Atlas Mercury

Mercury-Atlas Launch Vehicle MALV Atlas LV-3B

Mission Profile

Atlas Mercury was a specially configured Atlas D ICBM modified by NASA to launch the first American astronauts to orbit as part of Project Mercury, the nation's inaugural human spaceflight program. Standing 28.7 meters tall with a liftoff mass of approximately 120,000 kg and generating 1,880 kN of thrust, it could place around 1,360 kg into low Earth orbit. Between 1961 and 1963, it carried John Glenn — the first American to orbit Earth — and four other Mercury astronauts on orbital missions, making the Atlas ICBM an unlikely but iconic symbol of the Space Race. The success of the Atlas Mercury program cemented the United States' ability to sustain human presence in orbit.