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Mercury-Atlas 8

Atlas LV-3B

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Launch Status
Success

Crew


Wally Schirra

Wally Schirra

  • Birthday: 03/12/1923
  • Role: Pilot
  • Nationality: American
  • First Flight: 10/03/1962
  • Last Flight: 10/11/1968

Walter Marty Schirra Jr. was an American naval aviator and NASA astronaut. In 1959, he became one of the original seven astronauts chosen for Project Mercury, which was the United States’ first effort to put human beings in space. On October 3, 1962, he flew the six-orbit, nine-hour, Mercury-Atlas 8 mission, in a spacecraft he nicknamed Sigma 7. At the time of his mission in Sigma 7, Schirra became the fifth American and ninth human to travel into space. In the two-man Gemini program, he achieved the first space rendezvous, station-keeping his Gemini 6A spacecraft within 1 foot (30 cm) of the sister Gemini 7 spacecraft in December 1965. In October 1968, he commanded Apollo 7, an 11-day low Earth orbit shakedown test of the three-man Apollo Command/Service Module and the first manned launch for the Apollo program.

Mission


Mercury-Atlas 8

  • Type: Human Exploration
  • Orbit: Low Earth Orbit

Mercury-Atlas 6 carrying Sigma 7 spacecraft carried astronaut Walter M. Schirra Jr. to orbit where he completed 6 orbits lasting a total of 9 hours and 13 minutes. The mission goal was to compete engineering tests and all objectives were met.

Mercury-Atlas 8

Location


Space Launch Complex 14

Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

Space Launch Complex 14 has witnessed the launch of 20 rockets, including 16 orbital launch attempts, while Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA, has been the site for 980 rocket launches.

Space Launch Complex 14

Rocket


National Aeronautics and Space Administration Atlas LV-3B

The Atlas LV-3B, Atlas D Mercury Launch Vehicle or Mercury-Atlas Launch Vehicle, was a human-rated expendable launch system used as part of the United States Project Mercury to send astronauts into low Earth orbit. Manufactured by American aircraft manufacturing company Convair, it was derived from the SM-65D Atlas missile, and was a member of the Atlas family of rockets.

Atlas LV-3B

Agency


National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. NASA have many launch facilities but most are inactive. The most commonly used pad will be LC-39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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