Mercury-Little-Joe 5A
Mission dates | |||
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Mission: | Little Joe 5A (LJ-5A) | ||
Spacecraft: | Serial number 14 | ||
Launcher: | Little Joe | ||
Begin: | March 18, 1961, 16:49 UTC | ||
Starting place: | Wallops Flight Facility , Virginia | ||
Landing: | March 18, 1961 | ||
Landing place: | Atlantic | ||
Flight duration: | 23 min 48 s | ||
Earth orbits: | suborbital flight | ||
Apogee : | 12.4 km | ||
Covered track: | 29 km | ||
Maximum speed: | 2869 km / h | ||
Maximum acceleration: | 8 g | ||
Start photo | |||
Little Joe 5A preparing for takeoff |
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◄ Before / After ► | |||
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Little-Joe 5A (LJ-5A) was an unmanned test flight as part of the Mercury program to test the rescue system. The mission was a failure because, as with Mercury-Little-Joe 5, the rescue missiles detonated without removing the capsule from the missile. Therefore the flight had to be repeated again with Mercury-Little-Joe 5B . By igniting the re-entry engines, the capsule could be separated from the rocket and after unfolding the parachutes, the almost undamaged capsule watered in the Atlantic. It was recovered and is currently on view at the Virginia Air and Space Center , Hampton , Virginia .
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- LJ-5A (14). Kennedy Space Center, September 27, 2000, accessed December 22, 2008 .
- Little Joe 5A (LJ-5A). Astrolink.de, accessed on December 22, 2008 .
Web links
Commons : Little Joe 5A - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
- NASA History Series: LJ-5A Still Premature in "This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury"