Mercury Missions
by: Riley Wall
History of Mercury Missions
Late 1950 the earliest chapter of American space exploration were written along Florida's Central Atlantic Coast . Later known as the Mission Control Center. Florida's breezy climate, broad undeveloped land enclosed the cape; its proximity to water made it a good choice for launching rockets.
Project Mercury
Project mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the US which was led by its newly created space agency NASA. Project Mercury ran from 1959-1963 with a big goal of trying to put a human in orbit around the Earth and also doing it before the Soviet Union, as part of the early space race.
John Glenn
John Glenn was was the first american to reach orbit on February 20,1962. In 1965 Glenn retired from the military and resigned from NASA so he could be eligible to stand for election to public office. As a member of the Democratic Party he was elected to represent Ohio in the U.S. Senate from 1994-1999
Astronauts and Rockets
The astronauts where Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schima, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton. The rockets where named Little Joe, Redstone, and Atlas D.
fun facts
the name of Mercury Missions was from a Roman god named Mercury. The cost is about $1.73 billion (current prices) and involved the work of 2 billion people!