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As part of the pre-Apollo preparations, NASA created the Ranger series of missions to take high-quality pictures of the Moon and transmit them back to Earth in real time…
Ranger 4
Ranger 4
Ranger 4 Launch
Ariel 1
Ariel 1 Launch
Telstar 1
Telstar Engineers
Goonhilly
By Dave
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Mercury Control was still undecided on the course of action to take with the heat shield problem. Some controllers thought the retrorocket pack should be jettisoned after retrofire, while other controllers thought the retro pack should be retained, as added assurance that the heat shield would stay in place…
Watching the Mission
Splashdown
![mercury-flight-25[3]](https://i0.wp.com/www.spacerockethistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/mercury-flight-253.jpg?ssl=1)
The Mercury 7
![mercury-flight-26[3]](https://i0.wp.com/www.spacerockethistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/mercury-flight-263.jpg?ssl=1)
Glenn and JFK
![mercury-flight-27[3]](https://i0.wp.com/www.spacerockethistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/mercury-flight-273.jpg?ssl=1)
NYC Parade
Friendship 7
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“I am in a big mass of some very small particles, they’re brilliantly lit up like they’re luminescent. I never saw anything like it! They round a little: they’re coming by the capsule and they look like little stars. A whole shower of them coming by. They swirl around the capsule and go in front of the window and they’re all brilliantly lighted.” John Glenn – Friendship 7
John Glenn
Glenn Enters
Launch
Glenn in Space
View from Capsule
By Dave
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Following the successful suborbital missions of Allan Shepard and Gus Grissom, NASA believed the Mercury capsule was ready for an orbital mission. But, there was a problem, the Redstone booster did not have the power to place the Mercury capsule into orbit. The Atlas booster had the power to put the capsule in orbit but not the confidence of NASA. By September of 1961 Four launches of the mercury-atlas had been made with only a 50 percent success rate…
Tribute to Chimps
Enos
Atlas Missle
Launch
Mercury 5
By Dave
