LAUNCH CENTER

Launch Image
Success
Tue Jan 31 1961
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Mercury-Redstone 2

Launch Successful
LAUNCH TIME
Loading...
(Loading...)
Loading...

Window Open

Loading...

(Loading...)

Window Close

Loading...

(Loading...)

RECOVERY OVERVIEW

Location

No Recovery Specified

Type

No Recovery Specified

Rocket Details

Name:

Redstone MRLV

Description:

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.

Redstone MRLV rocket
MISSION OVERVIEW
  • Type: Test Flight
  • Mercury-Redstone 2 (MR-2) was the test flight of the Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle just prior to the first crewed American space mission in Project Mercury. Carrying a chimpanzee named Ham on a suborbital flight, Mercury spacecraft Number 5 was launched at 16:55 UTC on January 31, 1961 from LC-5 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The capsule and Ham landed safely in the Atlantic Ocean 16 minutes and 39 seconds after launch.
COMPLEX OVERVIEW

Location

Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

Pad

Launch Complex 5