Mercury MR-1

Launch & landing data:

Mission details:

• Mercury- Redstone 1 (MR-1)was launched on November 21, 1960 from Launch Complex 5 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was to be a unmanned suborbital flight. This was the first launch attempt for the Mercury-Redstone combination.
• The Redstone's engine cut out about 1 second after lift-off. The launch failure was caused by a booster tail plug that pulled out too early, about one inch (25 mm) after liftoff. The rocket rose about 4 inches (100 mm) then settled back onto the launch pad and did not explode. An odd series of events then took place. The Launch Escape System sensed the booster cutoff and fired the main escape rockets. At the same time, it thought booster cutoff was a signal to jettison itself, so it released the Mercury capsule. The result was the Escape Rocket launched itself to a 4,000 ft (1,220 m) apogee and landed 400 yards (365 m) away, but the capsule stayed behind on the rocket. The Mercury spacecraft sensed escape system jettison, but thought it been pulled away from an exploding booster and was falling. Three seconds after the escape rocket fired, the spacecraft ejected its radio canister and deployed its main parachute and reserve parachutes. In the end, a fully fuelled, slightly wrinkled Redstone booster sat on the launch pad, with live batteries and pyrotechnics. On top of it sat a Mercury capsule with live batteries and more pyrotechnics and main and reserve parachutes hanging down the side of the rocket, threatening to tip the Redstone over if they caught enough wind. All that was launched was the escape tower. The rocket was damaged and could not be reused. Technicians had to wait until flight batteries ran down, the morning of November 22, before approaching the rocket.
• Serial numbers: Redstone MRLV-1, Mercury spacecraft # 2.
• Mercury Spacecraft # 2 together with the escape tower from Capsule # 8, and the antenna fairing from Capsule # 10 were reflown on MR-1A. A new Redstone was used, MRLV-3.

Mission Highlights:

External links:

• Drewexmachina.com: The Infamous Launch Abort of NASA’s Mercury-Redstone 1