Mercury-Big-Joe 1

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Mission dates
Mission: Big Joe 1 (BJ-1)
Spacecraft: Mercury capsule boilerplate
Launcher: Atlas D
Begin: September 9, 1959
Starting place: LC-14 , Cape Canaveral , Florida
Landing: September 9, 1959
Landing place: Atlantic
Flight duration: 13 min
Earth orbits: suborbital flight
Apogee : 153 km
Covered track: 2292 km
◄ Before / After ►
Mercury-Little-Joe 1 Mercury-Little-Joe 6

Big Joe 1 was an unmanned flight under the Mercury program .

procedure

Atlas rocket with the Mercury capsule

The mission was to test the ablative heat shield of the Mercury capsule. For this purpose, a model of the capsule was launched with an Atlas-D rocket (serial number Atlas 628/10-D). However, the rocket's two outer engines did not separate as planned, which meant that the planned altitude could not be reached. In addition, the capsule was separated from the rocket by 138 seconds too late. As a result, the capsule watered 800 km too early, but the heat shield worked as planned and the capsule survived re-entry undamaged. Since enough data could be collected on this flight, the planned Big Joe 2 mission was canceled.

The launch of Big Joe 1 was originally scheduled for July 4, 1959, but was postponed twice due to problems with the main engine and later due to telemetry problems.

The maximum speed was 23,910 km / h, the maximum acceleration 12 g. The capsule flew over a distance of 2292 km, the summit point was at an altitude of 153 km. The payload weighed 1,159 kg.

Whereabouts of the capsule

The capsule used is on display in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC .

Web links

Commons : Big Joe 1  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
  • Big Joe 1. Astrolink.de, September 12, 2008, accessed October 10, 2008 .
  • BJ-1. In: Project Mercury Uncrewed Missions. NASA, accessed March 25, 2017 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mercury Capsule. In: National Air and Space Museum. Smithsonian Institution, accessed March 25, 2017 (English): "This object is on display in the Human Spaceflightexhibition at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA."