Mercury-Atlas 1 was launched at 13:13 UTC on July 29, 1960 from Cape Canaveral

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is an installation of the United States Air Force Space Command's 45th Space Wing, headquartered at nearby Patrick Air Force Base. Located on Cape Canaveral in the state of Florida, CCAFS is the primary launch head of America's Eastern Range with four launch pads...

, Florida. The 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,...

 spacecraft was unmanned and carried no launch escape system

Launch escape system

A Launch Escape System is a top-mounted rocket connected to the crew module of a crewed spacecraft and used to quickly separate the crew module from the rest of the rocket in case of emergency. Since the escape rockets are above the crew module, an LES typically uses separate nozzles which are...

. The mission was to conduct a suborbital test flight and reentry of the spacecraft. The capsule had live posigrade separation rockets, but dummy retro rockets.

The Atlas

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...

 rocket suffered a structural failure 58 seconds after launch. The vehicle at that time was at approximately an altitude of 30,000 feet (9.1 km) and 11,000 feet (3.4 km) down range. The rocket suffered a failure near where the spacecraft adapter attaches to the Atlas. The rocket and capsule hit the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

, broke up and sank. The capsule and portions of the rocket were recovered from the ocean bottom and reconstructed for study.

The capsule reached an apogee of 13 km and flew 9.6 km downrange. The flight lasted 3 minutes and 18 seconds. Capsule weight 1,154 kg. Serial numbers: Atlas 50-D, Mercury spacecraft #4.

Pieces of Mercury spacecraft # 4, used in the Mercury-Atlas 1 mission, are currently displayed at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center

Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center

The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center is a museum and educational facility in Hutchinson, Kansas that is best known for the display and restoration of spaceflight artifacts and educational camps...

, Hutchinson, Kansas

Hutchinson, Kansas

Hutchinson is the largest city in and the county seat of Reno County, Kansas, United States, northwest of Wichita, on the Arkansas River. It has been home to salt mines since 1887, thus its nickname of "Salt City", but locals call it "Hutch"...

.