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Launch of Mercury-Redstone 3 (Freedom 7)

The launch of Mercury-Redstone 3 (Freedom 7). Onboard is astronaut Alan Shepard on the first American manned spaceflight (sub-orbital) - May 5th 1961

Mercury-Redstone 3

Circle Image

Overview

Destination: Suborbital
Mission: Human Exploration

Suborbital Launch Complex 5 Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

Mercury-Redstone 3, or Freedom 7, was the first United States human spaceflight, on May 5, 1961, piloted by astronaut Alan Shepard. It was the first manned flight of Project Mercury, the objective of which was to put an astronaut into orbit around the Earth and return him safely. Shepard's mission was a 15-minute suborbital flight with the primary objective of demonstrating his ability to withstand the high g-forces of launch and atmospheric re-entry.

Redstone

Family: Redstone
Configuration: MRLV

The Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle, designed for NASA's Project Mercury, was the first American manned space booster. It was used for six sub-orbital Mercury flights from 1960–61; culminating with the launch of the first, and 11 weeks later, the second American (and the second and third humans) in space. The four subsequent Mercury human spaceflights used the more powerful Atlas booster to enter low Earth orbit. A member of the Redstone rocket family, it was derived from the U.S. Army's Redstone ballistic missile and the first stage of the related Jupiter-C launch vehicle; but to human-rate it, the structure and systems were modified to improve safety and reliability.

Specifications
  • Stages
    1
  • Length
    25.41 m
  • Diameter
    1.78 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    1.78 m
  • Launch Mass
    30 T
  • Thrust
Family
  • Name
    Redstone
  • Family
    Redstone
  • Variant
    MRLV
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Redstone MRLV
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
  • Low Earth Orbit
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

Mercury No.7


In-active Human Rated Crew On-board: 1 Crew Capacity: 1
Destination: Suborbital
Serial Number: 7

Mercury No.7 is the Mercury capsule used for the Mercury-Redstone 3 - callsign "Freedom 7" - mission launched on May 5, 1961 and piloted by astronaut Alan Shepard.

Mercury Details

Crew


Alan Shepard

Pilot - American - ( NASA )

Status: Deceased

Date of Birth: Nov. 18, 1923
Date of Death: July 21, 1998

Chrysler

Chrysler

(CHR)

Founded: 1950 Successes: 0 Failures: 0 Pending: 0

Agency Type: Commercial

In July 1959, NASA chose the Redstone missile as the basis for the Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle to be used for suborbital test flights of the Project Mercury spacecraft. Three unmanned MRLV launch attempts were made between November 1960 and March 1961, two of which were successful. The MRLV successfully launched the chimpanzee Ham, and astronauts Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom on three suborbital flights in January, May and July 1961, respectively.

INFO WIKI

Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

Launch Complex 5


Long March 4C
Success
1 day, 13 hours ago
Yaogan 34-04
Launch Area 4 (SLS-2 / 603) - Jiuquan, People's Republic of China

Officially described as an optical remote-sensing satellite built by SAST.


Long March 2D
Success
2 days, 9 hours ago
PIESAT-1 x 4
Launch Complex 9 - Taiyuan, People's Republic of China

4 X-band synthetic-aperture radar Earth observation satellites for PIESAT (1 main, 3 sub-satellites), operating in tandem using very long baseline in…


Falcon 9
Success
2 days, 23 hours ago
Starlink Group 5-10
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

A batch of 56 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Soyuz 2-1v
Success
3 days ago
Kosmos 2568 (EO MKA-4)
43/4 (43R) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

Note: Payload identity uncertain. Russian reconnaissance satellite of unknown purposes, possibly in the same series as Kosmos 2551, 2555 and 2560.


Shavit-2
Success
3 days, 20 hours ago
Ofek-13
Unknown Pad - Palmachim Airbase, State of Israel

Ofek is a series of Israeli reconnaissance satellites. Ofek-13 is an Israeli SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) reconnaissance satellite that combines hi…


LVM-3 (GSLV Mk III)
Success
6 days, 16 hours ago
OneWeb 18
Satish Dhawan Space Centre Second Launch Pad - Sriharikota, Republic of India

A batch of 36 satellites for the OneWeb satellite constellation, which is intended to provide global Internet broadband service for individual consum…


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 1 day ago
Starlink Group 5-5
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

A batch of 56 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Electron
Success
1 week, 1 day ago
The Beat Goes On
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B - Onenui Station, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

Payload consists of 2 second generation Earth-imaging satellites for BlackSky. They are part of a constellation of 60 Low Earth Orbit Earth imagin…


Soyuz 2.1a
Success
1 week, 2 days ago
Kosmos 2567 (Bars-M No. 4)
43/3 (43L) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

Note: Payload identity uncertain. Bars-M is the second incarnation of the Bars project, which was started in the mid 1990ies to develop a success…


Terran 1
Failure
1 week, 2 days ago
Good Luck, Have Fun (Maiden Flight)
Launch Complex 16 - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

Maiden launch of the Terran 1 rocket developed by Relativity Space.