Mercury 9 Lapel Pin

Faith 7 MA-9 (26)

Faith 7 
Pad LC-14 () 
Atlas (9) 

Crew: L. Gordon Cooper  

Milestones: n/a

Payload: Spacecraft No. 20, Launch Vehicle 130-D 

Mission Objective: Manned 1-day mission in orbit 


Orbit:

Mission Highlights: Mission successful. Total time weightless 34hours 3min 30 sec 

Altitude: 165.9 by 100.3 statute miles 
Inclination: xxx degrees 
Orbits: 22.5 
Period: 88min 45sec 
Duration: 1 Day, 10 hours, 19 min, 49 seconds 
Distance: 546,167 statute miles 
Velocity: 17,547 mph 
Max Q: 974 
Max G: 7.6 

Launch: May 15, 1963

Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States. It ran from 1959 through 1963 with the goal of putting a human in orbit around the Earth. The Mercury-Atlas 6 flight on 20 February 1962 was the first Mercury flight to achieve this goal. Early planning and research was carried out by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, and the program was officially conducted by the newly created NASA.

The Manned Flights Summary

Mercury-Redstone 3
FREEDOM 7
May 5, 1961
Alan B. Shepard, Jr.

15 minutes, 28 seconds
Suborbital flight that successfully put the first American in space.

Mercury-Redstone 4
LIBERTY BELL 7
July 21, 1961
Virgil I. Grissom

15 minutes, 37 seconds
Also suborbital; successful flight but the spacecraft sank shortly after splashdown.

Mercury-Atlas 6
FRIENDSHIP 7
February 20, 1962
John H. Glenn, Jr.

04 hours, 55 minutes 23 seconds
Three-orbit flight that placed the first American into orbit.

Mercury-Atlas 7
AURORA 7
May 24, 1962
M. Scott Carpenter

04 hours, 56 minutes, 5 seconds
Confirmed the success of Mercury-Atlas 6 by duplicating flight.

Mercury-Atlas 8
SIGMA 7
October 03, 1962
Walter M. Schirra, Jr.

09 hours, 13 minutes, 11 seconds
Six-orbit engineering test flight.

Mercury-Atlas 9
FAITH 7
May 15-16, 1963
L. Gordon Cooper, Jr.

34 hours, 19 minutes, 49 seconds
Last Mercury mission; completed 22 orbits to evaluate effects of one day in space.