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Program archive
Project Mercury established that astronauts could launch, work in space, survive orbital flight, and return safely—creating the operational foundation for Gemini and Apollo.
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26 mission-specific spacecraft and test articles, plus 10 launch systems and shared hardware records.
Atlas 10-D supported Big Joe 1 in the Project Mercury program.
Atlas 100-D supported Mercury-Atlas 3 in the Project Mercury program.
Atlas 50-D supported Mercury-Atlas 1 in the Project Mercury program.
Atlas 67-D supported Mercury-Atlas 2 in the Project Mercury program.
Atlas 88-D supported Mercury-Atlas 4 in the Project Mercury program.
Atlas 93-D was the Atlas D launch vehicle assigned to Mercury-Atlas 5, the two-orbit flight that carried Enos and cleared Mercury for a crewed orbital mission.
Aurora 7 was the Mercury spacecraft flown by M.
Faith 7 was the Mercury spacecraft flown by L.
Freedom 7 was the Mercury spacecraft flown by Alan Shepard on Mercury-Redstone 3, the first United States human spaceflight.
Friendship 7 was the Mercury spacecraft flown by John Glenn on Mercury-Atlas 6, the first American orbital spaceflight.
Liberty Bell 7 was the Mercury spacecraft flown by Virgil I.
Mercury-Redstone adapted the Redstone ballistic missile into the launch vehicle for Project Mercury's suborbital development and astronaut flights, culminating in the Freedom 7 and Liberty Bell 7 missions.