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Atlas D Mercury - Vehicle use: Mercury
American orbital launch vehicle. The Mercury–Atlas, also known as Atlas LV-3B or Atlas D-Mercury, was developed from the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile and manufactured by Convair as the launch vehicle for Project Mercury orbital launches. It is comprised of one booster and a single core stage.
Variant
D-Mercury
Launches
10
Failures
3
Realized
0.70
Predicted
0.67
9/5/1959 - Atlas D Mercury
BOOSTER SEPARATION FAILURE
1st Atlas D Mercury launch
During flight the booster failed to separate from the center stage as planned. The additional weight caused a 3000 feet-per-second reduction in velocity. This caused the flight path to be steeper and slightly lower than orginally planned.
SOURCES:
This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury - Ch 7
7/29/1960 - Atlas D Mercury
STRUCTURAL FAILURE OF INDETERMINATE SOURCE
2nd Atlas D Mercury launch
A structural failure 58 seconds into flight was caused by an undetermined source.
SOURCES:
This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury - Ch 9
4/25/1961 - Atlas D Mercury
PITCH AND ROLL SEQUENCE FAILED TO INITIATE
4th Atlas D Mercury launch
The launch proceeded normally until about T+20 seconds when the pitch and roll sequence failed to initiate and the vehicle continued flying straight upward. At T+43 seconds range safety initiated a self-destruct.
SOURCES:
This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury - Ch 10
1.00
0.88
1.00
0.80
1.00
0.90
1.00
0.67
1.00
0.83
Realized Rate
Predicted Rate