Mercury-Redstone 4 was a Mercury program manned space mission launched on July 21, 1961 using a Redstone rocket. Its spacecraft was named Liberty Bell 7 and performed a suborbital flight piloted by astronaut Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom. It reached an altitude of over 118.26 mi (190 km) and traveled about 300 mi (480 km). The Redstone was MRLV-8 and the spacecraft was Mercury spacecraft # 11, the first one with a centerline window instead of two porth...
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Mercury-Redstone 4 was a Mercury program manned space mission launched on July 21, 1961 using a Redstone rocket. Its spacecraft was named Liberty Bell 7 and performed a suborbital flight piloted by astronaut Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom. It reached an altitude of over 118.26 mi (190 km) and traveled about 300 mi (480 km). The Redstone was MRLV-8 and the spacecraft was Mercury spacecraft # 11, the first one with a centerline window instead of two portholes.
Mercury spacecraft # 11, was designated to fly the second manned suborbital flight in October, 1961. It came off McDonnell's St. Louis production line in May 1960. Spacecraft # 11 was the first Mercury operational spacecraft with a centerline window. It was closer to the final orbital version than was Alan Shepard's Freedom 7.
Spacecraft # 11 also had a new explosive hatch release. This would allow an astronaut to exit the spacecraft quickly in the event of an emergency. Emergency personnel could also trigger the explosive hatch from...
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