Big Joe 1
Big Joe 1
| Mission Insignia
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| Mission Statistics
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| Mission Name: | Big Joe 1
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| Call Sign: | Big Joe 1
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Number of
Crew Members: | 0
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| Launch: | September 9, 1959
Cape Canaveral
LC-14
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| Landing: | September 9, 1959
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| Duration: | 13 min
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Number of
Orbits: | suborbital
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| Apogee: | 95 mi
152.8 km
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Distance
Traveled: | 1,496 mi
2,407 km
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Maximum
velocity: | 14,857 mph
23,910 km/h
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| Peak acceleration: | 12 g (118 m/s²)
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| Mass: | 1,159 kg
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| Big Joe 1
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Big Joe ( Atlas 10-D) launched an unmanned boilerplate Mercury capsule from Cape Canaveral, FL. on September 9, 1959. The objective of "Big Joe" was to test the Mercury spacecraft ablating heatshield. The flight was both a success and failure - the heatshield survived reentry and was in remarkably good condition when retrieved from the Atlantic. The Atlas-D booster, however, failed to stage and separated too late from the Mercury capsule. Due to the added weight of the un-separated booster engines, the sustainer engine depleted its fuel supply 14-seconds early. The boilerplate capsule was not equipped with a launch escape system.
The boilerplate Little_Joe_1
| width="30%" align="center"| Mercury
| width="30%" align="center"| Next Mission:
Little_Joe_6
|}
