Mercury-Atlas 8
Videos
Mercury-Atlas 8 (MA-8) was the fifth United States crewed space mission, part of NASA's Mercury program. Astronaut Walter M. Schirra Jr., orbited the Earth six times in the Sigma 7 spacecraft on October 3, 1962, in a nine-hour flight focused mainly on technical evaluation rather than on scientific experimentation. This was the longest U.S. crewed orbital flight yet achieved in the Space Race, though well behind the several-day record set by the Soviet Vostok 3 earlier in the year. It confirmed the Mercury spacecraft's durability ahead of the one-day Mercury-Atlas 9 mission that followed in 1963.
Schirra entering his MA-8 capsule, Sigma 7
Walter "Wally" Marty Schirra Jr.Project Mercury Crewed missions← Mercury-Atlas 7Mercury-Atlas 9 →
Schirra discussing the flight plan with flight director Chris Kraft.
Sigma 7 in its hangar
Scott Carpenter
Videos
Malcolm Scott Carpenter was an American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, aeronautical engineer, astronaut and aquanaut. He was one of the Mercury Seven astronauts selected for NASA's Project Mercury in April 1959. Carpenter was the second American to orbit the Earth and the fourth American in space, after Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom and Glenn.
The Mercury Seven astronauts. Front row, left to right, Wally Schirra, Deke Slayton, John Glenn, and Carpenter; back row, Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom and Gordon Cooper.
Carpenter and his family visit the White House. Left to right: Rene, President John F. Kennedy, Kristen, Carpenter, Scott, Candace and Jay.
Carpenter is assisted into his pressure suit in the crew quarters of Hangar S at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the morning of the flight of Mercury Atlas 7.