LJ-5

Overview

Destination: Suborbital
Mission: Test Flight

Suborbital Launch Area 1 Wallops Island, 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 Island, Virginia, USA

Launch Area 1


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