** Mercury-Atlas, the combination Atlas and Mercury spacecraft

First conceived during the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower as a three-man spacecraft to follow the one-man Project Mercury which put the first Americans in space, Apollo was later dedicated to President John F. Kennedy's national goal of " landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth " by the end of the 1960s, which he proposed in a May 25, 1961 address to Congress.

While the Mercury capsule could only support one astronaut on a limited Earth orbital mission, the Apollo spacecraft was to be able to carry three astronauts on a circumlunar flight and eventually to a lunar landing.

Remotely guided space probes have flown by all of the planets of the Solar System from Mercury to Neptune, with the New Horizons probe currently en route to fly by the dwarf planet Pluto and the Dawn spacecraft en route to the dwarf planet Ceres.

Because of their small size, it was said that the Mercury spacecraft were worn, not ridden.

A number of Mercury boilerplate spacecraft ( including mockup / prototype / replica spacecraft, made from non-flight materials or lacking production spacecraft systems and / or hardware ) were also made by NASA and McDonnell Aircraft.

It was a solid-fuel rocket designed specially for Project Mercury and theoretically able to carry a spacecraft to an altitude of on a ballistic curve.

The Atlas D rocket required extra strengthening in order to handle the increased weight of the Mercury spacecraft beyond that of the nuclear warheads they were designed to carry.

During the launch phase of the mission, the Mercury spacecraft and astronaut were protected from launch vehicle failures by the Launch Escape System.

The Mercury spacecraft was designed to be completely controllable from the ground in the event that something impaired the pilot's ability to function.

rightThe Mariner 10 spacecraft launched on November 3, 1973 and was the first to use a gravity assist trajectory, accelerating as it entered the gravitational influence of Venus, then being flung by the planet's gravity onto a slightly different course to reach Mercury.

It was also the first spacecraft to encounter two planets at close range, and for 33 years the only spacecraft to photograph Mercury in closeup.

Still, controversy remained, and fellow Mercury astronaut Wally Schirra, at the end of his October 3, 1962 flight, remained inside his spacecraft until it was safely aboard the recovery ship, and made a point of deliberately blowing the hatch to get out, bruising his hand.

In a joking nod to the sinking of his Mercury craft Grissom named the first Gemini spacecraft Molly Brown after the popular Broadway show The Unsinkable Molly Brown ; NASA publicity officials were unhappy with this name.

There were five other manned missions using Mercury spacecraft.

For the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecraft, such communications blackouts lasted for several minutes.

* August 15 – The BepiColombo spacecraft will be launched to Mercury.

Other exhibits include an OmniMax theater, Scott Carpenter's Mercury Atlas 7 spacecraft, a Lunar Module trainer and a life-size mockup of a space shuttle.

* 1999 July: The Liberty Bell 7 Mercury spacecraft is raised from 16, 043 feet ( 4891 m ) of water in the Atlantic Ocean during the deepest commercial search and recovery operation to date.

Glenn was a combat aviator in the Marine Corps and one of the Mercury Seven, who were the elite U. S. military test pilots selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) to operate the experimental Mercury spacecraft and become the first American astronauts.

* 1961-US, a Mercury capsule named Freedom 7 with Alan B. Shepard, spacecraft was launched by a Redstone rocket on a ballistic trajectory suborbital flight.

* 1962 – Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.

* 1963 – Project Mercury: The launch of the final Mercury mission, Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut L. Gordon Cooper on board.

Discovery also carried Project Mercury astronaut John Glenn, who was 77 at the time, back into space during STS-95 on October 29, 1998, making him the oldest person to go into space.

Chief astronaut Deke Slayton wrote that he wanted one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts to be the first on the moon and, " Had Gus been alive, as a Mercury astronaut he would have taken the step ... My first choice would have been Gus, which both Chris Kraft and Bob Gilruth seconded.

When the US Astronaut Hall of Fame opened in 1990 his family lent it the spacesuit worn by Grissom during Mercury 4 along with other personal artifacts belonging to the astronaut.

He became the fifth person to walk on the Moon, and the only astronaut of the Mercury Seven to walk on the Moon.

The ashes, along with those of Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper as well as almost two hundred others, were launched on the SpaceLoft XL rocket, on April 28, 2007, when the rocket briefly entered outer space in a four-minute suborbital flight before parachuting to earth, as planned, with the ashes still inside.

The turning point for Michael Collins in his decision to become an astronaut was the Mercury Atlas 6 flight of John Glenn on February 20, 1962, and the thought of being able to circle the Earth in 90 minutes.

* Walter M. Schirra, Jr. ( 1923 – 2007 ), astronaut ; only man to fly in America's first three space programs: Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.

When NASA astronaut Scott Carpenter launched into space on Mercury capsule Aurora 7 in 1962, he was carrying with him the first solid space food small food cubes developed by Pillsbury's research and development department.

At the time of her selection, Tereshkova was exactly ten years younger than the youngest Mercury Seven astronaut, Gordon Cooper.

The Mercury spacecraft was named Aurora 7 and made three Earth orbits, piloted by astronaut Scott Carpenter.

In 1962, Boulder community leaders dedicated Scott Carpenter Park and Pool in honor of native son turned Mercury astronaut.

* For Spacious Skies: The Uncommon Journey of a Mercury Astronaut, ISBN 0-15-100467-6 or the revised paperback edition ISBN 0-451-21105-7, Carpenter's biography, co-written with his daughter Kris Stoever ; describes his childhood, his experiences as a naval aviator, a Mercury astronaut, including an account of what went wrong, and right, on the flight of Aurora 7.

This record was surpassed in 1998 by his fellow Project Mercury astronaut John Glenn, who at the age of 77 flew on space shuttle mission STS-95.

Like all Mercury flights, Faith 7 was designed for fully automatic control, a controversial engineering decision which in many ways reduced the role of an astronaut to that of a passenger and prompted Chuck Yeager to describe Mercury astronauts as spam in a can.

* 1961 – Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 4 Mission – Gus Grissom piloting Liberty Bell 7 becomes the second American to go into space ( in a suborbital mission ).

* July 21 – Mercury program: Gus Grissom, piloting the Mercury-Redstone 4 capsule Liberty Bell 7, becomes the second American to go into space ( sub-orbital ).

Virgil Ivan Grissom ( April 3, 1926 – January 27, 1967 ), ( Lt Col, USAF ), better known as Gus Grissom, was one of the original NASA Project Mercury astronauts and a United States Air Force pilot.

In March 1966 he was selected as Senior Pilot ( second seat ) for the first manned Apollo flight, designated AS-204, along with Command Pilot Virgil " Gus " Grissom, who had flown in space on the Mercury 4 Liberty Bell 7 mission and as commander of the Gemini 3 Molly Brown mission, and Pilot Roger Chaffee, who had yet to fly into space.

The Virgil I. Gus Grissom Memorial, located just inside of Spring Mill State Park near Mitchell, contains many mementos of Grissom's career, including the space capsule he commanded, " The Molly Brown ", from Gemini 3, and the space suit worn during his Mercury Liberty Bell 7 mission.

Also of interest is a memorial to native resident of Mitchell, Gus Grissom, one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, who died in the Apollo 1 accident.

" Gus " Grissom, USAF, a native of Mitchell, Indiana who was one of the original seven Mercury astronauts.