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Donald K. “Deke” Slayton The Mercury 7 astronauts. Left to right: Gus Grissom, Deke Slayton, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Alan Shepard and Wally Schirra. Photo By Hank Walker/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images
What was NASA’s Project Mercury?
NASA announced Project Mercury on 7 October 1958 as a new programme that would set in motion a boom in human spaceflight for the USA.
The project’s goals were to put a crewed spacecraft into orbit around Earth, observe and collect data on the mission, and then return the human crew to Earth safely.
At this point, very little was known about human spaceflight. Could a NASA astronaut be launched into orbit, manoeuvre and control the spacecraft in a weightless environment, and then successfully land back on Earth?