Mercury-Redstone

[crokett]

I took my daughters to the Museum of Life And Science here. One of the things they have is a Mercury-Redstone rocket used in the space program. This one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Atlas_5

This particular rocket did not carry a human into space, so it is possible the ones that did were larger but it still seemed very small to carry a person into space.

[Uncle Cracker]

They were not big. Mercury capsules were notoriously tiny and cramped. There was only the capability to alter attitude and orientation in space, but not to maneuver to higher orbits. There was no on-board computer. No crapper... and no bar.

[Kristofor]

Warheads don't need much elbow room. Space and weight are always expensive when launching to orbit, but using an ICBM platform as the starting point gives even more starting constraints.

Kristofor.

[JBCrooks]

I saw the Friendship-7 spacecraft that carried a man in the first orbit around the globe (successfully). It was so small that I thought it was a scaled down replica at first.

[Tom Slick]

Those first flights were measured in minutes and totally controlled from the ground. not many amenities needed besides a seat and optional window.

[LCHIEN]

At the time they weren't really sure if a man would die instantly when shot into space. or die of radiation, extended weightlessness, or some othere exposure they hadn't though of. The dogs and monkey tests sort of said no but no one was really sure.

[Tom Slick]

They believed it was possible for you to go blind because your eyes wouldn't function in orbit.

[Uncle Cracker]

They believed it was possible for you to go blind because your eyes wouldn't function in orbit.

My mother told me I was going to go blind, but as I recall, it had nothing to do with space flight...

[LCHIEN]

My mother told me I was going to go blind, but as I recall, it had nothing to do with space flight...

so just do it until you need radial keratotomy.

[Uncle Cracker]

so just do it until you need radial keratotomy.

Having trouble reading your post...

[jackellis]

The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe should be on everyone's reading list, especially if you're interested in the history of space flight.

As far as the size of the Mercury capsule, at that time astronauts had to be military test pilots of relatively small stature. There were limits on allowable height and weight, and those folks lived mostly on a version of Atkins diet. The Redstone rockets were used only for suborbital flights - they weren't powerful enough to put that relatively tiny capsule into orbit. Orbital flights used a much more reliable version of the more powerful Atlas ICBM, which lives on today in a highly modified form as a satellite launcher.

I remember watching TV broadcasts of those flights and dreaming of becoming a rocket scientist.

[LCHIEN]

Having trouble reading your post...

Stop right now. Let go of that thing and back away from the screen.

[gerti]

I saw the Friendship-7 spacecraft that carried a man in the first orbit around the globe (successfully). It was so small that I thought it was a scaled down replica at first.

First American in orbit. Vostok 1 and 2 both preceded Friendship-7 and completed several orbits.

[LCHIEN]

At the time they weren't really sure if a man would die instantly when shot into space. or die of radiation, extended weightlessness, or some othere exposure they hadn't though of. The dogs and monkey tests sort of said no but no one was really sure.

I had to go back and read the Mercury history.
Beside the above problems, the first few Mercury-Atlas and Mercury-Redstone (they use two different rockets for orbital and suborbital shots) tended to blow up a minute into the shot or fizzle and pop on the launch pad.

Even the chimps on the intermediate shots got exposed to a lot more G's than planned due to overshots and stuff NQAP (not quite as planned).

It took a pretty brave astronaut to ride into space in that tiny capsule on a rocket model that blew up only 2-3 shots ago.

Some pretty heady days in the sspace program.