Key facts
- Mission type
- Test flight
- Operator
- NASA
- Mission duration
- 15 minutes, 37 seconds
- Range
- 262.50 nautical miles (486.15 km)
- Apogee
- 102.76 nautical miles (190.31 km)
- Spacecraft
- Mercury No.11
- Manufacturer
- McDonnell Aircraft
- Launch mass
- 2,835 pounds (1,286 kg)
- Members
- Virgil I. Grissom
- Callsign
- Liberty Bell 7
- Launch date
- July 21, 1961, 12:20:36 ( 1961-07-21UTC12:20:36Z ) UTC
- Rocket
- Redstone MRLV MR-8
- Launch site
- Cape Canaveral LC-5
- Recovered by
- USS Randolph
- Landing date
- July 21, 1961, 12:36:13 ( 1961-07-21UTC12:36:14Z ) UTC
- Landing site
- North Atlantic Ocean, 27°32′9″N 75°45′57″W / 27.53583°N 75.76583°W / 27.53583; -75.76583
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Part of
- Project Mercury
- Operator
- NASA
- Followed by
- Mercury-Atlas 6
- Follows
- Mercury-Redstone 3
- Duration
- 937
- Mass
- 1286
- Manufacturer
- McDonnell Aircraft Corporation
- Image
- Grissom prepares to enter Liberty Bell 7 61-MR4-76.jpg
- Significant event
- rocket launch
Show 11 more facts
- crew members
- Gus Grissom
- Commons category
- Mercury-Redstone 4
- space launch vehicle
- Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle
- type of orbit
- sub-orbital spaceflight
- UTC date of spacecraft launch
- 1961-07-21
- UTC date of spacecraft landing
- 1961-07-21
- location of landing
- Atlantic Ocean
- apoapsis
- 190.31
- recovered by
- USS Randolph
- start point
- Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 5
- call sign
- Liberty Bell 7
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~29 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Mercury-Redstone 4 was the second United States human spaceflight, on July 21, 1961. The suborbital Project Mercury flight was launched with a Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle, MRLV-8. The spacecraft, Mercury capsule #11, was nicknamed Liberty Bell 7. It was piloted by astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom.
The spaceflight lasted 15 minutes 30 seconds, reached an altitude of more than 102.8 nautical miles (190.4 km), and flew 262.5 nautical miles (486.2 km) downrange, landing in the Atlantic Ocean. The flight went as expected until just after splashdown, when the hatch cover, designed to release explosively in the event of an emergency, accidentally blew. Grissom was at risk of drowning, but was recovered safely via a U.S. Navy helicopter. The spacecraft sank into the Atlantic and was not recovered until 1999.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mercury-Redstone 4” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.