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Launch of Mercury-Atlas Main Content
NASA Center: Kennedy Space Center
Image # : Atlas
Date : 02/21/1961

Title

Launch of Mercury-Atlas

Full Description

In this Project Mercury test, a spacecraft booster by a modified Atlas was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Mercury capsule reached a peak altitude of 107 statute miles and landed 1.425 miles down range. Atlas was designed to launch payloads into low Earth orbit, geosynchronous transfer orbit or geosynchronous orbit. NASA first launched Atlas as a space launch vehicle in 1958. Project SCORE, the first communications satellite that transmitted President Eisenhower's pre-recorded Christmas speech around the world, was launched on an Atlas. For all three robotic lunar exploration programs, Atlas was used. Atlas/ Centaur vehicles launched both Mariner and Pioneer planetary probes. The current operational Atlas II family has a 100% mission success rating. For more information about Atlas, please see Chapter 2 in Roger Launius and Dennis Jenkins' book To Reach the High Frontier published by The University Press of Kentucky in 2002 (in which Dennis Jenkins notes on page 98 that "as a space launch vehicle there is no question that Atlas has made a mark for itself, and a great deal of money for its manufacturers").

Keywords

Mercury Atlas launch vehicle Eisenhower SCORE communications, 6- MA2-5

Subject Category

Atlas, Rocket Launches

Reference Numbers

  • Center: KSC
  • Center Number: Atlas
  • GRIN DataBase Number: GPN-2003-00036

Source Information

  • Creator/Photographer: NASA
  • Original Source: Kennedy Space Center

Image Information ( Copyright Notification )

ResolutionFormatWidth
(Pixels)		Height
(Pixels)		Size
(KBytes)
Thumbnail JPEG 70 89 6
Small JPEG 564 716 197
Medium JPEG 1175 1491 882
Large JPEG 2350 2981 5,905

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Updated October 31, 2002
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