Glenn's flight was the third manned mission of Project Mercury, following two suborbital flights by astronauts in 1961. NASA . In this historic capsule, John H. Glenn Jr. became the first American to orbit the Earth. Cooper's mission, the ninth to be launched by an Atlas rocket (including unmanned tests), was officially known as Mercury-Atlas 9.Each of the Mercury astronauts also named his own spacecraft, however, and Cooper chose the name Faith 7 for his capsule.. The capsule's parachute is fully deployed in this view. Free for commercial use, no attribution required. Photo credit: NASA Splashdown of Mercury-Atlas 8 Spacecraft . After splashdown, the Mercury capsule and its pilot were returned by helicopter to the aircraft carrier USS Lake Champlain. S63-09630 (16 May 1963) --- The Mercury-Atlas 9 (MA-9) "Faith 7" spacecraft, with astronaut L. Gordon Cooper Jr. aboard, nears splashdown in the Pacific Ocean to conclude a 22-orbit mission lasting 34 hours and 20.5 minutes. Its thrusters controlled the direction of the spacecraft and retrorockets dropped it out of orbit. Sending a Man Into Space, Aboard the Mercury Atlas, Strapped to a Rocket The Mercury Atlas Booster Mercury-Redstone 4 Spacecraft: LIBERTY BELL 7 Mission Date: July 21, 1961 Astronaut: Virgil I. Grissom Flight Summary: 15 minutes, 37 seconds - Suborbital flight, successful flight but the spacecraft sank shortly after splashdown. Landing with parachute extended of Astronaut Walter M. Schirra's Mercury-Atlas 8 (MA-8) capsule, called the Sigma 7, after a world orbital flight. Parachutes stowed in the top of the capsule were deployed before splashdown. After 38 years at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Canaveral, Florida, Gus Grissom's Mercury space capsule was reeled in Tuesday by an underwater salvage team and lifted aboard ship. Mercury-Atlas 6 Spacecraft: FRIENDSHIP 7 Mission Date: February 20, 1962 Astronaut: John H. Glenn, Jr. Just three weeks following this first successful manned mission, President Kennedy addressed Congress and set the nations goal to … The capsule was one of two built at Lewis for the “Big Joe” launches scheduled for September 1959. Highlighted in this image is the cockpit of the Mercury Friendship 7. A NASA mechanic secures the afterbody to a Mercury capsule in the hangar at the Lewis Research Center. It had one side hatch and, after Freedom 7, one window.
Download Image of Mercury Capsule Construction at the NASA Lewis Research Center.