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|  Project Mercury Goals
Initiated in 1958, completed in 1963, Project Mercury was the United States' first man-in-space program. The objectives of the program, which made six manned flights from 1961 to 1963, were specific:
To orbit a manned spacecraft around Earth; To investigate man's ability to function in space; To recover both man and spacecraft safely. The Manned Flights Summary
Mercury-Redstone 3
FREEDOM 7
May 5, 1961
Alan B. Shepard, Jr.
15 minutes, 28 seconds
Suborbital flight that successfully put the first American in space. | | Mercury-Redstone 4
LIBERTY BELL 7
July 21, 1961
Virgil I. Grissom
15 minutes, 37 seconds
Also suborbital; successful flight but the spacecraft sank shortly after splashdown. | | Mercury-Atlas 6
FRIENDSHIP 7
February 20, 1962
John H. Glenn, Jr.
04 hours, 55 minutes 23 seconds
Three-orbit flight that placed the first American into orbit. | | Mercury-Atlas 7
AURORA 7
May 24, 1962
M. Scott Carpenter
04 hours, 56 minutes, 5 seconds
Confirmed the success of Mercury-Atlas 6 by duplicating flight. | | Mercury-Atlas 8
SIGMA 7
October 03, 1962
Walter M. Schirra, Jr.
09 hours, 13 minutes, 11 seconds
Six-orbit engineering test flight. | | Mercury-Atlas 9
FAITH 7
May 15-16, 1963
L. Gordon Cooper, Jr.
34 hours, 19 minutes, 49 seconds
Last Mercury mission; completed 22 orbits to evaluate effects of one day in space. | | | | |
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