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Program

Project Mercury

Project Mercury (1958–1963) was America’s first crewed spaceflight program. Its goal was to safely put a human into orbit and bring him home — six of the seven selected astronauts, the “Mercury Seven”, flew six crewed missions: two suborbital and four orbital.

Reading time
1 min
Updated
4 Oct 2026

Group portrait of the seven Mercury programme astronauts in silver spacesuits.Real photograph · NASA / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

Key facts

Agency
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Contents · 4
  1. 01Overview
  2. 02Project Mercury missions
  3. 03How to cite
  4. 04Connections

roject Mercury was created a year after Sputnik as America’s answer to the Soviet lead in the space race. Seven selected military pilots — the “Mercury Seven” — became America’s first astronauts and the public face of the program.

Project Mercury missions

2 linked entries

How to cite

Spaceflightpedia. (n.d.). Project Mercury. Retrieved 10 October 2026, from https://spaceflightpedia.com/article/program-mercury

Connections

Connection graph

National Aerona…Project Mercury

Picture index

2 · open image