Friendship 7 and mission MA-1

One of my favorite pieces of NASA memorabilia, from my uncle, is a picture of the launch of Friendship 7. This was the first Mercury launch and took John Glenn Jr into orbit, the first American in space. This evening while looking for an important piece of paper (naturally secreted in a "safe" place) I pulled out the cardboard folder/frame that holds the launch picture. This time I noticed that there was another black and white photo tucked in behind the launch photo. This is a black and white shot of Mercury capsule #4 which was part of mission MA-1. This was the first mating of the Mercury Capsule with the Atlas Booster and, fortunately, was an unmanned test shot. It would end in a catastrophic failure 58 seconds into launch. However, the Mercury capsule itself continued to transmit telemetry information until it landed in the ocean. I found the picture interesting as it shows the technical crew for the project which includes my uncle. A little bit of family history unveiled itself to me just a reminder that my uncle was involved with NASA from its very beginning with Mercury all the way to the Space Shuttles.

MA-1 Technical Crew

My Uncle, Very Young!

Freedom 7 Launch