LJ-5

Overview

Destination: Suborbital
Mission: Test Flight

Suborbital Launch Area 1 Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA

Suborbital test flight of the Mercury spacecraft, conducted as part of the U.S. Mercury program. The objective was to test a production Mercury capsule and the launch escape system during an ascent abort at maximum dynamic pressure. Sixteen seconds after liftoff, the escape rocket and the tower jettison rocket both fired prematurely. Furthermore, the booster, capsule, and escape tower failed to separate as intended. The entire stack was destroyed on impact with the Atlantic Ocean.

Little Joe

Family:
Configuration:

Little Joe was a solid-fueled booster rocket used by NASA for eight launches from 1959-1960 from Wallops Island, Virginia to test the launch escape system and heat shield for Project Mercury capsules.

Specifications
  • Stages
    1
  • Length
    17.0 m
  • Diameter
  • Fairing Diameter
  • Launch Mass
  • Thrust
Family
  • Name
    Little Joe
  • Family
  • Variant
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Little Joe
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
  • Low Earth Orbit
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

Mercury No.3


In-active Human Rated Unmanned Crew Capacity: 1
Destination: Suborbital
Serial Number: 3

Mercury No.3 is the Mercury capsule used for the Little Joe 5 flight.

Mercury Details

North American Aviation

North American Aviation

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Founded: 1928 Successes: 0 Failures: 0 Pending: 0

Agency Type:

North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer, responsible for a number of historic aircraft, including the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F-86 Sabre jet fighter, the X-15 rocket plane, and the XB-70, as well as Apollo command and service module, the second stage of the Saturn V rocket, the Space Shuttle orbiter and the B-1 Lancer.

WIKI

Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA

Launch Area 1


Starship
Success
1 day, 3 hours ago
Flight 13
Orbital Launch Pad 2 - SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA

13th test flight of the two-stage Starship launch vehicle. Second flight of Starship V3. For the first time, Starship will carry 20 V3 Starlink sa…


Kinetica 1
Success
2 days, 3 hours ago
5 satellites
Launch Area 130 - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Share-ride of 5 commercial Earth observation and technology demonstration satellites to SSO, including SpaceTY's TY-48. Details TBD.


Long March 3B/E
Success
2 days, 14 hours ago
Tianlian 2-06
Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) - Xichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Tianlian is a Chinese data tracking and relay communications geostationary satellite series. The TL 2 (Tian Lian 2) satellites represent the second g…


Gravity-1
Success
3 days, 23 hours ago
9 satellites
Yellow Sea (launch location 5) - Haiyang Oriental Spaceport

Carried 9 satellites on a share-ride to sun-synchronous orbit. Details TBD.


Falcon 9
Success
4 days, 5 hours ago
MRV-1
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

The Northrop Grumman/SpaceLogistics MRV-1 is a mission extension payload including a mission robotic vehicle (MRV) and multiple mission extension pod…


Falcon 9
Success
4 days, 11 hours ago
Starlink Group 17-39
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Soyuz 2.1b
Success
6 days, 8 hours ago
16 x Rassvet-3
43/4 (43R) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

Note: Payload identities uncertain. Batch of 16 Rassvet-3 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Russian Byuro-1440 (Bureau 1440) conste…


Vikram-I
Success
1 week ago
Demo Flight
Satish Dhawan Space Centre First Launch Pad - Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India

First launch of Skyroot Aerospace's Vikram-I launch vehicle. This first launch will carry 4 payloads: - Grahaa Space's SOLARAS S3 satellite - C…


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 2 days ago
SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer E
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Tranche 1 Transport Layer E is one of six missions by the United States Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) for the Proliferated Warfighter Sp…


Soyuz 2.1a
Success
1 week, 4 days ago
Soyuz MS-29
31/6 - Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan

Soyuz MS-29 will carry three cosmonauts and one astronaut to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome…