Mercury Atlas 3

Mission dates
Mission:	Mercury Atlas 3 (MA-3)
COSPAR-ID :	MERCA3
Spacecraft:	Serial number 8
Launcher:	Atlas D 100-D
Begin:	April 25, 1961, 16:15 UTC
Starting place:	LC-14 , Cape Canaveral
Landing:	April 25, 1961, 16:23 UTC
Landing place:	Atlantic
Flight duration:	7min 19s
Earth orbits:	suborbital flight
Apogee :	7.2 km
Covered track:	1.8 km
Maximum speed:	1894 km / h
Maximum acceleration:	11 g
Start photo
Launch of Mercury Atlas 3
◄ Before / After ►
Mercury-Redstone BD Mercury-Little-Joe 5B

The Mercury-Atlas 3 mission was an unmanned test flight as part of the Mercury program .

Although the flight was unmanned, all systems were functional as if an astronaut were on board. The flight was normal until the missile went off course 40 seconds after takeoff. Due to a software bug , the rocket did not tilt to the east, but continued to fly straight up. An engine failure would have been a danger for the surrounding areas and for Cape Canaveral itself. So it was decided to blow up the rocket, but the capsule was to be saved with the help of the escape tower.

The rescue tower worked perfectly and brought the capsule to a height of eight kilometers. The capsule landed safely and could be used again on the next Mercury-Atlas 4 flight . Hardly a piece of the launcher was found. This was the only rescue tower deployment under the Mercury program.

Web links

Commons : Mercury Atlas 3  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• NASA History Series: "News will be Worse Before it is Better:" MA-3 and LJ-5B in "This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury"