III.

Missions

On May 5, 1961, 23 days after the Russian cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin became the first human being to be launched into space, Alan B. Shepard, Jr., a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy, became the first American astronaut to fly in space. A Redstone rocket launched the Freedom 7 capsule containing Shepard to a height of 187 km (116 mi) above Earth’s surface. The mission ended with a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean 15 minutes 22 seconds later.

Virgil I. Grissom, a U.S. Air Force captain, was the second American to fly in space. His Liberty Bell 7 capsule was launched aboard a Redstone rocket on July 21, 1961. The flight lasted only 15 seconds longer than Shepard's mission. Although his capsule malfunctioned after splashdown and sank in the Atlantic Ocean, Grissom managed to escape. The capsule was recovered from the ocean floor in 1999.

On February 20, 1962, six months after Soviet Major Gherman S. Titov became the second human being to orbit Earth, John H. Glenn, Jr., a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, circled the planet in the Friendship 7. The capsule was launched by an Atlas rocket and orbited Earth three times. It splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean after 4 hours 55 minutes.

On May 24, 1962, U.S. Navy test pilot Malcolm Scott Carpenter orbited Earth in a flight lasting 4 hours 56 minutes. His Aurora 7 capsule splashed down about 320 km (about 200 mi) off course and began taking on water. Carpenter was rescued from an inflatable life raft about two hours later.

Lieutenant Commander Walter M. Schirra, Jr., of the U.S. Navy was launched aboard the Sigma 7 spacecraft on October 3, 1962. Schirra orbited Earth six times and splashed down after 9 hours 13 minutes.

Test pilot L. Gordon Cooper, Jr., of the U.S. Air Force was the sixth and last person to fly under the Mercury program. His Faith 7 capsule, launched on May 15, 1963, circled Earth 22 times. His flight lasted 34 hours 19 minutes and enabled scientists to evaluate the effects on the human body of spending more than one day in space. Cooper landed his capsule manually after an electrical failure disabled his reentry equipment.

Cooper's flight marked the end of the Mercury program. The program set the stage for the more ambitious Gemini program, which developed the skills and technology that would ultimately land human beings on the Moon.