Mercury-Atlas 8 (Sigma 7)
Launch Date
October 3, 1962
Craft
Mercury
Status
Past
Crew
1
Mercury-Atlas 8 (Sigma 7)
Launch Date
October 3, 1962
Craft
Mercury
Status
Past
Crew
1
Overview
Expanding from prior Mercury orbital missions, Sigma 7 stayed in orbit for nine hours and completed six orbits. The mission demonstrated prolonged manual and automatic spacecraft control, proved that astronauts were fine after multiple hours confined in microgravity, and verified that the Mercury capsule was sufficient for a day-long mission.
Crafts
Mercury
The Mercury capsule was the United States' first human spacecraft. Built without onboard computers, all flight calculations had to be determined on the ground and radioed up to each crew member. The spacecraft performed two suborbital and four orbital human missions and proved that people could live in space for multiple days.
