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List Of Atlas LV3B Launches
The Atlas LV-3B, Atlas D Mercury Launch Vehicle or Mercury-Atlas Launch Vehicle, was a human-rated expendable launch system used as part of the United States Project Mercury to send astronauts into low Earth orbit. Manufactured by American aircraft manufacturing company Convair, it was derived from the SM-65D Atlas missile, and was a member of the Atlas family of rockets. The Atlas D missile was the natural choice for Project Mercury since it was the only launch vehicle in the US arsenal that could put the spacecraft into orbit and also had many flights from which to gather data. But its reliability was far from perfect, and Atlas launches ending in explosions were an all-too common sight at Cape Canaveral. The Atlas had also been originally designed as a weapon system, thus its design and reliability did not need to necessarily be 100% perfect. As such, significant steps had to be taken to human-rate the missile and make it safe and reliable unless NASA wished to spend several ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlas LV3B
An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today, many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographical features and political boundaries, many atlases often feature geopolitical, social, religious, and economic statistics. They also have information about the map and places in it. Etymology The use of the word "atlas" in a geographical context dates from 1595 when the German-Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator published ("Atlas or cosmographical meditations upon the creation of the universe and the universe as created"). This title provides Mercator's definition of the word as a description of the creation and form of the whole universe, not simply as a collection of maps. The volume that was published posthumously one year afte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1961 In Spaceflight
Orbital and Suborbital launches Deep Space Rendezvous Notable creations of orbital debris Orbital launch statistics By rocket By orbit References Footnotes {{Orbital launches in 1961 Spaceflight by year ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Shepard
Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) was an American astronaut. In 1961, he became the second person and the first American to travel into space and, in 1971, he became the List of Apollo astronauts#Apollo astronauts who walked on the Moon, fifth and oldest person to walk on the Moon, at age 47. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Shepard saw action with the surface navy during World War II. He became a naval aviator in 1947, and a test pilot in 1950. He was selected as one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts in 1959, and in May 1961 he made the first crewed Project Mercury flight, Mercury-Redstone 3, in a spacecraft he named ''Freedom 7''. His craft entered space, but was not capable of achieving orbit. He became the second person, and the first American, to travel into space. In the final stages of Project Mercury, Shepard was scheduled to pilot the Mercury-Atlas 10 (MA-10), which was planned as a three-day mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mercury-Atlas 9
Mercury-Atlas 9 was the final crewed space mission of the U.S. Mercury program, launched on May 15, 1963, from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spacecraft, named ''Faith 7'', completed 22 Earth orbits before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, piloted by astronaut Gordon Cooper, then a United States Air Force major. The Atlas rocket was No. 130-D, and the Mercury spacecraft was No. 20. As of , this mission marks the last time an American was launched alone to conduct an entirely solo orbital mission. Flight directors * Chris KraftRed team * John HodgeBlue team Mission parameters *Mass: *Perigee: 161 km *Apogee: 267 km *Inclination: 32.5° * Period: 88.5 min Mission background Debate over Mercury project continuation The Mercury-Atlas 8 flight of Walter Schirra on October 3, 1962, had been so nearly perfect that some at NASA thought that the United States should quit while it was ahead and make MA-8 the last Mercury mission rather than ris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gordon Cooper
Leroy Gordon Cooper Jr. (March 6, 1927 – October 4, 2004) was an American aerospace engineer, test pilot, United States Air Force Aviator, pilot, and the youngest of the Mercury Seven, seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, the first human space program of the United States. Cooper learned to fly as a child, and after service in the United States Marine Corps during World War II, he was commissioned into the United States Air Force in 1949. After service as a fighter pilot, he qualified as a test pilot in 1956, and was selected as an astronaut in 1959. In 1963 Cooper piloted the longest and last Mercury spaceflight, Mercury-Atlas 9. During that 34-hour mission he became the first American to spend an entire day in space, the first to sleep in space, and the last American launched on an entirely solo Orbital spaceflight, orbital mission. Despite a series of severe equipment failures, he successfully completed the mission under manual control, guiding his space ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mercury-Atlas 8
Mercury-Atlas 8 (MA-8) was the fifth United States crewed space mission, part of NASA's Mercury program. Astronaut Wally Schirra, Walter M. Schirra Jr., orbited the Earth six times in the ''Sigma 7'' spacecraft on October 3, 1962, in a nine-hour flight focused mainly on technical evaluation rather than on scientific experimentation. This was the longest U.S. crewed orbital flight yet achieved in the Space Race, though well behind the several-day record set by the Soviet Union, Soviet Vostok 3 earlier in the year. It confirmed the Mercury spacecraft's durability ahead of the one-day Mercury-Atlas 9 mission that followed in 1963. Planning began for the third U.S. orbital mission in February 1962, aiming for a six-or-seven-orbit flight to build on the previous three-orbit missions. NASA officially announced the mission on June 27, and the flight plan was finalized in late July. The mission focused on engineering tests rather than on scientific experimentation. The mission finally lau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wally Schirra
Walter Marty Schirra Jr. ( ; March 12, 1923 – May 3, 2007) was an American naval aviator (United States), naval aviator, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. In 1959, he became one of the Mercury Seven, original seven astronauts chosen for Project Mercury, which was the United States' first effort to put humans into Outer space, space. On October 3, 1962, he flew the six-orbit, nine-hour, Mercury-Atlas 8 mission, in a spacecraft he nicknamed ''Sigma 7'', becoming the fifth American and ninth human to travel into space. In December 1965, as part of the two-man Project Gemini, Gemini program, he achieved the first space rendezvous, orbital station-keeping, station-keeping his Gemini 6A spacecraft within of the sister Gemini 7 spacecraft. In October 1968, he commanded Apollo 7, an 11-day low Earth orbit shakedown test of the three-man Apollo Command/Service Module and the first crewed launch for the Apollo program. Before becoming an astronaut, Schirra graduated with a Bachelor o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mercury-Atlas 7
Mercury-Atlas 7, launched May 24, 1962, was the fourth crewed flight of Project Mercury. The spacecraft, named ''Aurora 7'', was piloted by astronaut Scott Carpenter. He was the sixth human to fly in space. The mission used Mercury spacecraft No. 18 and Atlas launch vehicle No. 107-D. The flight was for three Earth orbits, essentially a repeat of John Glenn's Mercury-Atlas 6. However, a targeting error during reentry took the spacecraft off-course, delaying recovery of Carpenter and the spacecraft for an hour. Carpenter was held responsible, at least in part, for the landing error. Carpenter left NASA for the Navy SEALAB program in 1964. Pilot The original pilot selected for Mercury Atlas-7 was to have been Deke Slayton, with Schirra as his back-up. However Slayton was removed from flight status after the discovery of cardiac dysrhythmia during a training run in the ''g''-loading centrifuge. Slayton had chosen the name ''Delta 7'' for the spacecraft, as this would have been t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scott Carpenter
Malcolm Scott Carpenter (May 1, 1925 – October 10, 2013) was an American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, aeronautical engineer, astronaut, and aquanaut. He was one of the Mercury Seven astronauts selected for NASA's Project Mercury in April 1959. Carpenter was the second American (after John Glenn) to orbit the Earth and the fourth American in space, after Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, and John Glenn. Commissioned into the U.S. Navy in 1949, Carpenter became a naval aviator, flying a Lockheed P-2 Neptune with Patrol Squadron 6 (VP-6) on reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare missions along the coasts of the Soviet Union and China during the Korean War and the Cold War. In 1954, he attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, and became a test pilot. In 1958, he was named Air Intelligence Officer of , which was then in dry dock at the Bremerton Navy Yard. The following year, Carpenter was selected as one of the Mercury Seven astron ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Glenn
John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space and the first to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1962. Following his retirement from NASA, he served from 1974 to 1999 as a United States Senate, U.S. Senator from Ohio; in 1998, he flew into space again at the age of 77. Before joining NASA, Glenn was a distinguished fighter pilot in World War II, the Operation Beleaguer, Chinese Civil War, and the Korean War. He shot down three MiG-15s and was awarded six Distinguished Flying Cross (United States), Distinguished Flying Crosses and eighteen Air Medals. In 1957, he made the first supersonic transcontinental flight across the United States. His on-board camera took the first continuous, panoramic photograph of the United States. Glenn was one of the Mercury Seven military test pilots selected in 1959 by NASA as the nation's first astron ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mercury-Atlas 5
Mercury-Atlas 5 was an American spaceflight of the Mercury program. It was launched on November 29, 1961, with Enos, a chimpanzee, aboard. The craft orbited the Earth twice and splashed down about south of Bermuda, and Enos became the first primate from the United States and the third great ape to orbit the Earth. History By November 1961, the Soviet Union had launched Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov into orbit during the Vostok 1 and Vostok 2 crewed orbital flights while the United States had managed only suborbital ones. At that time NASA was still debating placing a chimpanzee in orbit as part of the Mercury-Atlas subprogram, with NASA headquarters questioning the wisdom of the Manned Spacecraft Center launching another uncrewed Mercury mission. The NASA Public Affairs Office issued a press release prior to the flight, stating "The men in charge of Project Mercury have insisted on orbiting the chimpanzee as a necessary preliminary checkout of the entire Mercury program be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mercury-Atlas 4
Mercury-Atlas 4 (MA-4) was an uncrewed test flight within NASA's Project Mercury program, launched on September 13, 1961, at 14:04:16 UTC from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 14. The mission's primary purpose was to evaluate the Mercury spacecraft's performance in orbit and to test the Mercury Space Flight Network. Despite initial technical challenges, Mercury-Atlas 4 successfully met its goals. The mission involved testing the Mercury spacecraft, specifically Mercury #8A, which completed one orbit around Earth. This successful flight provided important data and insights for NASA's Project Mercury, supporting the planning and development of upcoming crewed missions in the program. Mission overview Launch preparations There were a series of delays getting the Atlas rocket and Mercury spacecraft ready as the postflight findings from Mercury-Atlas 3 had necessitated extensive modifications to the booster. Atlas vehicle 88D did not undergo its factory rollout inspe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
