Mercury-Little-Joe 5B

Mission dates
Mission:	Little Joe 5B (LJ-5B)
Spacecraft:	Serial number 14A
Launcher:	Little Joe
Begin:	April 28, 1961
Starting place:	Wallops Flight Facility , Virginia
Landing:	April 28, 1961
Landing place:	Atlantic
Flight duration:	5min 25s
Apogee :	4.5 km
Covered track:	14.5 km
Maximum speed:	2865 km / h
Maximum acceleration:	10 g
Start photo
Launch of Little Joe 5B
◄ Before / After ►
Mercury Atlas 3 (unmanned) Mercury Redstone 3 (manned)

Little-Joe 5B (LJ-5B) was an unmanned test flight as part of the Mercury program to test the rescue system.

The flight was a repeat of the failed Little-Joe 5A mission , which in turn was a repeat of Little-Joe 5 . Capsule no. 14 could be reused after an overhaul under the designation 14A.

This time the flight went as planned and after 33 seconds the capsule was pulled as planned by the rescue missiles from the Little Joe rocket. The capsule watered in the Atlantic and was recovered by a helicopter shortly afterwards. It can currently be viewed at the Virginia Air and Space Center, Hampton , Virginia .

Web links

Commons : Little Joe 5B  - collection of pictures, 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"
• Astrolink: Little Joe 5B

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Loyd S. Swenson Jr., James M. Grimwood, Charles C. Alexander: LJ-5A Still Premature. In: This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury. NASA, p. 327 , accessed on December 10, 2016 (English): “Capsule No. 14 was cleaned up, repaired where necessary, and furnished with another set of sensors, instrumentation, and telemetry for the reflight coming up "