Project Mercury

The Mercury program was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1959 through 1963. The program, which took its name from the Roman deity Mercury, the messenger of the gods, was managed by NASA with the goal of putting an astronaut into Earth orbit and returning him safely. The program involved a series of developmental missions with uncrewed rockets, followed by a series of crewed missions. The first American in space was Alan Shepard, who was launched on a suborbital flight on May 5, 1961, aboard the Freedom 7 spacecraft. The first American in orbit was John Glenn, who flew aboard Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962. The program concluded with the successful orbital flight of Mercury-Atlas 9 on May 15, 1963, piloted by L. Gordon Cooper Jr. The Mercury program paved the way for subsequent U.S. human spaceflight programs, including Gemini and Apollo. In Hebrew, the program is known as תוכנית מרקורי. In Russian, it is referred to as Программа «Меркурий» (Programma «Merkuriy»).

Wikipedia Information

Project Mercury

Initial American crewed spaceflight program (1958–1963)

Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. 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. Taken over from the US Air Force by the newly created civilian space agency NASA, it conducted 20 uncrewed developmental flights, and six successful flights by astronauts. The program, which took its name from Roman mythology, cost $2.76 billion. The astronauts were collectively known as the "Mercury Seven", and each spacecraft was given a name ending with a "7" by its pilot.

Last modified: 2025-11-04T20:06:13ZView full article on Wikipedia