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Project Mercury was launched one year after Sputnik was shot into space on October 7, 1958 as NASA's first project. It had three prime objectives.
- to send manned spacecraft into orbit (circle Earth)
- to find out weather humans can work properly in space, and
- to recover both man and spacecraft safely.
The Mercury engineers were true pioneers. Nothing that they were doing has ever been done before. The engineers had to build a space capsule that protects humans in space from the vacuum, the freezing cold temperatures, the radiation of space that has just been discovered, and the astronauts had to survive the heat of the reentry into the atmosphere during which the spacecraft would be flying very fast.
The engineers found that the ideal shape for the spacecraft was bullet-like. They put strong heat shields on the front side so that the astronaut could survive the reentry. The Mercury capsules were driven into space by to different propulsion systems. At first the astronauts were boosted into space by Redstone Rockets which were only good for sub-orbital flights. Later the more powerful Atlas-D rockets were used. The Atlas-D was a modified ballistic missile. Its skin was extra thin to safe weight, so that it had to be pressurized from within.
Compared with today's standards the Mercury capsules were very small. They had about 12,000m3 of Volume which is just the right size for one person to squeeze in. The internal controls were powered with batteries. Inside there were 120 controls, and 90 switches and levers. Despite that great number of instruments Mercury was only able change its orientation in space.
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