Mercury-Atlas 8

Crew

Wally Schirra

Status: Deceased
3/12/1923 - 5/3/2007
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 10/3/1962
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.

Rocket

Atlas LV-3B – National Aeronautics and Space Administration

• Family: Atlas
• Length: 28.7 m
• Diameter: 3 m
• Launch Mass: 120 T
• Low Earth Orbit Capacity: 1360 kg

The Atlas LV-3B was manufactured by National Aeronautics and Space Administration with the first launch on 1960-07-29. Atlas LV-3B has 7 successful launches and 3 failed launches with a total of 10 launches. 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.

Agency

National Aeronautics and Space Administration – NASA

• Type: Government
• Abbreviation: NASA
• Administration: Administrator: Bill Nelson
• Founded: 1958
• Launchers: Space Shuttle | SLS
• Spacecraft: Orion
• Country: USA

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.