WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

In this Project Mercury test, a spacecraft boosted by a modified Atlas was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Mercury capsule reached a peak altitude of 107 statute miles and landed 1.425 miles down range. Atlas was designed to launch payloads into low Earth orbit, geosynchronous transfer orbit or geosynchronous orbit. NASA first launched Atlas as a space launch vehicle in 1958. Project SCORE, the first communications satellite that transmitted President Eisenhower's pre-recorded Christmas speech around the world, was launched on an Atlas. For all three early robotic lunar exploration programs, Atlas was used. Atlas/ Centaur vehicles launched both Mariner and Pioneer planetary probes.