Recorded mission

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Atlas LV-3B | Mercury-Atlas 1

Launch Failure
Atlas LV-3B | Mercury-Atlas 1

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Recorded mission coverage

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Mission brief

The flight at a glance.

Mercury-Atlas 1 (MA-1) was the first attempt to launch a Mercury capsule and occurred on July 29, 1960 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spacecraft was unmanned and carried no launch escape system. The Atlas rocket suffered a structural failure 58 seconds after launch at an altitude of approximately 30,000 feet (9.1 km) and 11,000 feet (3.4 km) down range.

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Published flight sequence

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Planned timings relative to the target. These steps do not indicate live progress.

A flight sequence has not been published for this mission.