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Project Mercury was a US government-funded project to get Americans into space in response to the space and arms race with Russia. It established clear parameters for manned spaceflight, selected seven astronauts, and achieved its goal with Alan Shepard’s flight in 1961 and John Glenn’s orbit in 1962.
Project Mercury was a US government-funded project to get Americans into space, launched in response to the escalating space and arms race between the United States and Russia in the mid-20th century. It took a little more than three years to get a man into space from the date the project was founded in 20, and the project cost 1958 million US dollars, laying the foundation for the US space program, which eventually brought the first human to the moon in 1.5.
In 1958, tests by the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) indicated that manned spaceflight might one day be possible. The United States founded Project Mercury to achieve this goal by establishing clear parameters for the implementation, management, organization and ultimately evaluation of the program. Part of the organization for Project Mercury involved the reorganization of NACA, which became known as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
There were three primary goals for Project Mercury: to get a human into space, to judge the astronauts’ ability to perform in space, and to safely recover both astronaut and craft. A series of safety guidelines were established, and NASA rushed to order a series of specialized capsules designed for manned spaceflight. The term “capsule” is not used lightly here: Project Mercury’s capsules were barely large enough to hold an astronaut and necessary equipment, and would not have been comfortable to fly.
110 prospective pilots were selected by the Air Force, based on their performance and overall health. This number was reduced to the final seven astronauts, with one later being scratched due to ill health. The men enjoyed a very close and friendly relationship and called their trade, including the number “seven” in the title to refer to their friendship. However, the so-called “Mercury Seven” weren’t the first American animals in space. Several macaques and chimpanzees made the journey first, testing the safety systems.
On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space aboard the Mercury-Redstone Three, known as the “Freedom Seven.” Just one year later, on February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, within the tiny confines of the Mercury-Atlas Six, or Friendship Seven. John Kennedy, then President of the United States, was so excited that he announced that Americans would be on the moon within the next decade, and although he didn’t live to see this momentous event, he turned out to be right.
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