On, NASA marked a major milestone in America’s early space program with the first successful launch of a Mercury-Atlas rocket. [...] ...

Part 2 explores the dramatically different approaches to the launch systems, and the surprising similarities in the factors that contributed to their success. Although they served very different ...

Sitting beside his Friendship 7 capsule, astronaut John Glenn, pilot of the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission, is suited up, preparing for the launch. Artist Cecilia Bibby, who painted the Friendship 7 ...

On Feb. 20, 1962, Mercury-Atlas 6 mission launched, sending the Friendship 7 capsule containing John Glenn into orbit. Two Soviets – Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov – had previously orbited Earth, but ...

A camera onboard the Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft photographs astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. during his historic flight on February 20, 1962. An engineer and a technician check out an ion engine in ...

Those were the words Alan Shepard used 60 years ago Wednesday to note his cockpit timepiece had begun running. This meant his Redstone rocket booster had left the ground sending him and his one-man ...

It was a nuclear missile before it was a space rocket. Now, the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force has welcomed a restored replica to its permanent collection, and you can see it today after three ...

IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. This collection consists of ...