Initiated in 1958, completed in 1963, Project Mercury was the United States' first man-in-space program. The objectives of the program, which made six manned flights from 1961 to 1963, were specific:

- To orbit a manned spacecraft around Earth
- To investigate man's ability to function in space
- To recover both man and spacecraft safely

TRAINING & SELECTIONS
TEST FLIGHTS
MERCURY-REDSTONE 3
MERCURY-REDSTONE 3
Spacecraft: FREEDOM 7
Mission Date: May 5, 1961
Astronaut: Alan B. Shepard, Jr.
Flight Summary: 15 minutes, 28 seconds - Suborbital flight that successfully put the first American in space.
MERCURY-REDSTONE 4
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.
MERCURY-ATLAS 6
MERCURY-ATLAS 6
Spacecraft: FRIENDSHIP 7
Mission Date: February 20, 1962
Astronaut: John H. Glenn, Jr.
Flight Summary: 4 hours, 55 minutes, 23 seconds - Three-orbit flight that placed the first American into orbit.
MERCURY-ATLAS 7
MERCURY-ATLAS 7
Spacecraft: AURORA 7
Mission Date: May 24, 1962
Astronaut: M. Scott Carpenter
Flight Summary: 4 hours, 56 minutes, 5 seconds - Confirmed the success of the Mercury-Atlas 6 by duplicating the flight.
MERCURY-ATLAS 8
MERCURY-ATLAS 8
Spacecraft: SIGMA 7
Mission Date: October 3, 1962
Astronaut: Walter M. Schirra
Flight Summary: 9 hours, 13 minutes, 11 seconds - Six-orbit engineering test flight.
MERCURY-ATLAS 9
MERCURY-ATLAS 9
Spacecraft: FAITH 7
Mission Date: May 15-16, 1963
Astronaut: L. Gordon Cooper, Jr.
Flight Summary: 34 hours, 19 minutes, 49 seconds - The last Mercury mission; completed 22 orbits to evaluate effects of one day in space.
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