Everything you never knew you wanted to know about the Mercury Project
LJ-1
From RixWiki
Description of Mission
From SP-45 Mercury project summary
The flight test program was initiated with the Little Joe 1 research-and-development mission that was scheduled for July of 1959. The actual launch attempt came in the following month, on August 21, at the NASA launch site, Wallops Station, Va. A nearly catastrophic failure occurred at a time late in the launch countdown as the vehicle battery-power supply was being charged. At this time, the escape-rocket sequence was unintentionally initiated and the spacecraft was separated from the launch vehicle and propelled into the air as in a pad-abort sequence. The escape sequence was accomplished correctly, though initiated by a fault. The tower was jettisoned properly, the drogue parachute was deployed as it should have been, but the main parachute deployment circuitry was not activated because of a lack of sufficient electrical power. The spacecraft was destroyed on impact with the water. The cause of the failure was determined by detailed analyses to be a "backdoor" circuit which permitted the launch-escape system to be activated when a given potential had been supplied to the battery by ground charging equipment. The launch vehicle, though fully loaded with six solid-propellant rocket motors, was left undamaged on the launcher.
