was in such great shape it could be reused. Doctors said Shepard could be used again too.”
Shepard is pulled aboard a U.S. Marine helicopter after splashdown, May 5th, 1961. Shepard would later fly to the moon aboard Apollo 14.
1961: Virgil 'Gus' Grissom poses outside the Liberty Bell 7 capsule – complete with white-painted 'crack'. Grissom would be the second American in space on July 21.
A US Navy helicopter attempts to hoist the stricken Liberty Bell 7 from the water after its hatch blew unexpectedly after splashdown. Gus Grissom's head can be seen in the water just right of centre, where the astronaut was struggling to stay afloat - having not had time to adequately seal his suit.
Grissom was eventually hoisted aboard a helicopter using a ‘horse-collar’ harness – by which point he was exhausted from his time in the water in his saturating suit.
John Glenn would come next, and would become the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth on February 12, 1962. Yuri Gagarin had made a single orbit of Earth on his first ever human spaceflight on 12 April the previous year; Glenn made three orbits, with successive Mercury missions spending more and more time in space. Here he is photographed abroad his Friendship 7 capsule by an automatic sequence motion picture camera. According to NASA, ‘Glenn was in a state of weightlessness traveling at 17,500 mph as these pictures were taken.’
John Glenn launches in the Mercury-Atlas 6; the mission would last 4 hours and 55 minutes.
Glenn was the first astronaut to take a hand-held camera with him – a NASA-issue Leica and an automatic camera he bought from a drugstore. His images of Earth are the first ever taken by a human from space.
John Glenn relaxes aboard the USS Noa, having being recovered from the Atlantic after his historic Mercury flight.
Wally Schirra took a heavily modified Hasselblad camera into space with him. The images of Earth he brought back captivated the public – the payoff for their $40 billion investment. Schirra's modifications would lead to special Hasselblad cameras being developed for the Gemini and Apollo programs.
The first Mercury flight was not a success, though its failure led to refinements in design. Ostensibly a mission to test the integrity of the capsule and the recovery process, a minute after liftoff MA-1 exploded. The debris was found and reassembled so engineers could attempt to establish what happened – which was a suspected tank rupture caused by imperfect mating between the capsule and the Atlas rocket.
Gordon Cooper is inserted into the capsule of the final Mercury flight, MA-9 – launched on May 15, 1963. By now testing of the astronauts' tolerances in space were developing; Cooper made 22 orbits of Earth, in a flight lasting 34 hours and 20 minutes.
Gordon Cooper greets the recovery crew of the U.S.S. Kearsarge, after the final Mercury mission in his capsule Faith 7. The next space program would be Gemini; of the original Mercury 7, Cooper, Wally Schirra and Gus Grissom would help crew the program. The later Apollo moon missions would also feature Mercury astronauts; Alan Shepard and Wally Schirra would crew Apollo 14 and Apollo 7; Grissom would be killed in a launchpad fire during testing for Apollo 1.
