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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. NASA have many launch facilities but most are inactive. The most commonly used pad will be LC-39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Mercury-Redstone 2 (MR-2) was the test flight of the Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle just prior to the first crewed American space mission in Project Mercury. Carrying a chimpanzee named Ham on a suborbital flight, Mercury spacecraft Number 5 was launched at 16:55 UTC on January 31, 1961 from LC-5 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The capsule and Ham landed safely in the Atlantic Ocean 16 minutes and 39 seconds after launch.
Serial 5
Launch Crew Count 0
Status Single Use
Landing Time 1961-01-31T17:12:00+0000
Height 25.41 Meters
Max Stages 1
Mass To GTO 0 kg
Liftoff Thrust 0 kN
Diameter 1.78 Meters
Mass To LEO 0 kg
Liftoff Mass 30 Tonnes
Launch Success 5
Consecutive Success 5
Maiden Flight 1960-11-21
Launch Failures 1
Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963.