Mercury-Redstone 1 (MR-1) was the first Mercury-Redstone uncrewed flight test in Project Mercury and the first attempt to launch a Mercury spacecraft with the Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle. Intended to be an uncrewed sub-orbital spaceflight, it was launched on November 21, 1960 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The launch failed in abnormal fashion: immediately after the Mercury-Redstone rocket started to move, it shut itself down and settled back on the pad, after which the capsule jettisoned its escape rocket and deployed its recovery parachutes. The failure has been referred to as the “four-inch flight”, for the approximate distance traveled by the launch vehicle.
Mercury No.2 is the Mercury capsule used for the Mercury-Redsone 1 mission which failed on launch.
The Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle, designed for NASA's Project Mercury, was the first American manned space booster. It was used for six sub-orbital Mercury flights from 1960–61; culminating with the launch of the first, and 11 weeks later, the second American (and the second and third humans) in space. The four subsequent Mercury human spaceflights used the more powerful Atlas booster to enter low Earth orbit. A member of the Redstone rocket family, it was derived from the U.S. Army's Redstone ballistic missile and the first stage of the related Jupiter-C launch vehicle; but to human-rate it, the structure and systems were modified to improve safety and reliability.
When is the Redstone MRLV | Mercury-Redstone 1 launch?
What rocket is being used for Mercury-Redstone 1?
Where is the Redstone MRLV | Mercury-Redstone 1 launching from?
What orbit is Mercury-Redstone 1 going to?
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Mission Profile
Mercury-Redstone 1 was a Redstone MRLV mission operated by National Aeronautics and Space Administration that lifted off from Launch Complex 5, Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA on November 21, 1960. The flight carried its payload on a test flight mission to Suborbital. It was flown as part of the Mercury program. The launch ended in failure.