Atlas MA-9
Last manned Mercury-Atlas

Mercury-Atlas was a subprogram of Project Mercury

Project Mercury

In January 1960 NASA awarded Western Electric Company a contract for the Mercury tracking network. The value of the contract was over $33 million. Also in January, McDonnell delivered the first production-type Mercury spacecraft, less than a year after award of the formal contract. On February 12,...

 which comprised most of the flights and tests using the Atlas LV-3B

Atlas LV-3B

The Atlas LV-3B, Atlas D Mercury Launch Vehicle or Mercury-Atlas Launch Vehicle, was a man-rated expendable launch system used as part of the United States Project Mercury to send astronauts into low Earth orbit. It was derived from the SM-65D Atlas missile, and was a member of the Atlas family of...

 launch vehicle. The Atlas was also used for one Mercury flight under the Big Joe subprogram.

Mission numbering

The Mercury mission numbering system was a two letter designation which corresponded to the launch vehicle type, followed by a dash, then a 1 or 2 designating the flight/test number. Thus the official designation for the first U.S. manned orbital spaceflight was MA-6

Mercury-Atlas 6

Mercury-Atlas 6 was a human spaceflight mission conducted by NASA, the space agency of the United States. As part of Project Mercury, MA-6 was the successful first attempt by NASA to place an astronaut into orbit. The MA-6 mission was launched February 20, 1962. It made three orbits of the Earth,...

.

Atlas launch vehicle numbering

The Atlas launch vehicles use for Project Mercury were numbered using a 2 or 3 digit number followed by a -D indicating that the missiles were the "D" version of the Atlas.

Spacecraft and launch vehicle pairings

The missions flown in Mercury-Atlas were:

• MA-1
  Mercury-Atlas 1
  Mercury-Atlas 1 was launched at 13:13 UTC on July 29, 1960 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Mercury spacecraft was unmanned and carried no launch escape system. The mission was to conduct a suborbital test flight and reentry of the spacecraft...
  
   using Atlas launch vehicle "50-D"
• MA-2
  Mercury-Atlas 2
  Mercury-Atlas 2 was launched unmanned on February 21, 1961 at 14:10 UTC, from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Test objectives for this flight were concerned with the ability of the spacecraft to withstand reentry under the temperature-critical abort conditions and with the capability...
  
   using Atlas launch vehicle "67-D"
• MA-3
  Mercury-Atlas 3
  Mercury-Atlas 3 was launched unmanned on April 25, 1961 at 16:15 UTC, from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Mercury capsule contained a robotic "mechanical astronaut". Mercury spacecraft No. 8 and Atlas No...
  
   using Atlas launch vehicle "100-D"
• MA-4
  Mercury-Atlas 4
  Mercury-Atlas 4 was an unmanned spaceflight of the Mercury program. It was launched on September 13, 1961 at 14:09 UTC from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. A Crewman Simulator instrument package was aboard. The craft orbited the Earth once....
  
   using Atlas launch vehicle "88-D"
• MA-5
  Mercury-Atlas 5
  Mercury-Atlas 5 was an American unmanned spaceflight of the Mercury program. It was launched on November 29, 1961 with Enos the Chimp, a chimpanzee, aboard...
  
   using Atlas launch vehicle "93-D"
• MA-6
  Mercury-Atlas 6
  Mercury-Atlas 6 was a human spaceflight mission conducted by NASA, the space agency of the United States. As part of Project Mercury, MA-6 was the successful first attempt by NASA to place an astronaut into orbit. The MA-6 mission was launched February 20, 1962. It made three orbits of the Earth,...
  
   using Atlas launch vehicle "109-D"
• MA-7
  Mercury-Atlas 7
  -Backup crew:-Crew notes:The original prime crew for Mercury Atlas-7 was to have been Deke Slayton, with Schirra as his back-up. However Slayton was removed from all flight crew availability after the discovery of cardiac arrhythmia during a training run in the g-loading centrifuge...
  
   using Atlas launch vehicle "107-D"
• MA-8
  Mercury-Atlas 8
  Mercury-Atlas 8 was an early manned space mission, part of NASA's Mercury program. Astronaut Walter M. Schirra, Jr., orbited the Earth six times in the Sigma 7 spacecraft on October 3, 1962, in a nine-hour flight focused mainly on technical evaluation rather than on scientific experimentation...
  
   using Atlas launch vehicle "113-D"
• MA-9
  Mercury-Atlas 9
  Mercury-Atlas 9 was the final manned space mission of the U.S. Mercury program, launched on May 15, 1963 from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spacecraft, named Faith 7, completed 22 Earth orbits before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, piloted by astronaut Gordon Cooper, then...
  
  using Atlas launch vehicle "130-D"