photo Project Mercury  America’s First Astronauts
   Imagine the Impossible

Is it possible to fly at above 100 miles in altitude? Today it’s easy to say “of course” yet in the 1950s and early 60s no one exactly knew how. That changed on October 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik and began the “Space Race.” Sputnik was just a little 184 pound globe, the first satellite. But it represented much more. It mocked the United States inability to successfully launch rockets. It proved a constant public reminder of Russia’s ability to accomplish something the US had not been able to do. It was a constant reminder to Americans; it orbited the planet low enough that Americans could watch its progress nightly across the sky.

America’s attempt to respond to the space race failed in a televised rocket launch soon after the Sputnik, when the rocket blew up in a fiery explosion on the tarmac. A second attempt also failed and it looked like America was taking a second seat to a country it considered dangerous.  The American public panicked thinking about rockets that could reach space could obviously reach the US in case of war.

One year and three days after Sputnik circled the earth, America’s Project Mercury began. It was a first step in the US manned space flight research program. Secrets about flying in space needed to be unlocked. Everything was new; could the human body sustain the pressures of rocket lift off?  Would a man or a woman’s body be more resilient to the forces of weightlessness? Could a craft sustain reentry to earth’s atmosphere without disintegrating under the expected 3000 degree temperatures? The knowledge about space travel simply didn’t exist. Even in the technical world of NASA mission control, an auto sensor, something that could detect trouble aboard the rockets was still called an “Electronic Brain” in a NASA official brief.

Project Mercury was a serious adventure and needed to be successful. The $400 million dollar project (1958 dollars) was designed to scientifically uncover how the United States could orbit a manned spacecraft around Earth; to investigate human’s ability to function in space and to learn how to recover both humans and spacecraft safely. These distinguished objectives were important yet the escalating cold war with the Russians added a national security element to the crusade for winning the space race. Well conceived, the Mercury program used existing technology and off-the-shelf equipment as much as possible. 

The Russians needed to solve the same concerns of putting people into space. They were equally interested in unlocking and leveraging the power of space and Nikita Khrushchev, Russia’s leader, liked embarrassing the US. Russians were already in motion and although they were technically behind in rocket propulsion systems and their ability to miniaturize components – they were making headlines and winning the public relations campaign with small victories. Besides launching the first satellite, they hosted the first living space traveler, a dog named Laika, launched November 3, 1957 followed by the first rockets to the Moon, first photographs of the dark side of the Moon and the first man in space and in orbit and the first women cosmonauts launched into space.

Since there was so much to learn, Project Mercury was conceived as a progressive test program – multiple launches over time, each with a small but important learning to be accomplished. Each launch was designed to uncover specific learnings for the overall success of Project Mercury. Remember this was all new in 1959. Simple things like finding the design for a vehicle, eventually called a capsule, that could suffer the trials of launch and reentry was one set of tests. Did I mention this vehicle needed to survive splash down and float in the ocean being slowed only by the silk and nylon of a parachute. There were other elements to test, too. They needed to learn how to synchronize and separate multiple levels of rocket engines needed to boost the new vehicle into space and they needed to find humans that could fly and survive the anticipated jolts to the human body. 

The capsule designed to carry Americans into space was shaped like a bell, standing only ten feet tall with its bottom width about six feet wide. The astronauts laid on their back in a couch designed to help absorb the pressure of launching and returning to earth. There was an escape hatch, and a special small rocket to carry the capsule to safety should the electronic brain sense a problem in the booster rockets during liftoff. The capsule instruments were redundant for safety and could be controlled from the vehicle or by radio from the NASA command centers. The astronaut could peer out of the capsule through a periscope.

Many of the rocket designs of the former WWII German scientists were being developed for the US Space program. Two different rockets were used in the Mercury program, the Redstone rocket was used for the suborbital flights and an Atlas rocket for the flights into orbit. Overall the project plan called for twenty unmanned space flights and six manned events.

After you had a space vehicle and the rocket power to push the capsule 100 miles up, you needed someone to fly it and make the adventure worthwhile.  Many of the unmanned launches included primates; monkeys and chimpanzees, to test the survivability the space program. But NASA needed people to create an elite group of brave pilots – the Amerian Astronaut program.

Although no one exactly knew what skills were needed to be a successful astronaut, physical and medical tests were designed, credentials outlined and the training program constructed. Each applicant needed to be married, weigh less than 180 pounds and not be taller that five foot eleven inches so that they could escape from the capsule.  The astronauts had to have at least 1,500 hours of airplane flying logged and have a degree in engineering or its equivalent.  Hundreds of applicants came forward wanting to be an astronaut, seven men were selected.  But there is a little known fact; thirteen women also passed all of the initial tests. What happened next is an interesting story of intrigue and resistance to change. 

By John Cilio a freelance writer, aviation historian and member of the Connecticut Lost Squadron Veterans Group.  He lives in Sherman, CT. You can contact John at: questions@vintageflyer.com