NASA Convair General Dynamics Mercury-Atlas Rocket Historic Space Exploration 16.63” Desktop Model Craft As a subset of Project Mercury, the Atlas D missile was considered a good choice since it was the only launch vehicle in the US arsenal that could put the spacecraft into orbit. The Atlas D rocket as configured for Mercury launches was 94 feet tall, 10 feet in diameter and weighed 260,000 lbs. when loaded with fuel. It also had the necessary payload capacity of 3,000 lbs., which was enough for Mercury capsule and pilot. However, its reliability was far from perfect in its military form and therefore could not be qualified to carry astronauts. NASA did not want to wait on a new rocket design and subsequent testing program or for the next generation of Titan II rocket to move the Mercury project forward, so Convair had to make significant changes to render the Atlas D safe and reliable for human launches. Also, NASA felt that the Atlas D stage-and-a-half launch configuration was preferable to the two stage Titan from a preflight check list perspective. Despite Atlas’s reliability issues, NASA had the benefit of conducting Project Mercury testing simultaneously with Atlas R&D, which provided very useful data sets as well as a test environment for modified equipment for Mercury launches. In terms of actual flight testing, suborbital Mercury-Atlas flight number 1 was flown on July 29, 1960. Unfortunately, the rocket failed shortly after launch and could not place the unmanned spacecraft into orbit. A second suborbital launch, Mercury-Atlas number 3 also failed and had to be destroyed by the Range Safety Officer (RSO) shortly after liftoff. In all, Nine Mercury-Atlas’s launches were conducted; two unmanned suborbital flights, three unmanned orbital flights and four manned Mercury flights. All Atlas launches were conducted from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida with the last launch on May 15, 1963. NASA had originally planned to use leftover rockets to launch Gemini-Agena Target Vehicles. But an increase in funding in 1964 meant that the agency could afford to buy new Atlas rockets for Project Mercury.
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