| 1 | Reentry Capsule |  |
| 2 | Window | |
| 3 | Seperation rockets and Retrorockets | |
| 4 | Heatshield | |
| 5 | Hatch | |
| 6 | Parachute Compartment |
| Name | Launch Date | Designation | Launcher | Orbits | Crew | Mission Objective |
| Freedom 7 | 5 MAY 1961 | MR-3 | Redstone (MR-7) | --- | Alan B. Shepard, Jr. | Suborbital flight |
| Liberty Bell 7 | 21 JUL 1961 | MR-4 | Redstone (MR-8) | --- | Virgil "Gus" Grissom | Suborbital flight |
| Friendship 7 | 20 FEB 1962 | MA-6 | Atlas (109-D) | 3 | John H. Glenn, Jr. | Orbital flight |
| Aurora 7 | 24 MAY 1962 | MA-7 | Atlas (107-D) | 3 | M. Scott Carpenter | Orbital flight |
| Sigma 7 | 3 OCT 1962 | MA-8 | Atlas (113-D) | 6 | Walter M. Schirra, Jr. | Orbital flight |
| Faith 7 | 15 MAY 1963 | MA-9 | Atlas (130-D) | 22 | L. Gordon Cooper | Orbital flight |
Mercury MA-6 (Friendship 7) Capsule on display at the National Air and Space Museum. Launched on February 20, 1962, astronaut John Glenn conducted three orbits in this spacecraft. (Photos: Richard Kruse, 2008)
Mercury MA-7 (Aurora 7) Capsule on display at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. Launched on May 24, 1962, astronaut Scott Carpenter conducted three orbits in this spacecraft. (Photos: Richard Kruse, 2008)
Mercury MA-8 (Sigma 7) Capsule on display at the Astronaut Hall of Fame. Launched on October 3, 1962, astronaut Wally Schirra conducted six orbits in this spacecraft. (Photos: Richard Kruse, 2009)
Mercury MA-9 (Faith 7) Capsule on display at Space Center Houston. Launched on May 15, 1963, astronaut Gordon Cooper conducted 22.5 orbits in this spacecraft. (Photos: Kevin Barrett, 2009)
Mercury Capsule 12B on display at Kennedy Space Center. This spacecraft served as a backup for Wally Schirra's MA-8 (Sigma 7) mission. (Photos: Richard Kruse, 2009)
Mercury 15B (Freedom 7 II) Capsule on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center. (Photos: Richard Kruse, 2008)
Mercury Capsule on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Although this spacecraft is flight-rated, it was not flown. (Photos: Richard Kruse, 2007)
The first successful Mercury-Redstone rocket flew on 19DEC1960. The rocket was used to launch Mercury capsules on suborbital trajectories into space. On 5MAY1961, a Mercury-Redstone launched America’s first astronaut, Alan Sheppard, into space. On 21JUL1961, another Mercury-Redstone launched Virgil Gus Grissom into space.
(Photos: Richard Kruse, 2007)
(Photos: Richard Kruse, 2009)
Atlas-D rocket on display at Kennedy Space Center. (Photos: Richard Kruse, 2009)
Images by Richard Kruse are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.