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Little Joe (LJ6) Launch, NASA Mercury project

description

Summary

Description: Launching of the LJ6 Little Joe on October 4, 1959 took place at Wallops Island, Va. This was the first attempt to launch an instrumented capsule with a Little Joe booster. Only the LJ1A and the LJ6 used the space metal/chevron plates as heat reflector shields, as they kept shattering. Photograph published in Winds of Change, 75th Anniversary NASA publication, page 77, by James Schultz **note - see L60-104 page 77 also...UID: SPD-NIX-EL-1996-0006 8

The Space Race began with a shock to the American public when the Soviet satellite Sputnik was launched in 1957. United states created NASA accelerate U.S. space exploration efforts and launched the Explorer 1 satellite in 1958. The Soviet Union was first again when it puts the first human, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, into a single orbit on April 12, 1961. Shortly after this, on May 5, the U.S. launched Alan Shepard, on a suborbital flight and reached its orbital goal on February 20, 1962, when John Glenn made three orbits around the Earth in the Mercury capsule. The Mercury space capsule was a pressurized cabin produced by McDonnell Aircraft and carried supplies of water, food, and oxygen for about one day. Mercury was launched on a top of modified Atlas D ballistic missiles. The capsule was fitted with a launch escape rocket to carry it safely away from the launch vehicle in case of a failure. Small retrorockets were used to bring the spacecraft out of its orbit, after which an ablative heat shield protected it from the heat of atmospheric reentry. Finally, a parachute slowed the craft for a water landing. Both astronaut and capsule were recovered by helicopters deployed from a U.S. Navy ship. The Mercury project missions were followed by millions on radio and TV around the world. Its success laid the groundwork for Project Gemini, which carried two astronauts in each capsule and perfected space docking maneuvers essential for manned lunar landings in the Apollo program announced just a few weeks after the first manned Mercury launch.

NASA Photo Collection

label_outline

Tags

aviation aerospace spaceflight manned spaceflight national aeronautics and space administration project mercury mercury project mercury mercury atlas ma mcdonnell aircraft mcdonnell aircraft corporation mercury capsule rocket north american aviation naa little joe little joe 6 lj 6 wallops island lj 6 little joe little joe booster heat reflector shields anniversary nasa publication l 60 104 page first attempt chevron plates page james schultz rocket engines rocket technology nasa
date_range

Date

1959
collections

in collections

Project Mercury

The first human spaceflight program of the United States.

NASA

NASA Photo Collection
place

Location

Wallops Flight Facility ,  37.94074, -75.46742
create

Source

NASA
link

Link

https://www.flickr.com/
copyright

Copyright info

No known copyright restrictions. Read more at https://www.flickr.com/commons/usage/

label_outline Explore Mcdonnell Aircraft, Mcdonnell Aircraft Corporation, Manned Spaceflight

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Production. Airplane manufacture, general. A squeeze riveted in operation at the Inglewood, California, plant of North American Aviation, Incorporated. The operator works the machine as he assembles parts for the horizontal and vertical stabilizers for the control surfaces of bomber and fighter planes. This plant produces the battle-tested B-25 ("Billy Mitchell") bomber, used in General Doolittle's raid on Tokyo, and the P-51 ("Mustang") fighter plane, which was first brought into prominence by the British raid on Dieppe

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Topics

aviation aerospace spaceflight manned spaceflight national aeronautics and space administration project mercury mercury project mercury mercury atlas ma mcdonnell aircraft mcdonnell aircraft corporation mercury capsule rocket north american aviation naa little joe little joe 6 lj 6 wallops island lj 6 little joe little joe booster heat reflector shields anniversary nasa publication l 60 104 page first attempt chevron plates page james schultz rocket engines rocket technology nasa