Everything you never knew you wanted to know about the Mercury Project
MA-3
From RixWiki
Description of Mission
From SP-45 Mercury project summary
The Mercury-Atlas (MA-3) mission was accomplished on April 25, 1961, from the Cape Canaveral test site. The planned flight, which was intended to orbit an unmanned production spacecraft once around the earth, was terminated about 40 seconds after lift-off by range-safety action when the launch vehicle failed to roll and pitch over into the flight azimuth. The spacecraft was aborted successfully as the result of the command signal and was quickly recovered. The spacecraft came through the abort maneuver with only minor damages. The performance of all spacecraft systems was generally satisfactory throughout the short flight. The spacecraft used on this mission was the eighth production unit. The launch vehicle, Atlas 100-D, had increased skin thickness in the forward end of the lox tank and had the abort sensing and implementation system installed for closed-loop operation. Analysis of records indicated that there was an electrical fault in the launch vehicle autopilot. Subsequent action resulted in closer examination of electrical components and connections. == Mercury Atlas 3 Gallery
 MA-3 Composite Photo |
