Mercury-Redstone
3
FREEDOM
7
May
5, 1961
Alan
B. Shepard, Jr.
15
minutes, 28 seconds
Suborbital
flight that successfully put
the
first American in space.
Mercury-Redstone
4
LIBERTY
BELL 7
July
21, 1961
Virgil
I. Grissom
15
minutes, 37 seconds
Also
suborbital; successful flight but
the
spacecraft sank shortly after splashdown.
Mercury-Atlas
6
FRIENDSHIP
7
February
20, 1962
John
H. Glenn, Jr.
04
hours, 55 minutes 23 seconds
Three-orbit
flight that placed the first
American
into orbit.
Mercury-Atlas
7
AURORA
7
May
24, 1962
M.
Scott Carpenter
04
hours, 56 minutes, 5 seconds
Confirmed
the success of Mercury-Atlas 6 by
duplicating flight.
Mercury-Atlas
8
SIGMA
7
October
03, 1962
Walter
M. Schirra, Jr.
09
hours, 13 minutes, 11 seconds
Six-orbit
engineering test flight.
Mercury-Atlas
9
FAITH
7
May
15-16, 1963
L.
Gordon Cooper, Jr.
34
hours, 19 minutes, 49 seconds
Last
Mercury mission; completed 22 orbits to evaluate effects of one day in space.