Mercury-Atlas 9
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Mercury-Atlas 9 was the final crewed space mission of the U.S. Mercury program, launched on May 15, 1963, from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spacecraft, named Faith 7, completed 22
L. Gordon Cooper, photographed by a slow-scan television camera aboard Faith 7
Leroy Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, Jr.Project Mercury Crewed missions← Mercury-Atlas 8
Cooper's Mercury helmet
The Atlas booster and Faith 7 spacecraft on Launch Complex 14
Project Mercury
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Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and retur
Wallops Island test facility, 1961
Mercury Control Center, Cape Canaveral, 1963
Retropack: Retrorockets with red posigrade rockets
Landing skirt (or bag) deployment: skirt is inflated; on impact the air is pressed out (like an airbag)