Mercury-Atlas

Mercury-Atlas was a subprogram of Project Mercury that included most of the flights and tests using the Atlas LV-3B launch vehicle. The Atlas was also used for one Mercury flight under the Big Joe subprogram.

The Mercury mission numbering system was: a two-letter designation marking the launch vehicle type, followed by a dash, then a number designating the flight/test number. The Atlas launch vehicles used for Project Mercury were given a two- or three-digit number followed by a “-D”, indicating that they were the “D” version of the Atlas.

Manned flights:

• Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6)
  was the first American orbital spaceflight, which took place on February 20, 1962. Piloted by astronaut John Glenn and operated by NASA as part of Project Mercury, it was the fifth human spaceflight, preceded by Soviet orbital flights Vostok 1 and 2 and American sub-orbital flights Mercury-Redstone 3 and 4.
• Mercury-Atlas 7 (MA-7)
  launched May 24, 1962, was the fourth crewed flight of Project Mercury. The spacecraft, named Aurora 7, was piloted by astronaut Scott Carpenter. He was the sixth human to fly in space. The mission used Mercury spacecraft No. 18 and Atlas launch vehicle No. 107-D.
• Mercury-Atlas 8 (MA-8)
  was the fifth United States crewed space mission, part of NASA’s Mercury program. Astronaut Walter M. Schirra Jr., orbited the Earth six times in the Sigma 7 spacecraft on October 3, 1962, in a nine-hour flight focused mainly on technical evaluation rather than on scientific experimentation. This was the longest U.S. crewed orbital flight yet achieved in the Space Race, though well behind the several-day record set by the Soviet Vostok 3 earlier in the year. It confirmed the Mercury spacecraft’s durability ahead of the one-day Mercury-Atlas 9 mission that followed in 1963.
• Mercury-Atlas 9 (MA-9)
  was the final crewed space mission of the U.S. Mercury program, launched on May 15, 1963 from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spacecraft, named Faith 7, completed 22 Earth orbits before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, piloted by astronaut Gordon Cooper, then a United States Air Force major. The Atlas rocket was No. 130-D, and the Mercury spacecraft was No. 20. This mission marks the last time an American was launched alone to conduct an entirely solo orbital mission.