Mercury-Little-Joe 5

Mission dates

Mission:

Little Joe 5 (LJ-5)

Spacecraft:

Serial number 3

Launcher:

Little Joe

Begin:

November 8, 1960

Starting place:

Wallops Flight Facility , Virginia

Landing:

November 8, 1960

Landing place:

Atlantic

Flight duration:

2 min 22 s

Earth orbits:

suborbital flight

Apogee :

16.2 km

Covered track:

22.5 km

Maximum speed:

2873 km / h

Maximum acceleration:

6 g

◄ Before / After ►

Mercury Atlas 1

Mercury Redstone 1

Little Joe 5 preparing for takeoff

Little Joe 5 (LJ-5) was an unmanned test as part of the US Mercury space program . The launch took place on November 8, 1960 in Wallops Island in Virginia .

The mission called for Mercury capsule 3 to be brought up to altitude by the Little Joe rocket. Then the rescue missile should have shot the capsule away from the missile, after which the capsule should have parachuted into the Atlantic .

However, the rescue rocket and the engines that were supposed to separate the capsule from the rocket fired after 16 seconds, while the Little Joe rocket was still accelerating, so that the capsule could not separate from the rocket. The rocket flew 16.2 kilometers high and 20.9 kilometers before it crashed together with the capsule in the Atlantic. About 60% of the rocket and 40% of the capsule were recovered.

Before the flight, consideration had been given to putting a monkey in the capsule. Mainly because of technical difficulties, this plan was not implemented.

Web links

Commons : Little Joe 5 - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

NASA: Little Joe 5 Votes No (Chapter from "This New Ocean")