Mission: Mercury-Redstone 2
Launch Pad: LC-5
Vehicle: Redstone (3)
Crew: Ham the Chimp
Milestones:
Not applicable
Payload:
Spacecraft number 5, Launch Vehicle MR-2
Mission Objective:
Primate suborbital and auto abort.
Orbit:
Altitude: 127 statute miles
Orbits: 0
Duration: 0 Days, 0 hours, 16 minutes, 39 seconds
Distance: 422 statute miles
Velocity: 5,857 miles per hour
Max Q: 575 psf
Max G: 14.7
Launch:
January 31, 1961 - Launch Complex 5/6 Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Landing:
Touchdown was at 12:12 p.m. with the capsule about 60 miles from the nearest recovery ship, the destroyer Ellison. Some 27 minutes after landing, a P2V search plane sighted the capsule floating upright alone in the Atlantic. The Navy dispatched helicopters from the next closest ship, the LSD Donner. Wave action after impact punched two holes in the titanium pressure bulkhead and caused the capsule to capsize. Water entered an open relief valve and allowed 800 lbs of sea water aboard before the spacecraft was recovered at 2:52 p.m. The chimpanzee Ham was recovered in good condition.
Mission Highlights:
Spacecraft was successful. The launch vehicle was only partially successful.
