Project Mercury was NASA's program that launched the first American astronauts into space, completing a total of six crewed spaceflights.

Project Mercury was NASA’s very first human spaceflight program which operated from 1958 to 1963, having a total of 26—six crewed and 20 uncrewed—flights to space. While we lost the race to space when ...

Related: Project Mercury: America's 1st crewed space program 500 years. Encased in the monument's concrete base is a time capsule containing technical reports, photos, recordings and other ...

A NASA Project Mercury spacecraft was launched on April 25, 1961 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in a test designed to qualify the spacecraft and all systems, which must function during orbit and ...

The original Mercury space capsule had no window, a hatch with 70 bolts that had to be removed from outside, and zilch for the astronaut to do except endure g-forces, hope nothing went wrong, and ...

“Project Mercury officially ended on June 12, 1963, when NASA administrator James Webb told Congress that the agency would proceed with the two-man Gemini program,” Bisney and Pickering write.

Project Mercury, America’s first human space program, had systems that were largely automated. Gemini was different, for the first time putting pilots in control.