Everything you never knew you wanted to know about the Mercury Project
MR-3
From RixWiki
Description of Mission
From SP-45 Mercury project summary
The Mercury-Redstone 3 (MR-3) mission, the first manned space flight by the United States, was successfully accomplished on May 5, 1961, from the Cape Canaveral launch site. Astronaut Alan B. Shepard was the pilot. The space vehicle was composed of production spacecraft 7 and a Mercury-Redstone launch vehicle, which was essentially identical to the one used for the MRBD launch-vehicle qualification mission. Analyses of the results of the mission showed that Astronaut Shepard satisfactorily performed his assigned tasks during all phases of the flight. Likewise, launch vehicle and spacecraft systems performed as planned. The spacecraft achieved an altitude of about 101 nautical miles and was in weightless flight for slightly over 5 minutes. Postflight examination of Astronaut Shepard and inspection of the spacecraft showed both to be in excellent condition. A helicopter pickup was made of the spacecraft after the pilot had made his egress from the side hatch of the spacecraft and had been hoisted aboard the helicopter. The pilot and the spacecraft were landed aboard an aircraft carrier 11 minutes after spacecraft landing, and the spacecraft was brought back to the launching site the morning after the flight.
MR-3 Gallery
 MR-3 Pre-launch Activities |
 MR-3 On The Pad |
 Flight of MR-3 |
 Recovery |
 Recovery |
 On the U.S.S. Champlain |
More Information
see also: Freedom 7, Spacecraft 7, Alan Shepard
